Annamie Paul in race to lead Green Party of Canada
May 4, 2020
Punched to the ground, you can stay on the canvas and be sorry for yourself or rise and attempt to come back stronger.
Finishing a distant fourth in Toronto Centre won by Finance Minster Bill Morneau in last year’s federal elections, Green Party candidate Annamie Paul re-grouped and decided she’s going to lead.
Two months ago, the Green Party of Canada accepted her nomination as a contestant to replace Elizabeth May who stepped down as the party’s leader last November after 13 years in the position.
The new leader will be chosen at the party’s convention in October in Prince Edward Island.
A strong belief in the party’s values and policies prompted Paul to run in the last elections.
“I could see how they could make a real positive difference and impact on the lives of Canadians,” the 1993 Harry Jerome Award winner said. “So this is really an extension of that. When Elizabeth announced she was stepping down, I was approached by some of the people who had worked on the campaign to consider it. I was also the International Affairs critic in the Shadow Cabinet at the time and so I spent a couple of months really thinking about it before making a decision that I had something to contribute.”
As a lawyer, social entrepreneur and public policy analyst, Paul brings a wealth of international experience to the party having served in Canada’s Mission to the European Union, as an advisor in the Office of the Prosecutor at the International Criminal Court and as director of a global organization that works to protect citizens from armed conflict.
“My background is in policy analysis and so I am very attracted to policies that parties put first and foremost,” she noted. “In the case of the Green Party, the policies it’s proposing to tackle climate emergency appeal to me because I spent quite a lot of time over the years working with or being on the board of scientific organizations that are focused on the climate. I understand how serious the situation is and am attracted to them as they are evidence-based and credible. I am also very attracted to their policy related to social justice issues and the idea that we still have work to do in this country as we are seeing right now with the COVID-19 pandemic the many holes and cracks there are for people still to fall through. I was very attracted to things like our policies around universal pharmacare, eliminating tuition for post-secondary education, guaranteed livable income and all of these things that help to protect Canadians.”
Annamie Paul spent 14 years in Europe before returning to home last year
Running for the first time last year in an election campaign, said Paul, was a steep and intense learning curve.
“It’s very unique and you learn a lot,” she pointed out. “I learnt about the preoccupations and concerns of Canadians and Torontonians during that process and just how, even in a country as wealthy and successful as ours, so many people still feel a lot of anxiety about their future and that of their children in terms of affordability, safety, the climate and employment opportunities. I also learned to be patient and always wear comfortable shoes. Being a political candidate is something I hope more members of our community will do. It’s a big commitment, but regardless of the result, it is a very important contribution when you run for elected office.”
Married to Mark Freeman who specializes in international human rights and conflict resolution, the couple lived in Europe for 14 years before returning in January 2019.
She also provided strategic planning services to Barcelona-based civil society organizations and was the Executive Director of the Barcelona International Policy Action Plan.
Paul and her husband, who have two teenage sons, had planned to return to Canada.
“This is our home and the time was right as we had come to the end of that adventure,” she said.
Completing high school a year early, Paul finished two years of her Bachelor degree program before starting Law school at age 19.
“At the time, my view of going to law school was that it would be excellent preparation for any number of different career paths focused on public service,” she said. “I went to the University of Ottawa because they had a tradition of training lawyers who weren’t planning to go into traditional practice. I didn’t know exactly what I was going to do, but I knew it probably wouldn’t be traditional. It was the same reason that I went on to Princeton University to do my Master’s in Public Affairs (MPA) so that I could have the skills and toolbox to do many different kinds of public policy work.”
At the Ivy League school where she was on a full scholarship, students in the MPA program learn analytical skills that address the political, economic, quantitative, behavioural and normative aspects of complex policy problems.
The main difference, Paul found out, between studying in Canada and at a private American university was the large number of resources at her disposal.
“I had wonderful professors all the way through my studies here in Canada and in the U.S, so that was very similar as was the preparation and skills that I received,” she said. “The resources at Princeton, however, were really extraordinary in that I had the opportunity of a paid internship and there were resources for really anything I wanted to do and explore. The network is also fantastic as the university works very hard to keep alumni connected to the university and each other and so at many different points in my professional life post-Princeton, I have had the opportunity to help and be helped by alumni.”
Having a mother and maternal grandmother who were public servants in the Caribbean before migrating to Canada under the West Indian Domestic Program sparked Paul’s interest in public service.
A teacher in Nevis, 83-year-old Ena Daniel Paul returned to the classroom in Toronto to secure her undergraduate, Master’s and teaching degrees while raising four children. Her mother, Anita Chapman Matthew, was a midwife in Nevis and a nurse aide in Canada before passing away in April 2013 at age 95.
“The two of them taught me the importance of hard work and instilled in me an expectation that I should find a way to identify my talent and convert that into some kind of public service,” she said. “They lived that through their own daily lives. My mother volunteers constantly and my grandmother was very involved with her church and in the community. If I have an expectation of myself to be a public servant, it is really because of their example.”
Paul is the daughter of Dominican-born Pan Africanist Peter Paul and older sister of award-winning actress & producer Ngozi Paul.
