Mixed fortunes for Green co-leaders as May retains B.C. seat, but Pedneault defeated

VICTORIA – The Greens are once again a party of one in the Parliament, with the defeat of incumbent Mike Morrice in Ontario, while party co-leader Jonathan Pedneault was relegated to a distant fifth place in his bid for a Montreal seat.

But on Vancouver Island, Elizabeth May was defiant. 

The Greens, she said, are not going anywhere.

“We rebuild. The point is there were a lot of pundits who were perfectly happy to predict that we would be wiped off the map,” she said at an election night party in a Greater Victoria winery. 

“No — we are here, we are here to stay.”

May was comfortably returned in her riding of Saanich-Gulf Islands that she has held since 2011. She secured about 40 per cent of the vote, boosting her vote share and fending off Conservative and Liberal challengers who were evenly placed. 

But Pedneault suffered a brutal defeat in the riding of Outremont, won by Liberal Rachel Bendayan. Pedneault secured less than 10 per cent of the vote.

He suggested on social media that his time as Green co-leader with May was over.

“I will meet with Elizabeth tomorrow to discuss my own future in politics and eventual transitions,” Pedneault wrote on social media platform X.

“Accountability is needed and I failed to bring forth the results we hoped for. New progressive voices must emerge.”

Pedneault said he was “heartbroken” by Morrice’s loss in Kitchener Centre to Conservative Kelly DeRidder. “He was the hardest-working, most committed MP I’ve ever met,” Pedneault said of Morrice.

Morrice said after his defeat that he was nevertheless “thrilled” that May had been re-elected and “glad for the country that that’s the case.”

Former MP Paul Manley meanwhile lost his Vancouver Island race in Nanaimo-Ladysmith to Conservative Tamara Kronis.   

May had gone into the election with optimism, saying the Greens are “more needed than ever.” 

She blamed her party’s showing on the decision to exclude Pedneault from leaders debates. 

“It cost us multiple seats, it caused us a big share of the popular vote,” she said. “It was extremely anti-democratic.”

May said her party’s ongoing court challenge over the exclusion “could be very valuable” in future elections, and she promised to make her voice heard in the newly elected parliament.

“(It) looks like we’ll go back to the House of Commons with a minority (government), where we can make a difference with me as leader of the Green Party, with a prime minister I have known for a few decades,” she said of Mark Carney during her victory speech in front of about 100 supporters. 

Some of May’s supporters at the party were worried about the outcome of her race before the tallies came through.

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But May’s husband John Kidder helped break the tension, taking to the stage with his guitar to play “I Can’t Believe You Are In Love With Me,” followed by “On the Sunny Side of the Street.”

May said her granddaughter Lily kept her going in politics, on a mission to save the planet from those who want to make money off it. 

She promised to “shake up” things by challenging the rule that requires parties to have 12 seats for official party status.

“Enough of this nonsense,” she said. “Canadians are equal to each other.” 

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 28, 2025.