Green Party deputy leader Jonathan Pedneault steps down for 'personal reasons'

Green Party deputy leader Jonathan Pedneault has announced he is stepping down from his job for personal reasons.

Pedneault made the announcement Tuesday in Ottawa, where he said he will provide no further comments on his decision.

«It's been the honour of a lifetime to serve alongside Elizabeth May and Mike Morris, two outstanding members of Parliament who dedicate their every waking hours to Canadians in a way that, sadly, partisan politics today in Ottawa doesn't quite exemplify,» he said.

Pedneault and Leader Elizabeth May replaced Annamie Paul, who stepped down in 2021 after serving as leader of the party for just over a year.

Pedneault won the leadership of the party in the fall of 2022 on a co-leadership ticket with May, who had previously served as party leader from 2006 to 2019.

Since then, Pedneault has served as the party's deputy leader, under May, pending efforts to amend the party's constitution to allow for co-leadership.

Pedneault ran for a seat in the House of Commons in a federal byelection in the Montréal riding of Notre-Dame-de-Grâce–Westmount in June 2023. Liberal Anna Gainey won the contest, with almost 51 per cent of the vote.

Pedneault finished fourth with 13.4 per cent of the vote, after the Conservatives, who finished third with 13.5 per cent, and the NDP, who finished second with 13.8 per cent.

May to remain on as leader

On Tuesday, May said she intends to continue pressing her party from within to adopt a co-leadership structure.

«We'll see what happens at the special general meeting, we'll see what model of co-leadership gets accepted or gets rejected,» May said.

«It's a process and the Green Party system is night and day from the top-down structures that exist in other parties.»

May said that