OTTAWA, Oct. 4 (Xinhua) -- Toronto lawyer Annamie Paul became the new leader of the Canadian Green Party Saturday night after a year-long party leadership campaign, according to the party Sunday.
Paul won a bare majority of votes in the eighth round, defeating Dimitri Lascaris and succeeding Elizabeth May, who stepped down last fall after leading the party for 13 years.
She is the first Black and Jewish woman to be elected leader of a major Canadian party. Paul has said there needs to be better representation of Black, Indigenous and people of color in Canadian politics.
Born in Canada in 1972, Paul was a graduate of Princeton University and the University of Ottawa.
Before entering into Canadian politics, Paul worked as an advisor at the International Criminal Court in The Hague and as a political officer in Canada's Mission to the European Union in Brussels.
She was also an advisor for a number of international non-governmental organizations, including the Climate Infrastructure Partnership and Higher Education Alliance for Refugees. Before running for the top job, Paul was the party's international affairs critic.
Because of COVID-19 restrictions, the Green Party held the vote online and the 36,000 Green Party members had a week to cast their ballot for one of the eight contenders.
Paul ran under the Green banner in the general election in 2019 but placed a distant fourth to former Liberal finance minister Bill Morneau.
Paul has already been nominated to run in the Oct. 26 by-election in that riding after Morneau's abrupt resignation. Enditem
