VICTORIA -- Former Green Party of Canada leader Elizabeth May has announced her preference for leadership of the Green movement in British Columbia.
May is putting her support behind Sonia Furstenau, one of two remaining Green Party MLAs in the B.C. legislature, to helm the party after its leadership race this summer.
Furstenau, a Cowichan Valley MLA and the deputy party leader, announced her intention to run for the B.C. Green leadership in January.
The leadership contest was temporarily suspended at the end of March due to the COVID-19 pandemic, leaving Furstenau and Kim Darwin, a financial consultant from the Sunshine Coast, as the only two candidates in the running for the leadership.
May officially endorsed Furstenau in a video posted to the Cowichan Valley MLA's Twitter account on Monday.
"Sonia is a proven leader," May said. "She's extremely articulate, eloquent, brilliant, sharp, also courageous. She is someone who stands up and speaks out on behalf of our natural world."
The former Green Party of Canada leader said with Furstenau at the helm, the party would "elect more and more talented Greens to our legislature in Victoria," adding that Darwin also "belongs in the legislature with Sonia Furstenau as leader."
Former B.C. Green leader Andrew Weaver, MLA for Oak Bay-Gordon Head, left the party to sit as an independent in mid-January. The announcement came just weeks after the Greens announced that Adam Olsen, MLA for Saanich North and the Islands, would serve as interim party leader until a new leader is chosen.
The B.C. Green leadership contest is scheduled to take place between Sept. 5 and Sept. 13.
The new leader will be announced on Sept. 14.
