Former Winnipeg mayor Glen Murray runs for Green Party leadership

Following months of rumours, former Ontario politician and ex-Winnipeg mayor Glen Murray is running for the leadership of Canada's Green Party.

Murray was Canada's first openly gay mayorbefore moving on to Ontario politics and being elected as an MPP in Toronto. He was a member of the provincial Liberal cabinet and served in the role of environment minister, among others.

Murray told CBC News today thathe believed he hadleft politics for good in 2017. He said his partner of over 25 years, Rick Neves,convincedhim to get back in.

"He said, 'You gotta do this.The Green Party really needs someone with your experience and the kind of things that you have done,'" Murray said.

Even after he resigned asOntario's environment minister in 2017, Murray never stopped working on environmental issues. He was chosen to head theAlberta-based environmental think tankPembina Instituteand subsequently worked with a number of businesses with a green focus.

A diverseleadership race

Murray said he first got involved in politics after losing more than 40 friends to the HIV/AIDS crisis in the 1980s. That experience, and the currentCOVID-19 pandemic, served as a "reminder of how fragile our planet is, how fragile and vulnerable our ecosystems are," he said.

Murray is the most high-profile candidate in the Greens' leadershiprace so far and the only one to have been elected to publicoffice.

The list of candidates is quite diverse andincludesone black woman, Annamie Paul, and a non-binary contender, Amita Kuttner.Murray said thecandidates offera good representation ofCanada.

"I think this is the most exciting slates of leadership candidates I've seen for leadership in a long time," he said. "They represent a much more energized set of ideas than you see in the Conservative Party,put it that way."

Murray said he hopes to attract a more diverse membership to the party itself, somethinghe said he did whilerepresentingToronto Centre, a provincial ridingthat's home to several universities and many newcomers.

One thing that might set him back is his French. Murray, who is from Quebec, admits his French is not perfect but he said it's functional.

Campaigning on a Green economic boom

Murray said he will campaign on creating a "green recovery" as Canada's economyclimbs out of the pandemiccrisis. That means retrofitting homes and commercial buildings and investing in electric vehicles andhigh-speed rail policies he said he feels"passionately about."

"This is just the time to get things done."

Those policy positions might run him up against other candidates, like Dimitri Lascaris and Alex Tyrrell, who see a party that's become too comfortable with big business. Both candidates have called on the party to take on a more "eco-socialist" bent.

The Green Party announced recently its leadership race would continuedespite thepandemic, with debates and voting happening online. The Conservativessuspended their leadership race after the pandemic hit.

The Green Party leadership race began in February after Elizabeth May announced in November that she would step aside.

The other candidateswho have declared they're running for the leadership are:

• Judy Green, a former candidate for the Greens in West-Nova, N.S.

• Amita Kuttner, a former candidate for the Greens in Burnaby North-Seymour, B.C.

• Dimitri Lascaris, a former candidate for the Greens in London West, Ont.

• David Merner, a 2019 candidate for the Greens in Esquimalt-Saanich-Sooke, B.C.

• Annamie Paul, a 2019 candidate for the Greens in Toronto Centre.

• Dylan Perceval-Maxwell, whoran multiple times as a federal candidate in LaurierSainte-Marie. Q.C.

• Alex Tyrrell, leader of the Green Party of Quebec.