OTTAWA – The Green Party of Canada is fielding a strong team of candidates in the upcoming by-elections in Guelph, Saint-Lambert and Westmount—Ville-Marie. The Prime Minister is expected to announce the dates of the by-elections this week.

“We are very excited to have Green Party Deputy Leader and Emmy-nominated TV personality Claude William Genest running in Westmount—Ville-Marie, along with national Environment Critic Mike Nagy as our candidate in Guelph,” said Green Party leader Elizabeth May. “Mr. Genest and Mr. Nagy are both high-profile candidates and have been campaigning tirelessly in their communities for months. The Green candidate in Saint-Lambert will be announced shortly.”

Ms. May noted that in the last round of by-elections in March, the Green Party made headlines and surprised many pundits by finishing ahead of the Conservatives in a virtual tie for second place in Toronto Centre, besting the NDP in Willowdale and garnering an impressive 13.5 percent in Vancouver Quadra. As Rick Mercer put it, “the only party that has any bragging rights at all after these by-elections is Elizabeth May’s Green Party because they're the only party whose numbers went up.”

“Canadians consistently give double-digit support to the Green Party in voting intention polls,” said Ms. May. “We are the only party to have seen a dramatic increase in support since the last federal election and we expect that our by-election candidates will draw on this support to make gains and once again prove that the Green Party is a political force in this country.

“Our candidates will not be drawn into the type of negative campaigning typical of old-line parties that turns Canadians away from politics. We intend to run credible and principled campaigns and will show voters that politics can be done differently.”