OTTAWA—The leader of the Quebec Greens says he will run to succeed Elizabeth May as leader of the federal Green party, arguing it is time for a sharp shift to the political left under an “eco-socialist” platform.

At 31, Alex Tyrrell says he can revive the national Green movement by attracting young people who are alarmed by the climate crisis.

He is promising an aggressive “10-year mobilization” to eliminate the use of fossil fuels in Canada and shut down Alberta’s oilsands within the first mandate of a Green government. He would raise taxes on corporations and the rich, increase the federal carbon price, create a new levy on all financial transactions, pour “hundreds of billions” of dollars into clean energy projects, and guarantee new jobs for people out of work due to the state-enforced abandonment of fossil fuel industries.

In doing so, Tyrrell says he would abandon the Green party’s long-standing commitment to fiscal conservatism, arguing that economic debt is less serious than the environmental damage of failing to confront climate change.

“There’s an emerging youth-led climate movement in Canada that’s asking for and demanding more radical and rapid solutions to the climate crisis,” Tyrrell told the Star on Tuesday.

“I’m hoping to shake up Canadian politics and the Green party, similar to what Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is doing in the United States and inside the Democratic Party,” he said, referring to the U.S. congresswoman who has championed a “Green New Deal” south of the border.

“Canadian politics needs an injection of positive energy, of bold ideas, and that's what I hope to bring,” Tyrrell said.

The federal Greens are searching for a new leader after May resigned in November. As leader since 2006, May won the party’s first seat in the House of Commons and oversaw its growth to a caucus of three MPs in the federal election last fall.

While the race to replace May hasn’t officially started, Tyrrell is the third candidate to declare their intention to run. David Mercer, a retired lawyer and former Liberal who lost faith in the party over the nationalization of the Trans Mountain oil pipeline, is mobilizing his campaign. And Julie Tremblay-Cloutier, a businesswoman in Oka, Que., told the Star in December that she will also run for the job.

As leader of the Quebec Greens, Tyrrell has challenged the federal party’s policies under May’s leadership. In the run-up to last year’s federal election, he spearheaded a campaign to pressure the party to change its environment plan — the centrepiece of May’s election platform — over objections that it was too soft on Alberta’s oilsands.

He blames party activists upset by his criticism for a petition that circulated in December — and first reported by Le Devoir — that called for his resignation as Quebec leader, in part because of his decision to start drawing a salary from party coffers and failure to win any seats in the 2018 provincial election.

On Tuesday, Tyrrell defended his salary as reasonable and said he is now focused on federal leadership race and his plans to reform the national party if he wins.

Citing how he attracted a slate of provincial candidates in 2018 that was predominantly female with an average age of 34, Tyrrell said he can breathe life into the federal party by exciting a younger generation preoccupied with the threat of climate change.

He also argued the federal party missed its chance for even bigger gains in last fall’s election by failing to present a consistent front on issues like the phaseout of the oilsands, abortion rights and Quebec’s secularism law.

As leader, Tyrrell would bar opponents of abortion access from running for the Greens and impose a uniform stance against Quebec’s Bill 21, which bans provincial public servants in various roles from wearing religious symbols like hijabs or turbans at work.

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Tyrrell has been leader of the provincial Greens in Quebec since 2013, and plans to appoint two deputies to carry the bulk of his duties while he tries to win the federal leadership. He said he will resign as Quebec leader if he succeeds.

The Greens have not announced when the leadership vote will take place, but the party will hold its national convention in October.

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