OTTAWA—Quebec MP Pierre Nantel will run for the Greens in the coming federal election after he was turfed from the New Democratic Party for holding secret discussions with Green Party Leader Elizabeth May.

May welcomed the ousted New Democrat to her party on Monday during a news conference at a restaurant in Longueuil—Saint Hubert, the riding outside Montreal that Nantel has held for the NDP since 2011.

Casting the move as the best way to ensure Canada takes serious action on the global climate crisis, Nantel said he was “honoured” to stand with May and the party’s deputy leader Daniel Green, who is running in the Montreal riding of Outremont.

“There is no doubt the most unifying person to lead the climate fight is Mme. May,” Nantel said, standing next to his new and smiling partisan colleagues with a piece of green fabric on his lapel.

“If you are on the climate side,” he said, “you have to vote Green this year.”

Nantel was dropped by the NDP last Friday, after he admitted he met with May earlier in August. He told the Star last week that his primary goal was to explore co-operation on how to combat climate change, but that they also discussed the prospect of him defecting from the New Democrats.

His partisan flip comes as the NDP faces the prospect of a tough election in Quebec, the province that buoyed the party to its best result ever in the “orange wave” election of 2011. Recent polls have placed the NDP in a dead heat with the Greens in the province as the party approaches the Oct. 21 general election with diminished returns from fundraising.

Earlier this year, the Greens won a federal byelection on Vancouver Island, marking the second time they’d elected an MP to the House of Commons. The victory prompted some in NDP circles, such as prominent member and returning candidate Svend Robinson, to press his party to take a more aggressive stance on environmental issues.

On Monday, NDP MP Alexandre Boulerice defended the party’s platform as “bold” on both climate change and social inequality. He said the NDP is open to “working with anyone” on these issues, and argued Nantel will have a harder time being reelected without the NDP’s base of volunteers and funds in the province.

“I don’t think he will achieve more about fighting climate change with the Green Party,” Boulerice said. “If Pierre wants to go above political parties, it’s not choosing another political party that will make a difference.”

The Greens had already nominated Casandra Poitras to run in Nantel’s riding, but May said Monday that the second-time candidate would shift her campaign to the neighbouring riding of Longueuil—Charles Le Moyne.

Alex Tyrrell, the leader of the Green Party of Quebec who has criticized the federal platform for being too soft on Alberta’s oilsands, said “it’s unfortunate” Poitras was moved to clear the way for Nantel.

Tyrrell pointed to comments Nantel made to Radio-Canada in 2017, when he questioned NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh’s “compatibility” with Quebec values because he wears a turban as a practising Sikh.

“Now Pierre Nantel says he really wants to work for the environment, and I hope he stays true to that word and doesn’t come back with a bunch of declarations about the accommodations of religious minorities in Quebec,” Tyrrell said.

As May pointed out Monday, it is not the first time a New Democrat has crossed over to the Greens. Former NDP MP Bruce Hyer joined the Greens in 2013, but lost his seat in the general election two years later.

May said the NDP similarly criticized Hyer at the time for not being a team player, but that the Green Party believes Canadian politics needs a more co-operative atmosphere.

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“I understand their idea in politics that there is an orange team and a green team,” May said. “We need to work together more.”

Moments later, at the end of their news conference, May turned to Nantel, proclaimed “Hallelujah!” and hugged him.

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