I have endorsed Natalie Odd for the role of President of the Green Party of Canada because Natalie has two years of experience in working on Federal Council as the Representative from Alberta. She has an extensive understanding of the role of Federal Council, as well as extensive knowledge of the various units of the GPC.

Natalie is no stranger to hard work and has proven herself to be a dedicated volunteer after serving for hundreds of hours to ensure the responsibilities of Federal Council are fulfilled.

Throughout her tenure on Federal Council she has demonstrated professionalism and commitment to ensuring work gets done. Natalie has volunteered to chair numerous committees and has built a strong base of knowledge and expertise in processes, procedures, and conflict resolution.

Natalie understands the principles around reaching consensus decisions on council and is fair, honest and committed.  Natalie brings with her, expertise, professionalism, ethics and principles in organizational governance. It is essential that Federal Council be guided by a capable, experienced person and that is why I will be voting for Natalie Odd as  President.

I support Natalie Odd for President of the Green Party of Canada. Demonstrating over 20 years of professional commitment to environmental causes, she has a proven track record of grassroots environmental mobilization, applying political pressure through environmental education campaigns, and a proven commitment to Green Values – Natalie lives the Green Movement both throughout her volunteer and professional life.  

Natalie has served a term of excellence on Federal Council. Chairing or Co-chairing numerous committees, she has demonstrated effective leadership and has proven to be a leader in advancing Equity Diversity and Inclusion as fundamental priorities within the Green Party of Canada. She has strong support on Council, across the Green Party of Canada, and especially amongst those whose voices she elevated above her own.

As Executive Director for an organization coordinating a network of environmental groups, she has experienced fighting political and economical headwinds that seek profit at the expense of our environmental causes.

She knows what is required to promote ethical political growth and she delivers results. As a leader imbued with integrity, vision, determination, committed excellence, and as a highly skilled collaborator, Natalie is well positioned to advance our Party’s priorities.

There is a renewed and invigorated hope for the Green Movement now that there is an ideal Presidential Candidate to vote for this election in Natalie Odd. I am voting to protect our future. I am voting for proven leadership. I am voting for a proven track record on environmental advocacy. I am voting for Natalie Odd to become our President.

I support Natalie as president of the GPC because I trust her to do her best for the party. I’ve seen first hand the level of dedication that she has for this party, and it’s impressive. She is the hardest working person I’ve met around the GPC  and does so with a level of professionalism rarely attained.

Even more important is her willingness to work with anyone as long as it’s for the betterment of the party. She is calm, kind, even-keeled and I believe these are qualities you need in a president of a party.

I endorse Natalie for FC President because she is competent, compassionate and constructive.

Though I have not had much direct interaction with Natalie, I have seen how her competence ensured that the VGMs in 2021 and 2022 were successfully delivered; this required leading a team of skilled volunteers to deliver on a critical event for the Party in an extremely short time frame.  I was impressed with how she was able to successfully pull off this feat.

I noticed during the VGMs how compassionate she is. She has a unique ability to understand people with her heart; she is genuine, sincere and extremely caring. I am sure that her EQ is at the top of the scale!

Finally, I am aware that during the past few years when there was a good deal of discord in Federal Council, she managed to stay above the fray and offer countless constructive and helpful suggestions for a way forward that benefits the overall functioning of FC and, by extension, the Party as a whole.

I do hope that other members see the value that Natalie could bring to Federal Council if she is elected to the Presidency. In Peace.

I support Natalie for GPC president because she has demonstrated good listening skills that allow her to utilize knowledge held by those she works with to form positive decisions. She has been a consistent ally, supporting  indigenous issues both within the GPC and at regional levels.

My support was solidified when I read that Natalie took some time to canoe with her family before the campaign began. Being in nature, on the land and water is an excellent way to ground oneself prior to expending energy and time in a campaign. I wish her well.

I support Natalie Odd for GPC President because she consistently demonstrates integrity, transparency, and the ability to build high performance teams grounded in good governance practices.

As the Policy Lead for phase one and two of the most recent Virtual General Meeting, Natalie and I worked closely together. Natalie was able to take a diverse group of people from across Canada and build a cohesive, respectful team that united behind a shared vision. Let me assure you, that was no easy task. Despite numerous hiccups along the way, Natalie calmly and effectively navigated our team through multiple challenges with good humor and grace.

While I deeply appreciated Natalie’s skill as Chair of the Virtual General Meeting Committee, her governance practices lead to my endorsement. Natalie has effectively advanced clear and transparent processes for decision-making on Federal Council committees. Without good governance, the GPC is just another political party mired in backroom deals and cronyism. Natalie offers a clear path forward for the GPC to do politics differently.

I support Natalie because I still care about the Green Party of Canada. For those who care about our fundamental principles, Natalie is not only the best candidate for president, she is the only candidate that can do the job right.

To be GPC president, you need a unique combination of values and skills. Having been Quebec representative on council while Natalie was Alberta rep, I witnessed firsthand Natalie’s dedication to our party’s values. She served on more committees than anyone else and was involved in more projects than any other volunteer in the party. In the many roles she took on, she displayed a dedication to participatory democracy and transparency, making sure members were able to take part in committee actions and that decisions were based on accessible documents and information. As chair, Natalie made sure everyone who wanted to be heard had the opportunity to do so and made visible efforts to accommodate everyone’s point of view.

In other words, she did what a president is supposed to do.

This not only shows that she is willing to take the time to work for members and enact Green principles in our daily activities, but also that she knows better than anyone the inner workings of Federal Council and GPC leadership structure.

I support Natalie Odd’s candidacy for the presidency of the GPC for three reasons.

First, Natalie is personally committed to effective action on the climate emergency. For proof of her deep commitment, look at her political and professional record: she has run as a federal Green candidate in Calgary multiple times and has served as the Executive Director of Alberta environmental organizations for many years.

Second, Natalie’s personal values are excellent. She is an extraordinarily hard-working, effective and fair person. In particular, as a Federal Councillor over the past two years, Natalie has played a huge role in sorting out the GPC’s long standing organizational and human resources challenges through her professionalism and deep commitment to fairness. This work is essential to changing the direction of the GPC.  

Finally and most importantly, Natalie understands the urgent need for deep transformational change in the GPC’s leadership culture. If the party is ever to become a competent force in Canadian politics, it is essential for the party’s internal culture to change in fundamental ways. Natalie is the only candidate for the presidency of the GPC who understands that “more of the same” is not good enough. To become relevant, the GPC desperately needs a person who is able to lead deep culture change as President of Federal Council. Natalie is that person.

I support Natalie because her style of leadership reminds me of a Green Party my heart knows is possible!

I served on two GPC projects Natalie chaired—the first Virtual General Meeting team as well as the Lessons Learned project—and this is what I experienced.

As an officer of our governing board, Natalie demonstrates a strong understanding of the unique function of governance as well as the need to not blur the boundary between the domains of governance, operations and politics—something I have seen too often missing in GPC governance culture.

I would describe Natalie as a facilitative leader, who actively opens the space for her colleagues to excel. During group problem solving, Natalie has an instinct for when there are more questions to ask, for the group to understand more deeply instead of jumping too quickly to solutions.

Natalie’s impact as chair of the Virtual General Meeting committee was to ensure progress flowed and that the volunteer production team always had clarity around any relevant governance decision made by Council, which eliminated potential curveballs common in organizations where operations and governance bodies are not effectively linked. This contributed immensely to the psychological safety and confidence of the production team.

Natalie keeps a cool head, and is able to be direct and clear with her colleagues when such communication is called for. What this shows to me is someone who recognizes that simply getting along with your colleagues counts for little if it’s not complemented by the courage and skills to successfully navigate conflict (as opposed to winning arguments or votes). This to me is the type of empathetic professionalism needed on Federal Council and throughout the Green Party.

I support Natalie because she has strong values, is a great collaborator and “gets things done.”

I got to know Natalie while I was supporting Federal Council’s work starting in August 2021; it was a difficult and challenging time for the Party. I was impressed with her integrity, her conviction to do the right thing the right way, her desire to bring everyone together in a safe and collaborative way, her ability to balance competing perspectives and, most importantly, her ability to disarm awkward behaviours with professionalism and empathy.

She ably led the HR Committee and the VGM Committee, two of the most productive (and busy!) committees.  A collaborator to the core, Natalie recognizes, enables and empowers people to do their best in a safe and yet effective team context.

The way she works, leading with her values and working collaboratively, gets results.  She put in extremely long hours to lead the HR Committee’s efforts to bring in a new Executive Director, through a lengthy, rigorous, fully transparent and accountable recruitment process.  Her leadership of the VGM Committee, which involved an intense amount of work in a very short period of time, resulted in not one, but two extremely successful (first time ever) Virtual General Meetings of the membership that discussed 81 and got 65 policy proposals ratified by the members.

Natalie brings a strong professional capacity, an ability to build a culture based on gentleness, kindness and respect and, more importantly, maintains deep respect for the hard work done by Federal Council to lead efforts to strengthen the party’s capacity to send more MPs to Ottawa.  I encourage you to look closely at what Natalie brings to the position; she certainly has my vote for President of Federal Council!

When I think of Natalie, the first thing that comes to mind is her enthusiasm!

As an executive director Natalie knows how to help organizations thrive and how to foster ethical, supportive, effective, engagement.

I remember once she was corrected by another GPC member. She was gracious; her ego can handle such situations well. We’re so lucky that Natalie is willing to take on this role for the party!

Our Green commitment to the Key Principle of Participatory Democracy means that power for decision making must always be put in the hands of local people, and as little as possible concentrated at the ‘top’ in a hierarchy.  Natalie understands this, and dedicates her time and energy to Green initiatives that empower members, like the amazing Virtual General Meetings in 2021 and 2022.

Natalie supported the trial initiative known as ‘Action Teams’ where Green volunteers were activated to support our capacity at the central organizing level. Most importantly, Natalie supports the wedecide.green.ca website where members are collaborating on motions towards our next General Meeting.

Natalie has weathered so many challenges as a Federal Councillor, with her head held high and her integrity intact.  As we professionalize our workflows and provide ever greater transparency to members and Canadians, Natalie is the right choice for President.

I am endorsing Natalie Odd because I think it’s time for the Green Party to engage in a major reset and she is the person to do it. After the worst  fire season in Canadian history, our polling is still only around 5%. Clearly, we need to do something different!

I think Natalie’s experience working in Alberta, which is probably the most difficult place of all in the country to be Green, is very valuable. If she can make a difference there, then she is a good bet!

Having known Natalie for a number of years I’ve had the privilege of watching her gain experience and leadership skills and am proud to support her as Federal Council President. 

Natalie has great abilities in initiating and learning new policies and putting them into practice.  She also presents Green policies and views in a knowledgeable and interesting way, explaining intricacies in language appropriate to her listeners.  In person and virtually, I have watched her organise her thoughts quickly in debates and open question sessions – no ‘mmms’ or hesitation from Natalie!  As a former public affairs consultant myself, I admire her leadership, her appreciation of the urgency of fair vote equality for all and climate change action, and her determined advocacy for overcoming challenges and moving ahead positively.   

Please vote for Natalie as Federal Council President!

I am pleased Natalie Odd is standing for President of the GPC Council, fully support her and highly recommend her to Greens who wish strong positive, open leadership of our Important party.

I have been engaged in building the Greens since the late 1980s and served as Council Chair from 1996 to 2000. I have run here in the Athabasca riding and continue to support our Greens at all levels. I have also served as Chair of the AEN and on the old CEN NSC.

I have watched Natalie Odd rebuild the AEN into a most effective change maker here in Alberta—not an easy task in this fossil province. I witnessed her and our wonderful past Pres Lorraine lead our GPC wreckage back to an effective, open organization building strong connections with the Indigenous community!

I was dismayed when Lorraine resigned after making so much progress towards recovery.

I am delighted to learn she is prepared to help lead our Greens again and hope other Greens will support her Presidency.

We need Natalie Odd now if we are to turn this vital GPC into the political force Canada and the planet needs to stand and take the action we must have if we are to turn things around from the climate, biodiversity and human social justice abyss we are tipping into.

Respectfully,

I support Natalie for FC President because_______!