The Green Party of Canada does well in elections, but has never elected anyone to the Canadian Parliament. On September 19, the party nominated its national leader, Elizabeth May, to run in the next national election from the British Columbia district known as Saanich-Gulf Islands. In the last election, May ran for Parliament from Nova Scotia. Canada, like Great Britain, does not have a tradition that members of Parliament need to have any special residential connection with the districts they seek to represent.

The Green Party national leadership evaluated all the districts in Canada, and concluded that Saanich-Gulf Islands is more likely to elect a Green than any other district. However, not every Green supported the May nomination for that district, and the decision was not unanimous. See this story.