Elizabeth May has stepped down as Green Party Leader after more than 13 years at the helm.

Ms. May made the announcement two weeks after the federal election. The result disappointed Greens after the party failed to break through with the electorate. Despite winning three seats in the House of Commons the party will hold less sway than the other opposition parties because it doesn’t hold the balance of power.

Ms. May was flanked at the press conference by her two caucus colleagues Paul Manly and Jenica Atwin.

Ms. May said she will stay on as parliamentary leader of the caucus. Jo-Ann Roberts, a former journalist who ran for the Greens in Halifax in this year’s election and came in third in that race, will be the party’s interim leader until a permanent leader is selected.

Under Ms. May the Greens hit historic milestones: she was the first Green MP and the first Green leader to join the federal leaders’ debates. In the same time period the Greens also made historic wins at the provincial level in B.C., PEI, New Brunswick and Ontario.

At the outset of the fall election the party was hoping to sweep Vancouver Island and making gains in PEI, New Brunswick and Ontario, but they fell well short of that.

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