The Green Party is founded on six principles, including ecological wisdom, non-violence, social justice, sustainability, participatory democracy, and respect for diversity.

[5] About two months before the 1980 federal election, eleven candidates, mostly from ridings in the Atlantic provinces, issued a joint press release declaring that they were running on a common platform.

In the spring of 1996, although the hopes of electing a representative to the BC legislature proved premature, Andy Shadrack in the interior of the province received over 11% of the vote.

[8][9] Russow won 52% of the ballots cast in the 1997 leadership race, surpassing Ontario's Jim Harris (39%) and Rachelle Small (8%).

[citation needed] A small number of Greens who advocate the more cooperative approach to legislation objected to the rule not to hold cross-memberships, a tool they occasionally employed.

[citation needed] Since its inception, the party has been developing as an organization, expanding its membership and improving its showing at the polls.

Volunteer efforts were substantially absorbed in provincial campaigns between 2001 and 2003, and the federal party became dormant between elections, as was typical in the past.

[14] In February 2003, Jim Harris, in his second bid for the leadership, defeated John Grogan of Valemount, British Columbia, and Jason Crummey.

On October 22, 2006, Elizabeth May announced she would run in the federal by-election to be held on November 27, 2006, in London North Centre, Ontario.

He had been a Liberal MP but stepped down voluntarily from the caucus earlier in the Parliament after anonymous allegations of campaign finance irregularities, most of which he was later cleared after a 9-month investigation by Elections Canada.

Some prominent Green Party members blamed the public discussion of strategic voting and the media's misrepresentation of May's comments during the election campaign for the failure of some promising candidates to reach Election Canada's 10% reimbursement threshold, as well as reducing the party's federal funding based on popular vote.

In his article, "Why Gaza Makes Me Sad", Estrin talked about Hamas' "desire to obliterate" the State of Israel and how the terrorist group uses children as human shields.

On August 5, Estrin resigned, criticizing the party for betraying their commitment to values of inclusivity and open public discourse.

May has said that the problem with his statements were the "confusion" they caused because they differed from party lines, but confirmed that Estrin was indeed a "true Green".

[30] As Parliament was dissolved for the election at the time of Núñez-Melo's change in affiliation, he was never formally recorded as a Green MP.

Roberts ran as Green Party candidate in a Victoria, British Columbia, riding during the 2015 federal election and finished second.

[33][34][35] On 19 August 2019, a former NDP and briefly Independent MP Pierre Nantel joined the Green Party during the Parliament's summer recess.

[52][50] Following Atwin's defection, the remaining two Green MPs, Elizabeth May and Paul Manly, reaffirmed their commitment to their party and expressed their disappointment, stating "the attack against Ms. Atwin by the Green party leader's chief spokesperson on May 14 created the conditions that led to this crisis".

[53] May, talking with The Tyee, stated that Paul was resistant to leave the building, and continued to control the party's communications.

Now, racism, sexism, and violent metaphors like 'walking over shards of glass' and 'spitting up blood' get headlines, but what we have to judge a leader by is their performance.

"[57] A member of the Greens' federal council, Louise Comeau, stepped down following the internal turmoil, citing "[the] stress and anxiety of those meetings affected [her] physical and mental health", with regards to negotiations surrounding Paul's departure.

[53] On October 28, 2021, Green members received a leadership review ballot regarding Paul's continued status as leader.

[58] Several days later, Paul told a press conference she was surprised by the review, and that it was unnecessary since she had previously announced her intention to resign.

"[67] In a press conference about a week after their appointment, Kuttner said they wanted to start the process of regrowth and to heal the party.

[69] The report also blamed negotiations concerning Annamie Paul's departure as leader of the party for significant legal costs.

[75] However, Pednault was unsuccessful in his attempt to win a seat in the House of Commons through a byelection and the proposed constitutional amendment was not voted upon due to disagreement within the party.

'"[82] According to co-founder and former leader Trevor Hancock, "the perennial left vs. right squabbling about who gets to control and benefit from the ever-expanding pie is to completely miss the point; the pie cannot continue to expand, indeed it must contract … the struggle for social justice is deeply rooted in the fact that the limits to growth requires a radical global and societal redistribution of the Earth’s limited resources.

"[84] The party is noted as having a wide range of internal factions; the 2020 leadership election saw both self-described moderate and eco-socialist candidates.

[85] Writing in Maclean's, Anne Kingston described the party as an "ideological hybrid", combining left-leaning views on social issues and welfare with a right-leaning embrace of market solutions and tax shifting;[86] in another article, Matt Gurney concurred with that description, but also said that "in practice" the Greens are "simply another centre-left party".

[87] Other political commentators, such as Andrew Coyne,[88] Chantal Hébert[89] and Heather Mallick,[90] identify the party as being on the left.