Paul announced her resignation this morning in Toronto, a week after her party’s share of the popular vote fell significantly in the federal election.

Paul stated that she is stepping down now because she cannot bear the prospect of a fractious leadership review, which was formally launched Saturday by members eager to replace her following the party’s poor showing in the 44th general election.

“I just asked myself whether this is something I wanted to continue, whether I was willing to put up with the attacks I knew would be coming, whether to continue to fight and struggle just to fulfil my democratically elected role as leader of this party,”

“It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that when you head into an election without funding for your campaign, when you head into an election without the staff to staff your campaign, when you head into an election without a national campaign manager, “when you head into an election being again under the threat of a court process from your party, it’s going to be very hard to convince people to vote for your party,”

“This was not easy. It has been extremely painful. It has been the worst period in my life, in many respects.”

“When I was elected and put in this role, I was breaking a glass ceiling. What I didn’t realize at the time is that I was breaking a glass ceiling that was going to fall on my head and leave a lot of shards of glass that I was going to have to crawl over throughout my time as a leader.”

“When I arrived at that debate stage, I had crawled over that glass, I was spitting up blood, but I was determined to be there. “I was determined to be there so that the next time someone like me thinks of running and wonders whether it’s possible to be on that stage, they will know that it is possible to do that.”

Paul became the first Black Canadian and Jewish woman to lead a federal party when she won the leadership election in October 2020 with 54% of the vote on the final ballot.