East to West: Federal Green leader switches constituencies, coasts
News, This Week's Edition Sunday, October 18th, 2009
Green Party leader Elizabeth May moved to British Columbia to better her chances of becoming Canada's first Green MP.
Elizabeth May didn’t want to leave her hometown of New Glasgow and constituency of Central Nova last month, but duty called and she took her quest for a seat in the House of Commons to the riding of Saanich-Gulf Islands in British Columbia, where she hopes to become the first-ever Green Party Member of Parliament.
“It was a long process to realize I had an obligation to move to a new place,” said May, leader of the Green Party of Canada. “It’s going extremely well there. I didn’t want to move, but it’s something the party asked me to do. ”
It’s not uncommon for leaders of political parties to relocate to a riding receptive to their ideology when seeking election.
Past federal leaders, including Brian Mulroney, Jean Chretien and Joe Clark, have all moved to new places when they sought a seat in parliament.
May said the decision to go to the Saanich riding became clear when constituents approached her on a recent visit to express their excitement at the rumors that she would run there.
“Complete strangers (in the Saanich riding) were coming up to me and asking me ‘we hear your going to move here, we want to have a Green MP, we want to be the first community in Canada to elect a Green Party member of parliament,” she said.
It’s her duty, she said, as party leader to secure a seat to ensure that the voices of Green Party members and supporters are heard in the nation’s capital.
“It’s important for the one million people who voted Green in the last election [to] have a voice in the House of Commons,” she said.
Despite not securing a single seat in Commons after the last federal election in 2008, May believes Canadians are prepared to make changes in the daily lives to support environmental sustainability and address the climate change problem.
It’s the politicians, she says, who are standing in the way .
“It matters which activities are, and aren’t supported,” said May, who was in Fredericton last week celebrating the Conservation Council of New Brunswick’s 40th anniversary. “Right now, we’re still, at the federal level, the Harper government supports the policy that’s advancing the interests of the tar sands and has cut support to energy efficient and renewable energy.
She said currently there is no incentive for Canadians to make energy efficient shifts in their lives, such as running a house on geothermal heating and cooling.
“The focus is on the expansion of the tar sands,” she said.
Canada doesn’t have to look far if it wants an example of a country taking action against climate change.
South of the border, May said, the wheels are in motion.
“Since Bush is gone and Barack Obama has become president,” she said, “you have an administration that’s pursuing climate objectives, that has invested $150 billion of renewable energy in the economic stimulus package, with the goal of creating 1.5 million new jobs.”
Short URL: http://www.newbrunswickbeacon.ca/?p=1844
Posted by Jamie Ross
on Oct 18, 2009. Filed under News, This Week's Edition.
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