{news} USGP-INT: Elizabeth May Veteran environmental activist to seek Canadian Green party leadership

[Justine McCabe]

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Veteran environmental activist to seek Green party leadership

JOHN WARD
Tuesday, May 09, 2006

OTTAWA (CP) - Elizabeth May, one of the country's best-known
environmentalists, will seek the leadership of the Green party, pledging to
woo disaffected voters back to politics.

May, a lawyer, former executive director of the Sierra Club and an officer
of the Order of Canada, says she is disillusioned with the mainstream
parties and wants to change the face of politics. "I really think the old
labelling of left, right and centre are so outmoded," she said at a Tuesday
news conference announcing her candidacy. "They really represent an
anachronism in the way we talk about politics."

She said she'll take pragmatism over politics if necessary.

"If the appropriate solution to an environmental problem is a market
mechanism, then we use it. We're not doctrinaire in the old sense."
But she also suggested she will try and expand the scope of the party, which
until now has been seen as focused more on the environment than social
issues.

"The Green party must be concerned with the plight of the poor," she said.
"You can't have environmental sustainability with social injustice, it's
just not possible."

She's seeking to take over a party torn by infighting under the leadership
of Jim Harris the leader since 2002, who announced his departure last month.
His tenure was marked by internal party struggles, questions about his
environmentalist credentials and threats of legal action against party
members who criticized him.

The party itself essentially practised kitchen table politics on a
shoestring for years until new federal campaign finance laws delivered a
cash windfall before the campaign for the Jan. 23 election.
Even flush with money, the Greens made little progress over their 2004
showing, raising their vote share to 4.5 per cent from 4.3 per cent.

May promises to expand the party's appeal and membership.
"Youth, in particular, need to find a party that they can support
enthusiastically," she said.

May brings a higher profile to the party. Harris was a little known quantity
to many and was seen by some as having a libertarian streak.
Under him, the party managed to field candidates in every riding, but
couldn't win a Commons seat.

May brings a lifetime in activism, wide public recognition and a career's
worth of contacts, from the Sierra Club board to famed wildlife painter
Robert Bateman, who is honorary chair of her campaign.

Her only rival so far is David Chernushenko, the party's deputy leader. He
ran in Ottawa Centre in the last election, winning 10 per cent of the vote
in a riding that went to the NDP.

The party chooses its new leader at a convention in Ottawa Aug. 24-27.

© The Canadian Press, 2006