Ever since the Green Party adopted a resolution to support the BDS movement, there has been lots of speculation about Elizabeth May's future. Gerry Caplan has suggested that she should consider running for the leadership of the New Democratic Party. But Susan Delacourt suggests she may join the Liberal fold:
No leader wants to be seen walking away from a party in anger, of course — and May is a smart politician. It doesn’t strengthen her negotiating hand to present herself as a leader at odds with her own people. But she is. She called herself “broken-hearted” in the interview with Cochrane.
Working with the Liberals wouldn’t be a huge stretch for May. In 2007, she and then-leader Stéphane Dion announced a red-Green pact, the terms of which barred the Liberals from running a candidate in the Nova Scotia riding where May was vying for a seat, while the Greens agreed to do the same in Dion’s Montreal-area riding. The two were natural allies on the environmental front in particular; the Green Party and Dion’s ‘Green Shift’ covered a lot of common ground.
And May appears to be on very good terms with Justin Trudeau:
When Trudeau was an opposition backbencher, his assigned seat in the Commons was right at the back of the Liberal ranks, close to May’s desk. The two could often be seen chatting.
In the days before he became Liberal leader, she went so far as to tell a reporter that Trudeau was much easier to work with than Thomas Mulcair or the New Democrats.
“Over the last two years, I found Justin Trudeau to be collaborative and friendly,” May told the Georgia Strait in April 2013. She contrasted her experience working with Trudeau to her more strained, “discouraging” relations with the NDP leader.
However, with proportional representation on the radar, she no doubt would like to see the Greens benefit from the change.
May has said that she will take a walk in the snow -- something which admittedly is hard to do at this time of year. When she emerges, she says, she will have reached a decision. You can bet that nobody but May knows what that decision will be.
Image: cbc.ca
9 comments:
Elizabeth May would be right at home in the Liberal party. She's a career politician first; all the rest is window dressing.
The BDS movement is as radical as the anti-Apartheid movement was. From the website: "The Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement works to end international support for Israel's oppression of Palestinians and pressure Israel to comply with international law."
Ooh, scary!
If we live in a society that considers that radical, we live in a radical society.
'Speaking the truth in times of universal deceit is a revolutionary act.' -Orwell, '1984'
Hope the Green party rids itself of its prima donna leader who cares more about internal polling than the movement. Someone who thinks she IS the Green party.
(Now Jill Stein is a Green Party leader who comes right out and says what you've been waiting your entire life to hear, if you're a real progressive or actual centrist. Canada's Green Party has always been ridiculous: the anti-capitalist, free-market fundamentalist, social-democratic party: all things to everybody and nothing.)
-Bernie Orbust
.. perhaps Ms May needs reminding just who elected her as an MP.. thus her primary responsibility as an elected 'public servant' to her riding constituents.. What deviant political jackals like Jason Kenney or Stephen Harper choose to do as they reach the zenith or end times of their political service to Canadians should not guide Ms May in any way ..
Besides consulting her conscience, salamander, one hopes she's consulting her constituents.
As a Green party supporter I am aware of many “controversial” motions passed by the grass roots members at previous conventions which made it 'difficult' (in a practical sense) for the leadership. Why Ms May is so against this motion which simply supports an obviously oppressed population is beyond me, having long admired her stand against the diminishment of OUR democracy I don’t understand why she feels its ok for the Palestinian people to be walled in by their their neighbors without any meaningful international action.
Perhaps she's given a detailed explanation of why she opposes the motion, Rural. But, if she has done so, I missed it.
The Greens have missed the boat.
Regardless of the right or wrong ; it was a silly issue for the Greens to take on AT THIS TIME!!
The Greens should be building their base not taking on sensitive political issues.
SHould the Greens ever be the opposition or even a viable third political party ; then I could understand the outcry.
Bleating and crying from the cellar is not going to be heard..
TB
this is just like an argument over abortion. There is no moral high ground. Yasser Arafat was offered the world and he turned it down. So I have no sympathy for the plight of his followers. Who take an even harder line.
There's all kinds of history -- and, therefore, all kinds of complications -- behind this situation, Steve.
May has done much to build the party, TB. It would be tragic if they lost her over this issue.
Post a Comment