Greens seek a breakthrough in Vancouver Quadra

Elizabeth May, leader of the federal Green party, says she thinks that the Vancouver Quadra by-election could have an impact on whether or not she will be invited to participate in the televised leaders’ debates before the next general election. In a March 11 interview at the Georgia Straight building in Vancouver, May said it’s “critical” for her to present her views to the nation in the leaders’ debates. She said that if Green candidate Dan Grice attracts a great deal of support on Monday (March 17), it will strengthen her case with five television news directors who make this decision.

“The higher we are in the polls—the better Dan does on St. Patrick’s Day—it makes a difference,” May said.

The Greens have a petition on their Web site (www.greenparty.ca/) calling for May to have a voice in the leaders’ debates, which precede the general election. In 1991, then–B.C. Liberal party leader Gordon Wilson was allowed to participate in a provincial leaders’ debate, and his party ended up winning 17 seats and becoming the official Opposition.

May said that the Green party is considering taking this issue before the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission if she isn’t permitted to participate. “I know that if I’m in the leaders’ debate, it will be way more interesting,” May said. “I want to try to knock the other guys—and they are all guys—off their canned message. I want to engage in real discussion and debate. I want people to know what Stephen Harper really stands for.”

She said the decision is made by the news directors of three English-language television networks and two French-language television networks. “We have an obligation to raise issues that other people are ignoring,” May added. “We want to make nuclear disarmament an issue. We’re on the verge of a new nuclear arms race, and Canada has a role in the world and an obligation to work with other countries that want to see adherence to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, moving forward on the Fissile Material Cut-Off Treaty. Canada is
just playing, as Linda McQuaig puts it, holding the bully’s coat. That is not our role in the world. We have to fix that.”

May, the former executive director of the Sierra Club of Canada, accused NDP Leader Jack Layton of helping Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservatives win the 2006 election by focusing his attacks on the Liberals. May claimed that this is part of Layton’s strategy to become leader of the Opposition. She said that in the 2004 election, the NDP focused its attention on the environment, but it switched tactics in 2006 to focus on Liberal corruption.

“So the undercurrent there is the NDP will do what they can to help the Conservatives because their real enemy is the Liberals,” she said. “Does this make any sense? No. Their party positions are, obviously on the environment, the antithesis of Harper’s.”

During Vancouver Quadra all-candidates meetings, NDP candidate Rebecca Coad has constantly attacked the record of the Liberal candidate, former B.C. Liberal cabinet minister Joyce Murray. Conservative candidate Deborah Meredith has skipped some all-candidates meetings, which has focused even more attention on Murray.

Meredith told the Straight in a phone interview that she couldn’t attend a recent debate on climate change because she had to attend a prearranged function. “There was a coffee party at somebody’s house,” Meredith said. She noted that she attended meetings hosted by the Dunbar Residents’ Association and UBC students but missed another event hosted by the Friends of Canadian Broadcasting and various film unions.

“I don’t know how many people were at that one,” Meredith said. “There are only so many of these things that you can do.”

May claimed that Layton has conveyed a message that the NDP can control Harper’s excesses if he is limited to a minority government. However, she insisted that Harper can still do “tremendous damage” as prime minister in a minority position. “The climate crisis will always be more important to me than partisan politics,” she said.

May added that she worked with Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion when he was the environment minister and came away impressed. She also claimed that Dion is too good for his party, which she doesn’t trust. Dion has agreed not to run a Liberal candidate against May in the next general election in the Nova Scotia riding of Central Nova, currently held by Defence Minister Peter MacKay.