One can imagine the disappointment that Elizabeth May felt when she couldn't recruit two former senior Liberal cabinet ministers to join the federal Green caucus.

Jody Wilson-Raybould and Jane Philpott would have given the Greens some star power in Parliament, far more media attention, and the prospect of raising a lot more money.

That could have helped the Greens make a significant breakthrough in what's about to be May's fourth campaign as leader.

If Philpott or Wilson-Raybould had accepted May's offer to become leader of the Greens, it would have given May a chance to finally slow down after a gruelling 13 years at the helm of her party.

The two former Liberals' decision to run as independents, rather than joining the Greens, also means that May will face major hurdles gaining the attention of voters.

But here's the reality: Wilson-Raybould and Philpott are not Greens.

They are two establishment Liberals who've been kicked out of their own caucus for standing up to their leader on a point of principle.

And Wilson-Raybould and Philpott could conceivably return to the Liberal fold when their party eventually gets a new leader.

It would be worse for May if the two former cabinet ministers ran and got elected as Greens, not truly believing in the party platform, and then if one or both of them bolted back to the Liberals after Trudeau was replaced.

If Wilson-Raybould or Philpott were truly Green, they would have quit the Liberal caucus when it spent $4.5 billion on the Trans Mountain pipeline system.

They would have resigned when the prime minister and his sidekick, Finance Minister Bill Morneau, pledged another $9.3 billion in public funds for the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project.

That's because Greens know that this pipeline will make it extremely difficult, if not impossible, for Canada to meet its greenhouse gas obligations under the Paris Agreement.

If Wilson-Raybould or Philpott were truly Green, they would have quit the Liberal cabinet when their colleagues approved the LNG Canada plant near Kitimat, B.C.

That's because Greens know that this project will likely make it impossible for the B.C. government to meet its legislated greenhouse gas reduction targets.

If Wilson-Raybould or Philpott were truly Green, they would have walked out of the Liberal cabinet over its refusal to increase the Harper government's weak greenhouse-gas reduction targets.

The Liberal government fell short of Harper's lacklustre targets by 66 megatonnes in 2017 and by another 79 megatonnes in 2018.

If Wilson-Raybould or Philpott were truly Green, they would have resigned from the Liberal cabinet when their boss, Trudeau, declared at a Houston oil and gas conference that no country with 173 billion barrels of oil in the ground would just leave them there. 

If Wilson-Raybould or Philpott were truly Green, they would have quit the Liberal cabinet when it approved the Enbridge Line 3 and Kinder Morgan pipelines while also strongly supporting completion of the Keystone XL pipeline.

But the two former cabinet ministers didn't leave over those any of these issues.

They quit over their desire to preserve the constitutional principle of prosecutorial discretion.

The thing that really rankled them the most about Trudeau—the final straw—was his grubby efforts to get Wilson-Raybould to reconsider a decision by the director of public prosecutions to proceed with a trial against SNC-Lavalin.

Fair enough. Credit Wilson-Raybould and Philpott for showing integrity in this regard. It's made them two of the more popular politicians in the country.

It also got them on the cover of Maclean's magazine.

Maclean's happens to be one of many national media outlets in Canada that has consistently underplayed the threat of climate change.

But let's not kid ourselves. Wilson-Raybould and Philpott didn't quit the cabinet because of the Liberal government's dreadful record on greenhouse gases. They were accomplices to Trudeau—two popular ministers who stood by his side on the pipeline purchase.

The two former cabinet ministers were able to rationalize this on the basis that the government was engaged on other issues that they felt were extremely important.

These included reconciliation with First Nations and bringing in a law on physician-assisted death (though the latter has been slammed by many critics, including NDP candidate Svend Robinson). 

To them, climate change was one of a multitude of topics that the government was overseeing.

But that's not really the Green way of thinking.

To authentic Greens, the climate supplants all other issues in importance for this reason: rising greenhouse gas emissions are an existential threat to the future of billions of humans on Earth and millions of other species.

Authentic Greens think about the climate every day. It weighs them down. It can even contribute to depression, a decision not to have children, and how often they take airplanes.

Elizabeth May is an authentic Green. So is the other member of her caucus, Nanaimo-Ladysmith MP Paul Manly.

Addressing climate change was their primary reason for entering electoral politics.

There are also nine authentic Greens on Vancouver council, school board, and park board.

In addition, there have been authentically green members of OneCity and the Coalition of Progressive Electors elected in Vancouver civic politics.

There are many authentic young green voters around the world looking to support politicians whose political histories demonstrate that they see climate change as a threat to humanity. 

Authentically Green politicians enjoyed tremendous success in the recent elections to the European parliament.

Authentically Green candidates could also do much better than expected in the upcoming federal election in Canada.

There is no shortage of authentic green voters in Wilson-Raybould's riding of Vancouver Granville and Philpott's riding of Markham-Stouffville.

That's why Elizabeth May should get on with the business of getting authentic Greens nominated in those ridings. She should not cede these seats to Liberal-minded candidates who didn't utter a peep about their boss's decision to use public funds to buy a pipeline.

It's a positive thing to see integrity in politics.

This was demonstrated by Wilson-Raybould and Philpott in their opposition to a deal for a corporation to slither away from corruption charges.

But as important as this constitutional principle is, it's dwarfed by the civilizational threat posed by climate change.

On this issue, Wilson-Raybould and Philpott have fallen far short of the mark. They sided with the establishment.

The national media in this country still don't get that. But authentically green voters, many of whom are anti-establishment, understand this—and they're growing in numbers.