OTTAWA — After battling her way into the federal election debates last year, Green party Leader Elizabeth May spent most of 2009 out of the national spotlight, raising her riding profile instead.
May said she has been busy door-knocking in her new riding of Saanich—Gulf Islands, after the party decided it would focus its efforts on getting her elected to the House of Commons.
“I have to win the seat,” said May, who moved to Sidney, B.C., in the fall.
She says the Green party is “growing up” and acting like a serious party — despite some elements that would like the Greens to remain “ideologically pure” and not focused on winning seats.
The party commissioned two polls that indicated May’s best bet for a seat was the southeast Vancouver Island riding where she faces off against Sports Minister Gary Lunn.
Despite concerns about making life-altering decisions based on polling, May says she’s been encouraged by the reception she’s received in B.C.
“There are a lot of people who chose to move there because they felt that connection with green values,” she said.
But on the west coast, May admits, it’s more difficult to commute to Parliament Hill and be present in the national debate.
She describes it as a “tension” she faces as the only federal leader without a seat in the House of Commons.
The question looming for May in 2010 is whether she will be included in televised debates should there be an election.
The media consortium that organizes the debates told her this summer they hadn’t thought about including her yet.
She argues polling numbers and the fact the Greens received nearly a million votes in the last election should secure her a spot despite having lost Green-aligned independent MP Blair Wilson.
“The reality is the media consortium has no rules, has no criteria and makes completely ad hoc decisions based on what they say is in the public interest,” May said.
“If they try to keep us out, we will ask the Canadian public that supported me to be in the debate last time to help again and push for inclusion.”
