Conservative blogger and activist Stephen Taylor tweets that Elizabeth May is ready to run again in Central Nova, the riding currently held by Defence Minister Peter MacKay. Taylor thinks that is the very definitation of insane.
The Toronto Star sent Ottawa-based reporter Joanna Smith to Pictou, N.S. where the Greens had their annual meeting and Joanna reports that while May is indeed committed to running against MacKay again, she is willing to be persuaded to run elsewhere if someone's got some decent numbers:
May placed second with 32 per cent of the vote, but party analysis showed about 6,000 of those ballots – just under half her result – came from Liberal voters, because she struck a deal with former party leader Stéphane Dion not to run candidates in each other's ridings.
Would new Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff repeat the favour?
“Not a chance,” May says when asked if Ignatieff would repeat the favour in a general election.
Ignatieff left no doubt of that at a speech in Halifax last night, where he said the Liberals will run candidates in every riding, including Central Nova.
May insists she is committed to running in Central Nova again, but she also promises to listen when organizers come back with the numbers they are currently crunching.
“I've told them I am willing to look at the case they might make for me to run somewhere else,” May says after admitting that she did not view winning her riding as a priority in the last election, at least no more than other Green candidates winning theirs.
“They know that I'm really reluctant to look anywhere else but here, because I love living here and I don't want to go anywhere. But I have to be a good team player about getting the Greens into the House.”
National campaign chair Greg Morrow welcomes the flexibility.
“The commitment that we've made is that we will run our best candidate in our best possible riding,” he says. “It's really just being driven by what the data is telling us and where we can make the strongest case that Green issues matter,” Morrow adds.
May has been on an election ballot twice now — once in a byelection in London, Ont. and once in a general election. For most parties, a leader that loses two elections is a former leader. But, in my experience, the Greens, for better or worse, hold themselves and May apparently to a completely different standard, one that's difficult for political parties, political journalists and, perhaps, mainstream voters to grasp. The essence of the Canadian Green Party's standard is this: You will NOT be judged by electoral success. Getting MPs elected or winning more votes than the last time is not the objective. The objective is to change things. And if Green Party activism forces change, it matters not which party gets the credit for the change so long as there is change.
Like I said, it's a weird concept to get your head around if you're used to measuring political success by votes and seats. The trick for the Green Party is that as it grows, it's going to start attracting disillusioned voters from those old mainline parties – and, from talking to many of them, I get the sense that they're kind of partial to success measured in votes and seats.
May hasn't won any seats but wants to be judged by her influence. But even by that standard May's record is awful:
– The “carbon tax” was a “Green Party idea” and is now widely seen as politically toxic.
– Greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise year after year and May's “allies” in the Liberal party are now praising the tarsands.
– Income trusts are still being taxed
– Is there anything she's winning?