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Guelph, Ont. — Green party leader Elizabeth May cast the federal campaign in apocalyptic terms Sunday, urging complacent Canadians to turn off CNN and tune in to the importance of their Canadian vote.
Ms. May, a career environmentalist who is leading the Greens for the first time in a national campaign, made clear her intentions to make climate change a key issue for voters on Oct. 14.
“There is no other planet that we can move to. We must live on this planet as if we plan to stay,” said Ms. May, addressing a small crowd of supporters as her 17-year-old daughter Victoria Cate May Burton stood at her side with a hand on her mother's back.
The leader of the small but growing party kicked off her campaign in Guelph, Ont., a riding Greens believe they had a shot at winning Monday in the now cancelled by-election.
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Promising to leave discussions of policy for another day, Ms. May's opening speech was largely aimed at the millions of Canadians who have stopped voting or paying attention to Canadian politics.
For a party that has never elected an MP but expects to win a handful come October, Ms. May said a successful Green campaign is not focused on seat counts or power.
Rather, she said Green success would be a dramatic increase in voter turnout and awareness of issues such as climate change and poverty.
“I believe that Canadians need to hear from someone on one of these podiums that they are important and that the people who claim to be leaders are nothing more than representatives of parties,” she said.
Promising to reject “old-style” politics, the Green leader vowed not to let focus groups and partisan strategy dictate her message.
“We will always tell the truth and we will never allow power to overcome principle,” she said.
The television networks have yet to decide whether Ms. May will be invited to take part in the mid-campaign leaders debates. Conservatives have argued against the idea, claiming Ms. May's views are so similar to those of Liberal leader Stéphane Dion that it would be like having two Liberals at the debate.
Conservatives point to Ms. May's previous comments in which she said her preferred scenario would be a Dion-led minority government.
In her opening speech, she made a veiled jab at New Democratic Party leader Jack Layton and took a clear shot at Conservative leader Stephen Harper, but made no reference to the Liberals.
“Frankly, I do believe that our role, my role in this election campaign has far more to do with ensuring that Canadians do not sleep-walk through another election where we elect Stephen Harper by accident,” she said. “It must not happen again.”
