Greens go for the gold

Editorial by Jeff Green

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The national media has discovered the Green Party in the last couple of days, in response to the selection of Elizabeth May as party leader.

The coverage has varied, but somewhere in each newspaper, TV or radio report there is a mandatory granola, Birkenstock or tofu reference. “Is she a hippie?” asked CBC radio of a political analyst who had witnessed May’s election. Reports also focussed on the fact that Green Party officials were upset that the Congress Centre, where the convention was held, had failed to secure Fair Trade coffee for the event.

And what did Elizabeth May say? She said Canada should get out of NAFTA in light of the softwood lumber dispute and its recent resolution, and that Canada should focus on its cancer epidemic.

These are legitimate kinds of statements for an opposition politician to make, and that seems to be what Elizabeth May is signalling to the media and to the country as a whole.

She also said that she will be at the House of Commons, in the gallery, every day that it is in session, and afterwards will be waiting around in the lobby ready to comment on the latest political developments. This is what NDP leader Jack Layton did before he won a seat in Parliament. Just like Layton , she will be acting like a politician that is waiting for her day in the sun, struggling daily to remind Canadians that there are four options on each ballot come election time.

The Green Party has been set up, by their history and by the media, as a party of latter-day flower children - a party of idealists.  Nonetheless, when Elizabeth May, a newcomer to the party who is well known in Ottawa through her work with the Sierra Club, someone who has a name and a reputation, came forward to run for the leadership, she was embraced. Her main opponent, David Chernushenko, a highly respected, long-time party member who had been serving as deputy leader, someone who had demonstrated loyalty to the party, was shunted to the side.

Is this the action of a bunch of head-in-the-clouds idealists, or is the Green Party a group of hard-headed, politically savvy opportunists, eschewing personal loyalty in favour of perceived political advantage?

I talked to a long-time party member at a meeting a few months ago, and was told in no uncertain terms that the party would be insane not to take advantage of Elizabeth May’s offer to lead them. She is too capable, and too smart to turn down. The thinking is that she will win a seat, and the party needs a seat.

The Green Party is not crass by Canadian standards; after all the Liberals might just select a leader who hasn’t lived in the country for 35 years but has made a name for himself in the UK and the US . But the Greens are a political party, by definition they seek power and influence, and they will do whatever it takes to accomplish their goals.

Like any political party, they will be watching their leader. They will send Elizabeth May packing if she does not deliver, just as they forced Jim Harris out, and just as they pushed David Chernushenko to the sidelines.

In the coming months we should hear some articulate opposition to the government from Elizabeth May, hopefully with less bombast than we get from Jack Layton. - JG