889...Elizabeth May: This Time I Mean It

The leader of the Green Party has been strangely absent from the on going crisis on the Hill in Ottawa.

At least that is what I thought.

Wrong again, World Famous, wrong again.

Ms. May was absent because she was relocating to her new home, in Saanich-Gulf Islands, the riding that she had to fight the whiny Stuart Hertzog in a nomination process that culminated in her victory yesterday on Vancouver Island.

She told Brian Hutchinson of the National Post that ‘‘'I'm getting kind of a bad rap. Oooh, she moves here, she moves there.'" But this time, she says, she has found a riding that she will stick to. To that end on Monday, the furniture arrives and the Green leader will move into her new home. The house is rented, but the move, she insists, is quite permanent.

Although I am the farthest thing from a fan of either the Green Party or Ms. May and I think Ms. May is a kamikaze pilot and her campaign is going to crash going against the Minister of Sport, Gary Lunn, if she sticks around, puts down roots, becomes a local community activist, well, y'never know, do you? I mean, it ain't going to happen this time for her, I will bet you any money honey, any, but if she sticks around for the election after the next election it may happen for her.

WFDS

827...Elizabeth May Deathwatch V. 3

And it is not just me who thinks her plan to run in Saanich-Gulf Islands is not well thought.

Here is a cut and paste from this morning's Halifax Chronicle-Herald:

May-first plan dubious in quest for Greener pastures


Fri. Sep 11 - 4:46 AM

A POLL last month suggested that more than 40 per cent of
 Canadians would like to see Elizabeth May win a seat in the
 House of Commons. Unfortunately for her, there is no
single riding in Canada in which she might automatically
 command 40 per cent of the vote.

The Green Party leader, who has tried her luck in two places
already, is faring progressively better as she
goes along in her quest to get elected.
In a 2006 byelection in London North Centre,
she finished second with 25 per cent of the vote,
 and in 2008 she was a respectable runner-up in
 Central Nova with 32 per cent support.

But Ms. May has since concluded that felling regional
 rainmaker Peter MacKay is too tall an order.
The absence of a Liberal candidate was designed
to help Ms. May, but the Tory defence minister
also succeeded in increasing his score six
percentage points over the previous election's results.
 And so Ms. May has split for the other coast and
announced her intention this week to challenge another
 Conservative cabinet minister in B.C.

The new No.1 priority of the decision-makers
 in the Green Party is to get Ms. May elected,
 no matter where. Hence the quixotic,
 cross-country quest for greener pastures.
 Unfortunately, her vagabond candidacy and
 tendency to publicly muse about suitable
 ridings only succeeds in exposing her to ridicule.
 It makes her look flighty, and for what?

Does the Green Party really need a seat
 in Parliament while it has Elizabeth May?
 As the leader of the fifth party,
 which garnered 6.8 per cent of the popular vote last year,
 Ms. May already punches far above her weight on the national scene.
 She attracts plenty of media coverage even
 in between elections and last fall she got
 a seat at an important table - the televised leaders' debates.
 Many Canadians were surprised to discover Elizabeth May as the feisty debater,
 the solid performer and the well-briefed and witty policy wonk.

It's hard to see what further advantages a Commons
 seat would confer on Ms. May, apart from a decent
 salary and some parliamentary perks.
 She would not get any more time of day, or power,
 in the House than Independent MPs do, which is to say very little.
 Nor would this pulpit boost her national profile much more than she already has,
 although it would give her bragging rights as the first Green elected to national
 office in North America.

So the Green Party's new tack - pouring all
 its efforts into getting Ms. May elected as a parachuted candidate
 in one of Canada's most green-friendly ridings - seems like more
 trouble than it's worth. It's trouble all
 right. Greenpeace activist Stuart Hertzog
 is challenging her for the nomination in Saanich-Gulf Islands
 next week, decrying the top-down decision-making within the
 party as being contrary to grassroots Green values.

Unquestionably, Ms. May is an asset to
the Greens, but concentrating on building
 up the party's assets - getting more votes
 nationwide and thus more federal
 electoral funding - would better
 serve the party's cause in the
 long run and better prepare
 it for a future
 without her at the helm.

See, I am not the only one who does not subscribe to group think.

WFDS

815...Elizabeth May Deathwatch V.2

In response to Post 812 Elizabeth May Deathwatch I recieved this thoughful reply:

janfromthebruce said...

Well than, the libs need to stand down (like they did in Nova Scotia) and give May a free ride.
Or is running as a liberal the only alternative you had in mind?

September 9, 2009 9:11 AM

Thanks for the comment but let's face it, the Liberals stood down in Central Nova and Elizabeth May got her head handed to her.

Ditto in Saanich-Gulf Islands. One on one Gary Lunn would destroy her.

It is fairly obvious to me that if after, as the Globe and Mail's Bill Curry reported earlier this week that the riding was selected "...after extensive party polling and research..." as the best chance for the Green Party leader it means that she has no chance anywhere in Canada.

Personally I think she is trying to position herself for the cash for life sinecure of the Senate of Canada.

WFDS

810...Kamikaze Mission Starts Today For May

Elizabeth May's failed run for parliament in the next election starts today when she announces that she is seeking the nomination for the British Columbia riding of Saanich-Gulf Islands, suburban Victoria and environs.

The Globe and Mail reports what we already know: the riding is held by Gary Lunn, the Minister of Sport, heading into an Olympic year when the Olympics are in Vancouver, a city that most Victorians are very familiar with through friends, family and visits. Mr. Minister, the Honourable Gary Lunn is the man in charge of the games and if you don't think he is going to play the "I am Mr. Olympics" card hard, you are crazier than the leader of the Green Party.

She has been saying for eons that she wants an riding where she can be elected; this ain't it.

The Globe and Mail's Bill Curry writes that the riding was selected "...after extensive party polling and research..." This is a big steaming pile of bullsh't.

Ms. May, who earlier said that she would only only only ever run in Central Nova, way on t'other side of the country but equally remote from the vast majority of voters, is being challenged by Stuart Herzog for the nomination. I suppose her "...extensive...polling and research..." missed Mr. Herzog.

WFDS

740...Cut And Paste From Victoria Re Liz May

Here is what the paper of record in her potential new hometown has to say about Miss May's chances. Here is what I have to say about Miss May's chances: none, zero, nada. And she knows it. She is a headline seeking train wreck of a a politician who is going to get beaten like a rented f'ing mule.

May faces challenge in Island riding
Times Colonist (Victoria)
Wed Aug 26 2009
Page: A6
Section: Capital & Van. Isl.
Byline: Katie DeRosa
Source: Times Colonist

If federal Green party leader Elizabeth May chooses to run in
Saanich-Gulf Islands,
she'll have a challenger for the nomination.

Stuart Hertzog, a 63-year-old environmental writer and
publisher who
describes himself as a "deep green" activist,
announced on his website
last week that he intends to contest the nomination in that
riding.

Hertzog said the Green party has become too centralized
around the leader and has alienated its membership base in
the
quest for power. "The grassroots of the party has basically
been ignored," he said.

May, 55, who has served as federal Green leader since 2006,
welcomed another Green
candidate in the riding.

"As a party that is really quite proud of the
fact that we are grassroots,
there's probably no better proof of it
[than the fact Hertzog is running],"
May said in an interview from Vancouver.
"It may prove the opposite of what he is alleging."

Hertzog has yet to be approved by the
party as a candidate for the nomination.

The successful Green party candidate
will run against incumbent
MP Gary Lunn, who serves as minister
of state for sport and
has had a firm hold on the seat, winning
five victories since 1997.

Hertzog has been involved with the Green party since
1984 and has run unsuccessfully as a provincial
candidate three times.

In 1996, he ran for the B.C. Green party in
the northern B.C. riding
of Bulkley Valley-Stikine. It was that unsuccessful
bid that convinced
Hertzog that so-called parachute candidates --
who run in ridings they don't live in
-- don't work.

Hertzog said the fact May is considering
parachuting
herself into a West Coast riding despite her East
Coast roots shows
the party cares about the leader more than
the voters. If May does run
in Saanich-Gulf Islands, she plans to relocate
from her hometown on Cape Breton, N.S.

"It's presumptuous to dump oneself in a place
and say, 'OK I've got it,' "
said Hertzog, who lived in Sidney and on
Saltspring Island before moving
to Victoria.

The federal Green party is fighting to
have at least one MP elected.
In the 2008 election, May ran in her
home riding of Central Nova,
where she was defeated by cabinet
minister Peter MacKay,
whose family has deep roots in the area.

May said the public has come to
expect national
party leaders to have a seat in the
House of
Commons to best represent voters.

She said if she does run in
Saanich-Gulf Islands --
she expects to make a decision in
early September --she will buy a
house in Sidney and familiarize
herself with the local issues.

May has speculated previously
that a non-confidence
motion in the federal government could come as
early as September, forcing a
fall election.

kderosa@tc.canwest.com

Here is what I have to say about Miss May's chances: none, zero, nada. And she knows it.

She is a headline seeking train wreck of a a politician who is going to get beaten like a rented f'ing mule.

WFDS