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

735...Elizabeth May Decides On A Riding

Influenced by the weather no doubt, Green Party leader Elizabeth May has decided to focus on Saanich-Gulf Islands, on the southern tip of Vancouver Island, as the place to plant her flag in the next election.

Andrew Potter in today's Ottawa Citizen senses a disconnect in the Green Party and his evidence of that is the actions of Stuart Hertzog, a man who has been in the party for over a quarter century, who is challenging Miss May for the nomination. He says that the party is becoming more undemocratic as the days progress. Mr. Potter makes the point that the Green Party is more effective in its present configuration as a super lobby group of sorts as opposed to being just another budgetary party.

The Green Party leader has the choice of picking any riding in the country and yet chooses this one. One of the things that I find odd about her choice of Saanich-Gulf Islands is the fact that the Green Party finished third with only 10.5 per cent of the vote last time out. After getting creamed at the polls by Peter McKay in Central Nova last time out one would think that she would want to have the most favourable conditions extant this time.

Or perhaps she really doesn't want to win? Which I find difficult to believe considering, among other things, she lives in Ottawa so being an MP would be a short bus ride, the 7, one bus all the way, to the office.

Still, a curious choice on many levels. One would think that her people would try to find her a seat where she could win the nomination without a struggle and then have a good shot at winning. Yet another thing that makes Saanich-Gulf Islands odd is the fact that it is not a media center and the fact that it is about as far west as one can be will only add to the travel burden for the leader of a national party.

It just doesn't make sense.

WFDS

700...Eleventh Province

When it is plus 35 it is hard to focus on the need for a warm [note to those living in Victoria: your city is not warm in the middle of winter it is just less cold] place for Canadians to park their butts and their money during the middle of yet another freeeeeeezing winter.

This morning's Globe and Mail is trying to sharpen that focus with a piece on the ongoing want and need of the Turks and Caicos Islands to find a home inside our native land.

The idea of annexing the small chain of islands, population of which is about the size of Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan at 36,000, has been bandied about since the time of Sir Robert Borden, circa World War One.

Right now the Islands are going through a bit of a corruption scandal and are looking for a place to call home.

C A N A D A ?

WFDS