Politics: Canada: Green leader to challenge Conserv's Foreign Minister Peter MacKay

Snappy li'l rotund and self-r+teous Green leader, American-born Elizabeth May, has announced her plan to run against Peter MacKay. He is tall, athletic, and old-stock Canadian. Unlike May, Mackay has held political office, also having himself been a party leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada (which merged with Steven Harper's former party, the Canadian Alliance, to launch the new Conservative Party which now constitutes the official minority federal govt). MacKay presently serves as Minister of Foreign Affairs. MacKay and his father before him have represented the Central Nova (Nova Scotia) riding well; Peter MacKay for ten years, following his father's twenty years. So, it's doubtful May will, or even can, win.

But she wisely chose a target upon whose coat-tails she can command a lot of national publicity (a Saul Alinsky tactic, like the tactics guiding Hillary Clinton in targetting Sen Barak Obama in the USA). Additionally, May has a "non-arrangement" arrangement with the federal Liberal Party. Both sides deny it according to Canadian Press via CJAD radio from Antonish, Nova Scotia. Strangely, the report doesn't mention at all the New Democrats in Central Nova riding where May is inserting herself. No mention either regarding the most recent past vote there which put Mackay in Parliament again, nor any mention of the NDP Central Nova warm-up in the current pre-election flood of press statements.

Antigonish, Nova Scotia (CP) - Green Leader Elizabeth May hopes to take down a heavyweight [wrong metaphor--May is fat like me, MacKay is lean--P] of the Harper cabinet in the next federal election by running against him in his Nova Scotia riding.

May announced plans Sunday to seek the Green party nomination in Central Nova -- the seat held for a decade by Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay.

Unlike the CJAD version, the Toronto Star version includes this CP factoid: "May placed second with 26 per cent support in a federal by-election last fall in the Ontario riding of London North-Centre. After losing to Liberal Glen Pearson, she said she would run in a Cape Breton riding in the next general election. Central Nova is in mainland Nova Scotia next to Cape Breton." Unfortunately, like CJAD, TS's wording does not star either; in this case, the problem is precise wording of the geographic relation, wording that is misleading: Cape Breton is not in mainland Nova Scotia. But TS Makes more clear that Mdme. May broke her word to the Cape Breton electorate and, presumably, did so because she figured out that she couldn't win there in her home riding. So, now she indulges in outr+t carpet-bagging, info that CJAD nearly excised from the CP syndicated dispatch, an excision replaced by a less-disclosive sentence, resulting in a massaged re-write which demonstrates subtly an ideological bias that corrupts CJAD's journalism. We'll meet that sentence further along in the text.

She said that out of respect for the party grassroots she will hold an open nomination vote at a meeting in the riding on April 10.

"It's going to be a very, very interesting race," May told supporters at an Antigonish cafe.

"I'm committed in this election to changing Canadian politics, to winning a seat for the Green Party of Canada." [A h+ly dubious remark. And certainly, we may conclude, she does not actually plan to win a seat for herself, but meanwhile she does plan to inflict as much damage upon MacKay and his party as she possibly can by hurloing epithets (the Alinskian practice of "demonization"). What she clearly can't and won't even try to do is win for herself the seat in Parliament that represents her own riding in Cape Breton.--P]

May conceded the riding won't be the easiest for her to win. [So, winning a seat, any old seat that is as close to a sure thing as she can manage for the Greens--that is not her priority. Just as keeping her word to Cape Bretonians is not her priority.--P]

MacKay held the riding by a margin of 3,300 votes in the last federal election and his father, Elmer, held it from the early 1970s to the early '90s.

But May, who lived in nearby Cape Breton after moving from Connecticut with her family as a teenager, said she has strong roots in the area [but does not have strong roots in the specific riding where she's set herself to smearing MacKay by out-hollering the indigenous NDP and Liberal candidates already lining up against him, thus lessening their propspects in Central Nova too. So, May's use of the term "the area" is quite disingenuous.--P], unlike B.C. or Ontario where poll numbers suggest she'd have a better chance. [Or, Cape Breton--would she have a better chance there?, if not as good a chance as she mite have somewhere in Ontario or BC.--P.]

May made a strong showing - finishing second with 26 per cent of the vote - in a byelection last November in the Ontario riding of London North Centre.

Even more important than her own roots, she added, is a chance to take on a high-profile member of Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government. [Here she let's the cat out of her carpetbag--P]

"In any of the other ridings I was considering, I wasn't running against a member of Mr. Harper's cabinet," May said in an interview following her announcement.

"The policies of the Harper Conservatives represent a particularly anti-environmental, socially regressive kind of politics [here's the demonization, entirely malapropos because the Conservs are actively in transition regarding their environmental package--which will be revealed further in Monday's Budget Speech, and more fully in the new Environment Minister's legislation package sometime afterward-P] that I think is going to be a theme in our campaign."

May's party, which doesn't hold a seat in Parliament, has been bolstered by recent polls that have suggested its support is tied with, or just slightly behind, the New Democrats.

After her byelection defeat, May said she would run in a Cape Breton riding in the next federal election, although Central Nova sits on mainland Nova Scotia. [Here's the trimmed sentence, referred to earlier by me; nevertheless, it's a more geographically-explantory sentence than what we found in the TS version. Still, looking at a map will help readers outside Atlantic Canada to understand what the sentence actually signifies. -- P]

Political insiders suggest the Liberals -- who would be all too happy to see MacKay unseated -- might stand aside and avoid challenging May too stringently in the riding.

Liberal Leader Stephane Dion denied a deal with the Green party leader but was full of praise for her.

"I have a lot of admiration for Madame May. Canada needs to be more sustainable, and she has a lot to offer," he said.

"But we Liberals intend to win an election, if an election is coming. . . . There is no decision made of this kind."

May also denied a deal with the Liberals, and said she would be upfront if a formal arrangement was reached.

She said she has talked informally with local Liberals who seem eager to help.

"Some of the Liberals who attended my press conference said, 'Our main goal is to unseat Peter MacKay,'" said May. "And if they think I'm the best way to do that, they could well be supportive."

There has been speculation a campaign could begin soon after Monday's federal budget, though it remains unclear whether the Conservative government or the opposition parties would be willing to force an election.

In the January 2006 election, the Greens picked up 4.5 per cent of popular support, giving the party valuable federal funding.

May, a longtime environmental activist, was elected leader of the Green party last August, with more than 65 per cent [of delegates'] support. The party was launched in 1983 and has run full slates in the past two federal elections.

As stated many times before on refWrite, I do think the Greens should be represented in Parliament; but under a proportional system of representation. At the same time, the goal of denying the rest of Canada a Foreign Minister of the calibre of MacKay, should the electorate re-elect the Conservs to power, either as a minority or majority govt, is quite duplicitous on the part of May's personal campaign plan, in my view. Carpet-bagging from riding to riding, election by election, seems to be the only option Mdme. May considers--but she could run in the riding in which she actually lives, but doesn't seem much to want to do so. We can only suspect that she would expect to lose in Cape Breton, and not even pick up the press coverage she clearly covets, by bitching against MacKay as her main "theme." And the law allows her to take on the role of the Mother of All Carpetbaggers. Shame!