Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Elizabeth May

Some interesting bits from the Macleans write-up include her consulting psychics to determine weather conditions, her use of crystals and visualization ("I used to put Premier Vander Zalm in a love light"), and her comment "I represented all the poisoned innocents of the world".

More good sense from David Chernushenko:
May's constant criticism of Harper is "a blind spot," says Chernushenko, one that's problematic for the party in Alberta where polls show Greens running second to the Conservatives. "When you demonize Harper you demonize everyone who voted for him. But really, in what way is Harper more evil than the Liberals, who promised they'd do something on the environment and climate change for 12 years and didn't, than someone who says, 'I don't believe the science and it's not worth doing' and then says 'I kind of believe the science and we're going to do something'?

One has to keep in mind here that May combines her antagonism for Harper with praise for Dion.

Thomas Goodman, a Winnipeg lawyer who supported May's leadership bid, left the party in November after he and May disagreed over direction. He recommended a moderate course that excluded extremists whom he found "dangerous"; she endorsed a big-tent approach. May consulted him over a press release advocating that every Canadian worker should be given four weeks' paid holiday; it said that currently, Canadian workers were being treated like serfs in the Middle Ages. "I wasn't sure it was constitutional, in that paid holidays are provincially regulated," Goodman says. He also found the language inappropriate. "To call workers of Canada serfs suggests employers are feudal lords." When he told May so, he says he received flippant reply: "I think Elizabeth's a good person, a sharp person, a wonderful orator, but she's politically naive."

If Chernushenko were Green party leader right now, I'd be seriously interested in joining the federal Green Party. But that didn't happen and apparently won't happen. "In July, Chernushenko announced he was leaving, frustrated his talents weren't being used fully. ... Chernushenko says he tried to work with May but found it difficult."

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