Pie Palace

Anyone who read this blog in the summer of 2006 will know that Elizabeth May was not my first choice to lead the Green Party of Canada. That was two years ago, and I’m not good at dropping grudges, but here’s why I think she’s doing a good job now:

She represents

The Green Party has some pretty complex ideas. Tax shifting is probably the easiest to understand. Things get more complex when someone asks what the Green Party actually stands for. Elizabeth has been able to articulate our stance on a number of positions (a UN mission in Afghanistan, devaluing the Canadian dollar, and electoral reform) in an accessible manner. No, it doesn’t subject the viewer/listener/reader to a long and fairly dry discussion on what we stand for, but it does explain what we want on those issues, and why that’s a good idea. ¹

Shes reasonable

Thursday night’s debate was a great example of Elizabeth looking good. Her arguments were succinct, direct, and researched. She presented the Green Party position with a minimum of complexity. She makes the Green Party look a little bit more respectable.

I certainly don’t think we’re going to win this election. I’m not even sure if we’re going to win a seat. But I do think that Elizabeth is making the Green Party more attractive to people who wouldn’t have considered us as an option in the past. The test will come in longevity: will Elizabeth be able to keep people interested in our party long enough to dig deep and get the goods on what makes us different?

Image by rjmoorhouse, used without permission.²

1. If someone asked me what the Greens stood for, I’d say something along the lines of “we want to change some of the basic choices that our society has made over the past hundred years, to make Canada more egalitarian, more democratic, and more sustainable.” Now, that doesn’t answer many questions, (and it isn’t supposed to) but it’s honest. (back)
2. Yes, that means I’ll take it down if requested to do so. (back)

This might sound like a bit of a truism, but I hadn’t realized how mean-spirited Conservatives tend to be. I was at the pre-debate rally at the NAC tonight. As expected, supporters of each party turned out to wave, scream, and generally wave their colours.

What I didn’t expect was the general nastiness of the Conservatives. While we Greens were happily waving to passersby, the Conservative supporters started yelling “Get a job!” and “Get a real leader!” at us. I don’t mind that they were doing that (they stayed on their side of the street, and they’re welcome to be pricks over there), but I’m surprised that they found seventy or eighty Green Party volunteers and supporters to be so threatening. What happened to politeness?

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While we Greens were happily chanting “Oui May!” a couple of the folks from ecoSanity marched up behind Harpers’ peeps with a banner showing a dinosaur with the words “Harper: Race to Extinction.” They Conservatives tried to cover it up with their signs, but somehow managed to convince the ecoSanity sign bearers to take the sign down. As far as I could tell, no tazers were fired during the incident.

Observant readers will notice that I haven’t posted much in the past couple of weeks. If you’re thinking that I’m not posting due to the election, you’ll only be partly right. You see, I got engaged last month. On top of my usual volunteerism, my days are now filling up with:

1. Deciding who to invite to the wedding
2. Deciding where the wedding should be held
3. Deciding how to massage our wedding budget to (a) minimize its impact on Ottawa’s economy, (b) give our guests a good time, and (c) have a decent time ourselves.

As such, you’ll probably see the occasional cranky post about wedding planning and costs over the next year or so.