Green Party leader makes campaign pit stop in KelownaRiding this Election

By Kathy Michaels - Kelowna Capital News Published: September 20, 2008

There was a little ado about something at Kelowna’s airport on Friday as Green Party leader Elizabeth May stopped in for an impromptu press conference en route to a rally in Vernon. To date, she’s the only party leader to put the Okanagan on her tour map, though her stop in this city was so last-minute, that not even the local nominee Angela Reid was able to make it. Regardless, amid a gaggle of reporters, a South Okanagan party nominee and a few curious bystanders, May discussed the party’s platform and talked about strategy. May said she believes the Greens are within striking distance of winning seats in B.C.; regardless of the small-c conservative stronghold in B.C. Interior communities. And that this riding is up for grabs. “A lot of people may assume because a riding has voted conservative in the past they’ll automatically do so again,” May said. “But the Greens have had an enormous amount of support from people who were progressive conservative and feel that the party disappeared.”

May even added that Stephen Harper should be sued for identify theft for presenting the current party as “Tories.” “They use blue signs and a big C, but they have nothing in common with previous progressive conservative traditions, and I think he also betrayed the idealism of the early days of Reform and Alliance.” Those parties, she said, eschewed top-down party style politicking which is a contrast to the way the party is run today. “If they thought Stephen Harper was going to be populist or interested in grass roots democracy, then they’re fundamentally disappointed,” she said. “There’s never been a political party leader, or prime minister who was more autocratic, or who controls every single thing done or said by their party.” That said, those “disillusioned voters” aren’t going to the NDP or Liberals, they’re looking at the Greens. “In the last poll I saw we had 26 per cent in B.C., and we were running in second place to other parties,” May said. When all is said and done, she said, she hopes to have 12 Greens voted into the house of commons, so they can have influence in the political sphere. And, if they get there, May said that she wants to focus on the Green platform: Looking Forward, a fresh perspective on Canada’s future.

A “green tax shift” would re-route money from new taxes on greenhouse gas emissions to fund tax cuts and reduce poverty. The Greens are also focusing on expanding social programs, such as universal health care, and redirecting funds from federal taxes to municipalities. “We look at the long term and we look beyond the next election,” she said. “All the economics on how we will plan to accomplish our goals have been worked out and it will prove that we are a legitimate , reasonable alternative to old line politics.“We are fiscally responsible, but we are also socially progressive and we believe that without the sustainability of our living world nothing else we do really matters.”