Different seat, new pain in butt for Green leader

Joanna Smith Ottawa Bureau The Star:

May moves bid to get elected to B.C., but faces dirty-tricks allegation – and must beat minister.

OTTAWA–Elizabeth May is moving her quest for a seat to the West Coast, and although her campaign has yet to begin, there is an allegation of dirty tricks.The Green party has confirmed its leader has filed nomination papers to run against Gary Lunn, the Conservative minister of state for sport, in the British Columbia riding of Saanich-Gulf Islands."There has been a tremendous amount of encouragement from people in the community to move there and to run there," was all May would say about her decision yesterday because she did not want to pre-empt a formal announcement planned for early next week.

But Stuart Hertzog, an environmental and social justice activist and website publisher from Victoria, is also entered in the Sept. 19 nomination contest and the Star has learned he has filed a complaint with Elections Canada. The complaint accuses the Green party of pouring central money into the local riding association to support the May campaign and deny him a fair chance."I don't believe I can compete on a level playing field," Hertzog said in an interview.

He said he originally decided to put his name forward in the Vancouver Island constituency to protest what he called an anti-democratic shift in the party from grassroots to the leader and executive.Now, in a complaint Hertzog said he filed Thursday, he alleges the party's federal council illegally transferred $62,000 from a special fund it set up to get May elected – after it decided this spring that winning a seat for the leader would be the priority in the next campaign – to the electoral district association, and that it is being used to finance the nomination campaign. Elections Canada refused comment on the matter.

May said the fact the party hasn't simply appointed her as the riding candidate proves Hertzog is wrong about any anti-democratic shift."You obviously can't imagine any other party in Canada where the leader would be even contemplating running in a riding where someone would say – just to make a point – the nomination would be contested," May said. "He's making a very strong case that we are in fact a grassroots party that is not top-down."

The party yesterday disputed the amount of money and its purpose."Not one cent of the money has been used for anything," said John Fryer, May's campaign manager in Saanich-Gulf Islands.Fryer said the money from the fund to get May elected is being held in Ottawa and has not been touched. He said the party lent the riding association $50,000 as seed money to mount its campaign after May wins the nomination."In the event that Stuart Hertzog defeats Elizabeth May at the Green party nominating contest, I guess wiser minds than I will decide what happens next – to that money or anything else – because I certainly won't be working on Stuart Hertzog's campaign," said Fryer, who dismissed the challenger as something of a gadfly who, like May, does not currently live in the riding. "His parachute is a little smaller than Elizabeth's," he said.

Meanwhile, the party is getting ready for its next campaign. (more)