Elizabeth May was in full campaign mode when the Watershed Sentinel had an opportunity to interview her last week, October 4, 2015. She was on the road between engagements, and the interview was frequently interrupted by greetings with supporters. Some of what she had to say was disturbing, and it has been a struggle to write this article, partly due to my long acquaintance with Elizabeth, and partly because many of our readers, including some of the Board of the Watershed Sentinel, are committed Green Party supporters. I have added fact checks in brackets to clarify some of the remarks.
She was excited because she had just come from a rally in Victoria where, she said, there were a thousand people. [Ed: The Victoria Times Colonist noted the crowd at 120.]
We started with some questions about policy and platforms.
WS: What are the three key policies in this election that separate the Green Party from any other — not principles, but planks in the platform?
MAY:
* Eliminate poverty with the Guaranteed Living Income
* Abolish tuition by 2020
* No pipelines and no tankers:
I mean no tankers on all 3 coasts, and a moratorium on the Gulf and St. Lawrence River. Stop the growth of the oil sands. The bitumen should be processed in Alberta for use in Canada. Stop importing oil. When you refine it, the difference is for transporting of the finished product. It can be transported in trucks. [Ed: In 2014, the US accounted for almost half of the 634 thousand barrels per day (101 thousand cubic metres), of oil imported into Canada, much of it by train. A tanker truck carries at most 200 barrels of gas so to transport that amount of refined product, over a quarter of current tar sands production, would require over 3,000 trucks a day on the 4,500-km trail from Alberta to Montreal.]
WS: The Liberal platform seems to be promising to use the power of the state to intervene and help people, an activist federal government? What do Greens think about that?
MAY: We agree. The federal govt has to step up into housing. We plan to use the role of the federal govt quite consistently. A shrinking federal role is not appropriate. The Green Party is definitely not libertarian. Where did you get that idea?
The interview continued to cover climate change, the cost of relying on contractors to run the government, national sovereignty and investor state agreements. On climate, May talked about carbon pricing as a “signal to industry,” and a Council of Canadian governments to develop a national energy strategy. She said Canada could hit climate targets by stopping the use of coal and replacing the energy with an east west electricity grid, phasing out nuclear power.
MAY: Think like a country. Take it in manageable chunks. Shut down coal, then fuel switching and public transit. Deep decarbonisation using regulations and the market. Address built infrastructure by reducing reduce loss both in institutions and housing. [Ed: Coal fired power plants emit 10% of Canada’s greenhouse gases. Reductions required to keep climate change under 2 degrees Celsius of warming are in the range of 40% within five years, to 100% in 25 years.]
WS: This is the same question we asked David Suzuki. Do you think capitalism is at the heart of the environmental problems? What about the issue of growth?
MAY: I don’t think capitalism is at the heart of it. I think allowing corporations to run governments is the problem. Deregulating greed is a bad idea. And the capitalist model also works for co-operatives. Growth mania in the use and consumption of raw material and energy is the problem. A localised economy could grow while shrinking its ecological footprint. One of my favourite economists is Peter Victor at York University.
WS: How do you feel about the state of the world? especially as a grandmother.
MAY: Oh I’m very optimistic. I think we’re going to succeed at Paris and get off fossil fuels. We will stop the distraction of Fear-and-Power politics. Defeatism is a self-fulfilling prophesy.
The interview then moved into the politics of the current election.
WS: Are you doing your own polling or can you afford that?
MAY: Yes, we are doing a lot of internal polling. At the riding level. Using 2 polling companies.
Our polling shows a Conservative can’t win a seat on Vancouver Island.
WS: I’m gobsmacked. Really? Who’s doing your polling? What kind of margin of error do your polls have?
MAY: I can’t tell you the names of the polling companies (May referenced Elections Canada expenses rules at this point.) The polls have a margin of error of 3% or 4%. Conservative support is eroding.
WS: But Elizabeth, that doesn’t show up at all in any of the publicly-available riding level polls.
[Publicly-available polls in 5 of the 7 Vancouver Island ridings, done by Insights West and Environics, show the NDP leading in all five ridings, but a large contingent of undecided, and a very very tight race with Conservatives, in Courtenay-Alberni and Cowichan-Malahat-Langford. (Link to Excel file of polls) The Greens are tied with the Conservatives for second place in Nanaimo-Ladysmith and Esquimalt-Saanich-Sooke. Public polls are not available for May’s riding of Saanich-Gulf Islands, or Victoria.]
MAY: I’m not saying the NDP and Greens are a close race everywhere. Sometimes the Greens are a distant second.
You get different poll results if you use the candidates’ names instead of the party.
There is not a chance of a conservative winning a riding on Vancouver Island.
May then went on to extrapolate to the discussions in 2011 when she ran against Conservative Cabinet minister Gary Lunn, and then reiterated:
Potentially every single riding on Vancouver Island could not go conservative. [Stunned silence on part of interviewer.]
Look, I would not be doing this if I didn’t really believe it. People are getting very confused with all the talk about strategic voting. They should just vote for what they want.
WS: What efforts have you made to connect with Mulcair and co-operate, and what has his response been? Have you tried to cut a deal re Proportional Representation?
MAY: He will not take my calls. I’ve tried and tried. Justin will take my calls. I tried and tried to negotiate co-operation and there are many ridings across Canada where we are not running very hard. Trudeau will not negotiate before the election.
WS: But it seems that with Pro Rep there should be some leeway for negotiation?
MAY: Oh yes but it’s not just Pro Rep – that’s not enough, and Mulcair may not be the one. Trudeau says, well, not exactly sure what, but he too says this will be the last first-past-the-post election. But there’s no tankers and there’s representation at Paris and ….
WS: Ah, so you do have a list!
MAY: Of course.
WS: So what will you do on October 20th if it is a Harper minority government? It’s entirely possible.
MAY: I will call the Governor General to ask for time, and call in the cameras and make a public call for cooperation between the NDP and the Liberals.
WS: You will do that?
MAY: Yes. I will not let Stephen Harper be Prime Minister.
WS: Ok, thanks, Elizabeth – good luck!
