For the PERB members who are interested in environmental issues and Canadian politics, I refer you to the article below if you haven't already heard about it in today's news.
As someone who is both a tree-hugging flake and politically situated to the right of centre (yes, people like us do exist - a rare species known to some as "crunchy cons"), I was appalled and disgusted by Ms. May's perfidy. I hope electoral karma works its cosmic magic and punishes her and her party appropriately. The first time I read the news item I nearly puked up my bowl of organic granola with soy-milk and raspberries.
Cheers,
VF
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No Liberal will run against Elizabeth May: Dion
13/04/2007 4:36:53 PM
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Liberal Leader Stephane Dion and Elizabeth May of the Green Party have joined forces to try and defeat the Conservatives in a Nova Scotia riding.
Dion announced Friday in a joint news conference with May that he won't be running a candidate against the Green Party leader in the Central Nova riding currently held by Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay.
Dion said he is putting partisan politics aside and throwing his weight behind May, who will fight to win her party's first seat in the next election.
"We will offer to Canadians a gesture of cooperation in order to be sure that Canada will put together all its assets as a great nation," Dion said during a press conference.
Dion said the move served as "a golden opportunity" to show Canadians that the issues of environment and climate change are top priorities for the parties.
"We need exceptional solutions and that's the reason we're acting this way,'' he said in French.
Under the terms of the non-compete agreement, May has agreed not to run a candidate against Dion and will essentially endorse him as prime minister.
During the news conference May touted Dion as the answer to Canada's climate change struggles, saying she has worked closely with him and has become convinced he is the best choice to lead Canada.
"If Mr. Dion becomes the prime minister of Canada, I'm certain he will be acting so as to reach the targets of Kyoto. I'm also certain Mr. Harper will be doing the contrary. The crisis of climate change is an emergency. There's no time to waste," May said in French.
She downplayed the political dealings that may have taken place in the last few days, saying the two leaders exchanged half a dozen phone calls, but there was no "backroom discussions."
"This is not a large-scale merger of parties. This is an extraordinary expression of putting principal ahead of politics as usual."
May will need all the help she can get to beat MacKay -- a star MP hailing from a longtime Conservative stronghold.
In order to win she would have to pick up all the votes that went to the third-place Liberals in 2006 and half of the second-place NDP's votes, CP reports.
Criticism over deal
Human Resources Minister Monte Solberg criticized Dion saying the move was something his predecessors would never have done.
"I'm surprised to see ... (Dion's) first major electoral decision is to concede defeat,'' Solberg said on Friday.
"I sat in the House of Commons for a long time and battled every day with people like Jean Chretien -- someone who never backed away from a fight."
"It's an incredible admission from the once-proud leader of the Liberal party,'' Solberg said.
The Tory minister also said Dion needs to clarify to Canadians what aspects of the Green Party platform he is endorsing, such as the Green Party's insistence that Canada should abandon the Free Trade Agreement.
The Tories have been criticized themselves for siding with the Bloc Quebecois in order to pass the budget.
Solberg dismissed a suggestion that -- by his own logic -- that means the Conservatives could be accused of supporting Quebec independence.
"The Bloc Quebecois thinks it's in the interest of Quebec to support the Conservative budget and we agree with that. This is about Stephane Dion's leadership,'' Solberg said.
NDP Leader Jack Layton criticized the alliance at a press conference Friday calling it a backroom deal that was unfair to Canadian voters.
"It's surprising that Ms. May would be supporting a member of the Liberal cabinet who, during his tenure in that cabinet, presided over an increase of greenhouse gas emissions of over 30 per cent -- giving us the worst record in the industrialized world," said Layton. "Our party on the other hand... has actually got things moving."
"I have to say it's disappointing and somewhat surprising that Ms. May, as someone who professes to be someone who stands on principal, would so quickly slip into the muck of backroom wheeling and dealing, denying people choices in an election," said Layton.
The previously unheard of level of cooperation between two supposed rivals could generate benefits and disadvantages for both parties.
Many Greens are already unhappy with May for praising Dion's environmental record and saying he would make a better prime minister than Stephen Harper.
Vancouver Island environmentalist Briony Penn defected from the Greens last month and announced her decision to run for the Liberals in the coming election, saying May's praise of Dion inspired her decision.
Pros and Cons
And environmental activist Jamey Heath expressed incredulity that May would lend her support to a party whose record on reducing greenhouse gas emissions is worse than that of the U.S. under President George W. Bush.
And among Liberals, there is grumbling that the deal enforces the notion that Dion's leadership is weak and he needs to be propped up by another party, that his only priority is climate change and that he's drifting further and further to the left, CP suggests.
Dion's odds of holding his Montreal riding are already so strong it's unlikely that the absence of a Green challenger will make much difference.
Also, Liberals have always been proud to boast about the fact they have always run candidates in every riding.
However, both parties could also see benefits from the agreement.
The most obvious advantage for May is that it boosts her chances of besting MacKay.
For the Liberals, the move is intended to demonstrate Dion is so committed to addressing environmental concerns he is willing to sacrifice partisanship in order to make progress.
If that works, it could help convince Canadians that Dion really is the environmental champion that supporters have pegged him to be -- an idea the Conservatives have been attempting to discredit over the past few months.
The Liberals also hope May's endorsement will help the party win back some of the votes they lost to the NDP in the last election.
With files from The Canadian Press
As someone who is both a tree-hugging flake and politically situated to the right of centre (yes, people like us do exist - a rare species known to some as "crunchy cons"), I was appalled and disgusted by Ms. May's perfidy. I hope electoral karma works its cosmic magic and punishes her and her party appropriately. The first time I read the news item I nearly puked up my bowl of organic granola with soy-milk and raspberries.
Cheers,
VF
----------------------------------------------------
No Liberal will run against Elizabeth May: Dion
13/04/2007 4:36:53 PM
-----------------------------------------------------
Liberal Leader Stephane Dion and Elizabeth May of the Green Party have joined forces to try and defeat the Conservatives in a Nova Scotia riding.
Dion announced Friday in a joint news conference with May that he won't be running a candidate against the Green Party leader in the Central Nova riding currently held by Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay.
Dion said he is putting partisan politics aside and throwing his weight behind May, who will fight to win her party's first seat in the next election.
"We will offer to Canadians a gesture of cooperation in order to be sure that Canada will put together all its assets as a great nation," Dion said during a press conference.
Dion said the move served as "a golden opportunity" to show Canadians that the issues of environment and climate change are top priorities for the parties.
"We need exceptional solutions and that's the reason we're acting this way,'' he said in French.
Under the terms of the non-compete agreement, May has agreed not to run a candidate against Dion and will essentially endorse him as prime minister.
During the news conference May touted Dion as the answer to Canada's climate change struggles, saying she has worked closely with him and has become convinced he is the best choice to lead Canada.
"If Mr. Dion becomes the prime minister of Canada, I'm certain he will be acting so as to reach the targets of Kyoto. I'm also certain Mr. Harper will be doing the contrary. The crisis of climate change is an emergency. There's no time to waste," May said in French.
She downplayed the political dealings that may have taken place in the last few days, saying the two leaders exchanged half a dozen phone calls, but there was no "backroom discussions."
"This is not a large-scale merger of parties. This is an extraordinary expression of putting principal ahead of politics as usual."
May will need all the help she can get to beat MacKay -- a star MP hailing from a longtime Conservative stronghold.
In order to win she would have to pick up all the votes that went to the third-place Liberals in 2006 and half of the second-place NDP's votes, CP reports.
Criticism over deal
Human Resources Minister Monte Solberg criticized Dion saying the move was something his predecessors would never have done.
"I'm surprised to see ... (Dion's) first major electoral decision is to concede defeat,'' Solberg said on Friday.
"I sat in the House of Commons for a long time and battled every day with people like Jean Chretien -- someone who never backed away from a fight."
"It's an incredible admission from the once-proud leader of the Liberal party,'' Solberg said.
The Tory minister also said Dion needs to clarify to Canadians what aspects of the Green Party platform he is endorsing, such as the Green Party's insistence that Canada should abandon the Free Trade Agreement.
The Tories have been criticized themselves for siding with the Bloc Quebecois in order to pass the budget.
Solberg dismissed a suggestion that -- by his own logic -- that means the Conservatives could be accused of supporting Quebec independence.
"The Bloc Quebecois thinks it's in the interest of Quebec to support the Conservative budget and we agree with that. This is about Stephane Dion's leadership,'' Solberg said.
NDP Leader Jack Layton criticized the alliance at a press conference Friday calling it a backroom deal that was unfair to Canadian voters.
"It's surprising that Ms. May would be supporting a member of the Liberal cabinet who, during his tenure in that cabinet, presided over an increase of greenhouse gas emissions of over 30 per cent -- giving us the worst record in the industrialized world," said Layton. "Our party on the other hand... has actually got things moving."
"I have to say it's disappointing and somewhat surprising that Ms. May, as someone who professes to be someone who stands on principal, would so quickly slip into the muck of backroom wheeling and dealing, denying people choices in an election," said Layton.
The previously unheard of level of cooperation between two supposed rivals could generate benefits and disadvantages for both parties.
Many Greens are already unhappy with May for praising Dion's environmental record and saying he would make a better prime minister than Stephen Harper.
Vancouver Island environmentalist Briony Penn defected from the Greens last month and announced her decision to run for the Liberals in the coming election, saying May's praise of Dion inspired her decision.
Pros and Cons
And environmental activist Jamey Heath expressed incredulity that May would lend her support to a party whose record on reducing greenhouse gas emissions is worse than that of the U.S. under President George W. Bush.
And among Liberals, there is grumbling that the deal enforces the notion that Dion's leadership is weak and he needs to be propped up by another party, that his only priority is climate change and that he's drifting further and further to the left, CP suggests.
Dion's odds of holding his Montreal riding are already so strong it's unlikely that the absence of a Green challenger will make much difference.
Also, Liberals have always been proud to boast about the fact they have always run candidates in every riding.
However, both parties could also see benefits from the agreement.
The most obvious advantage for May is that it boosts her chances of besting MacKay.
For the Liberals, the move is intended to demonstrate Dion is so committed to addressing environmental concerns he is willing to sacrifice partisanship in order to make progress.
If that works, it could help convince Canadians that Dion really is the environmental champion that supporters have pegged him to be -- an idea the Conservatives have been attempting to discredit over the past few months.
The Liberals also hope May's endorsement will help the party win back some of the votes they lost to the NDP in the last election.
With files from The Canadian Press
