Friday August 20, 2021 | SAANICH, BC [Last updated August 21, 2021]
by Jalen Codrington | Island Social Trends | with notes by Mary P Brooke, Editor
It’s Day 6 of the federal election campaign. Here on Vancouver Island, Green Party candidate Elizabeth May (Saanich-Gulf Islands incumbent) met with restaurant-goers and campaign supporters at a cafe in Cordova Bay.
Following her recent knee surgery, May takes to a walker in this campaign. But she’s out and about with a full schedule. She hopes she will be fully mobile again within a few months, though she still gets up and about for short periods while socializing.
This afternoon, restaurant-goers at Adrienne’s Café were treated to the surprise visit from the former federal Green Party leader on this slightly overcast Friday afternoon (a first hint of rain in the summer’s long drought).
May, 67, was accompanied by her team of about 10 or so volunteers, almost all of them older-in-age.
Also in attendance was Yukon MP candidate Lenore Morris. This is Morris’ second run at the federal seat, after placing fourth in 2019. The Yukon only has one federal riding, encompassing the entire territory.
Before lunch, May sat down and spoke with Island Social Trends regarding some campaign topics.
Forestry:
“BC’s majestic old growth is in crisis,” reads the official Green Party platform. “Every hour, two football fields of ancient forest, including 800-year-old trees are being clear cut logged.”
While forestry typically falls under provincial jurisdiction, the Green Party has stated this matter demands federal intervention, in the same manner as carbon pricing.
“Forests, in the context of the climate emergency, can be federal,” said May. “We have to protect our old growth.”
May said that BC Premier Horgan and his cabinet should have kept their promise from the beginning to preserve the province’s old growth.
Meanwhile, tension with RCMP at the Fairy Creek forestry protest site on Vancouver Island continue to escalate, as the arrest count hits over 700. Mounties have come under fire for their “aggressive” handling and extraction of demonstrators.
May and staff are expected to attend a rally outside of the RCMP divisional headquarters on Nanaimo Street in Victoria this coming Monday August 23 at 1 pm.
Weaning workers off fossil fuels:
The climate crisis remains one of the most salient topics of this election season. Island Social Trends asked May how the Greens would ensure a fair transition of oil and gas industry workers to low-carbon jobs.
May said the Greens support the Just Transition Act, a process in which the federal government is calling on industry stakeholders, as well as provincial, territorial and Indigenous partners, to provide feedback on potential elements of proposed transition legislation.
“Every worker needs a guarantee that they will not be unemployed as a result of the transition,” said May.
“The workers in fossil fuel sectors have really good skills, and those skills are easily transferrable…so someone who’s building a pipeline today could be putting up wind turbines tomorrow.”
Next for the Greens:
Elizabeth May hopes for re-election in her Saanich-Gulf Islands seat, where she has maintained a stronghold since 2011. She has held one of two Green seats on Vancouver Island (Paul Manly became the MP for Nanaimo Ladysmith in May 2019); the other five seats on Vancouver Island are held by NDP MPs.
May said that lawyer and University of New Brunswick professor Nicole O’Bryne is looking to retake the Green Party’s only east-coast seat, in Fredericton, which the Greens lost hold of in 2021 when their former elected representative Jenica Atwin crossed the floor to join the Liberals (after contention between Atwin and a Green Party former advisor Noah Zatzman).
May had worked very hard to build the party membership out beyond her Vancouver Island base. Losing Atwin must have been a real blow, but May never made much if any public comment about it.
When asked if she had any advice for new Green Party Leader Annamie Paul, today May told Island Social Trends, “This is a really important moment on the national stage, and I wish her the best. Break a leg!”
Paul’s riding is Toronto Centre, a Liberal stronghold where former TV broadcaster Marci Ien is the Liberal incumbent.
