It's all about May

For a glimpse of factions roiling within the Green Party of Canada, the events of Oct. 19 tell the story. That night, the party’s 26-person federal council sent out a release stating it had unanimously passed a motion confirming its full support for leader Elizabeth May. Only hours earlier, a petition calling for a special meeting to review May’s leadership had begun circulating among the 202 officers of election district associations, or EDAs. Meanwhile, another group was working on a plan code-named “Project June,” as in, “What comes after May?”

Much of this dissent stems from the election, a campaign May rightly calls a “watershed” for the party: the former activist muscled into the leaders’ debates, established the Greens as the fourth national party and upped electoral support by 41 per cent. Yet the true measure of political success—seats—didn’t materialize. May’s bold attempt to usurp Peter MacKay in Central Nova, N.S., proved quixotic. The party’s share of the popular vote, at 6.8 per cent, fell far below the 11 per cent that polls had been predicting a week earlier.

May expresses disappointment that seats weren’t won but frames the outcome more positively: “We’re the only federal party that actually received more votes in 2008 than in 2006,” she says. She boasts that the Greens bested the Conservatives in drawing an uptick in voters: “Mr. Harper won more seats [than in 2006] but had 150,000 fewer voters; we had 270,000 more people voting Green [than in 2006].” Ironically, such talk, with its focus on Harper, is precisely what has Greens signing performance-review petitions.

Not that it appears May is going anywhere, which makes the charismatic leader the biggest challenge facing the party. She’s both the Greens’ major asset and central flashpoint. Even her detractors credit her formidable intellect, ability to inspire and to get the “green” message out. Yet her unwillingness to alter her activist mindset frustrates those who want to build the Greens into an organized political machine capable of delivering seats.

David Cotter, president of the Kitchener-Conestoga Green riding association, likes and trusts May. Still, he put his name on the leadership-review petition. (Post-election, Cotter also briefly set up a website emaygoaway.ca but took it down after a friendly chat with May.) “[Former Green leader] Jim Harris ran a $60,000 campaign in 2006 and got 4.5 per cent of the national vote; we ran a $4-million campaign and won 6.8 per cent,” he says. “You have to have 12 seats to be an official party: we have none. You need one seat for the leader; she chose to run against someone who can’t be beaten.”

There’s residual anger among those who believe May advocated voting strategically to block Conservative victory in certain ridings. In early October May told Maclean’s: “It’s dishonest to say voters should vote Green no matter what because the best thing in terms of the environment is for Stephen Harper not to be elected. At the same time I wouldn’t disown my own party because my candidates are great.”