It's all about May

The party needs a strong pyramid structure able to raise many people to the top, says David Chernushenko, a former deputy leader who quit the party after the election. “I see a very fragile silo right now. In fact, it’s more top heavy.” A repeated refrain is that the party needs to raise the visibility of faces other than May’s. “Elizabeth can’t be everywhere,” says Jacoby-Hawkins.

A stronger organization will provide checks and balances, says one candidate: “We could have put more pressure on Elizabeth to run in a more winnable seat. We would have been able to nominate our own candidates rather than have them appointed by the party.”

The executive needs to adopt a more political, less activist approach, says Taylor, who was elected to a two-year federal council term but quit after six months. “I was attacked for bringing a business mindset,” he says. “People would say ‘You’re just not Green enough, Mark.’ I was not seeing the sort of openness to criticism, to debate and to consultation that to me was a key element of what makes the Green party far different than other parties.”

“You do get a lot of ’70s-style rhetoric at the top,” says one female candidate. “It’s the rhetoric of feminist utopias: how this is going to be a society based on sharing, caring, and co-operation. Anytime anyone questions anyone, they’re told they’re too competitive or aggressive. It doesn’t attract women but it definitely drives away some men.”

Despite the internal bickering, May remains the Greens’ best hope, says Christopher Bennett, a former council member. “She has her enemies in the party but she is the one to guide them through another election—she has the personality, she polls very well,” he says. May dismisses the notion that there’s dissent in the party, claiming her support stands at 95 per cent. She says she’s committed to the party until the next leadership convention in 2010. She’ll run for the Greens in the next by-election, wherever it is, she says, though she remains convinced that Central Nova is winnable. She remains the defiant activist. Political games don’t interest her: “I will not join in mindless partisanship because I find it absurd,” she says, adding: “I’m very uncomfortable being like the other politicians who say ‘Vote for me, vote for me’ all the time and don’t have any sense of respect for voters. Voters can make up their own minds.”

IN NEXT WEEK’S MACLEAN’S: The challenges facing the Bloc Québécois