Thoughts on Elizabeth May

Dear Editor:

As the latest media darling, the articulate, charmingly intelligent leader of the Green Party, Ms. (Elizabeth) May seems to be popping up everywhere all at once and wowing the socks off her audiences.

The consumate politician, Ms. May has a knack of telling people what they want to hear. Unfortunately if we look a tad closer at her record we notice that she has feet of clay, uses Orwellian language and may even deal in hypocrisy.

That record saw her praise African dictators when interviewing them and following those interviews with profound sympathy when she later met with the dictator's grief-stricken victims. In a previous capacity, as president of the Sierra Club of Canada, Ms May was instrumental in awarding the trophy for the most comprehensive environmental platform to the NDP in not one, but two elections. Ms. May refuses to mention such leadership and that the Green Party environmental stance is second rate.

When asked what her approach to the next election would be she trotted out the social justice issues, the left wing planks, the things all Canadians want for their security and future well-being. However, when asked about economic policies, her quick retort was that all financial matters would be passed through the filters of the Fraser Institute. How right wing is that? Just ask Mike Harris and Preston Manning, the latest tag team salesmen for the neo-con ideology.

So what are we to make of the charismatic Ms. May? Those who do not have time to do the research, and the gullible, will be swept off on an emotional high seeing her as a breath of fresh air. From my seat at the back of the bus, she is just another Tory with a second rate environmental policy.

Calum MacKenzie

Middleton