Monday, July 07, 2008

Seriously? You didn't see this coming?

Elizabeth May seems surprised that making her party an obsequious flunky to another party costs the Greens influence and support.

Elizabeth May has had her thunder stolen. Call it the great green robbery. Carbon tax? Green shift? They were hers - until the Liberals moved in. Now green plans are the talk of the country. But no one's talking about her party.

"I mean, every time I open up a newspaper, I see green, green, green," she said. "But where is the mention of the Green Party?"

Why should anyone mention you Elizabeth? You've made it quite clear that you view the Green Party as a Major Domo to the Liberals, a dogsbody if you will. You've taken the potential relevance, influence and credibility of the Greens and put them to work propping up another party. Why on Earth should anyone give you their support when you're flat out telling them to support someone else? And as for what you'll get for all that assiduous application of political capital...

She has been cozy with the Grits since Stéphane Dion promised more than a year ago not to run a Liberal candidate against her in the riding, Central Nova, she is contesting in the next election. On Mr. Dion's green shift, Ms. May feels she was the inspiration. "Yes, I think so. I'm not just saying this in a foolish or naive sense. But we won over the Liberal Party from a policy point of view."

Oh that's so cute. She still believes Liberals keep promises when they aren't forced to.

"If you're asking me if the Green tax shift, which is our idea, has been stolen by the Liberals for the election, I don't know and I don't really care. As a party, we're at a point in our evolution that's not far off where Tommy Douglas was when Canada got health care, as advocated by a party not in power."

Actually Elizabeth, the circumstances were quite different, involving the NDP holding the balance of power in a minority government and never being naive enough to think the Liberals could be counted on to do the right thing without being forced to. Tommy Douglas wasn't swooning over that dreamy Lester Pearson.

So Greens, tired of being considered a cheap date yet?

1 comment:

Blogging Horse said...

Ugh. For Dion to "steal" an idea from May presupposes that he doesn't already own her.

It's incredible to find respected journalists willfully feigning ignorance of the direction being given May by Liberals.

Is Paul Wells the only working journalist who will actually call the Dion-May intermingling for what it is: contrived?

May is to Dion what Swift Boat Veterans for Truth was for George W. An entirely contrived attempt to invalidate the strength of his main challenger: Jack Layton's credibility on the environment.

It deserves to be called what it is and ignored.

Good post, Cliff.

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