Elizabeth May,
OC (born June 9, 1954) is a
Canadian environmentalist,
writer,
activist,
lawyer, and the leader of the
Green Party of Canada. She was the executive director of the
Sierra Club of Canada from 1989 to 2006.
May's permanent residence is in Sidney, British Columbia. Her family home is in Margaree Harbour on Cape Breton Island.
Background
May was born in
Hartford, Connecticut to a British father and American mother; she has a younger brother named Geoffrey. Her mother was a prominent anti-nuclear activist and one of the original founders of the peace group
SANE while her father was Assistant Vice President of
Aetna Life and Casualty.
May attended Renbrook School and the prestigious Miss Porter's School in Farmington, Connecticut. Her family was rooted in the Welsh Congregationalist tradition of free thinking on religious beliefs.
The family moved to Margaree Harbour, Nova Scotia in 1972 following a summer vacation spent on Cape Breton Island. On moving to the province, the may family purchased and restored a land-locked schooner, the Marion Elizabeth, in which a restaurant and gift shop was housed. Although the business had been closed for several years before being purchased by the Mays, it became a popular spot along the Cabot Trail.
Launched in 1918, and named after the wife and daughter of the ship’s first captain, the Marion Elizabeth was the only authentic Bluenose fishing schooner and was built by Lunenberg, Nova Scotia firm Smith and Rhuland. Farley Mowat also gave the Mays his schooner, the Happy Adventure, which was featured in his book, the Boat who wouldn’t Float, and was displayed next to the gift shop. The restaurant and gift shop operated from 1974 until 2002 when the property was expropriated for an expanded highway bridge carrying Route 19 across the Margaree River. Elizabeth briefly enrolled at St. Francis Xavier University in 1974, but had to leave when she didn’t have enough money for tuition. Returning to Margaree, she took correspondence courses in restaurant management. Elizabeth May does not have an undergraduate degree. In 1980, she worked her way through Dalhousie Law School as a mature student, with then Governor of Arkansas, Bill Clinton, writing her a letter of reference.
In 1975, following the move to Margaree Harbour, Elizabeth May joined with other local residents in a grassroots effort to stop approved aerial insecticide spraying over the forests of Cape Breton Island. The group “Cape Breton Landowners Against the Spray” was the focus of Elizabeth May’s volunteer effort from 1975-1979. Swedish multinational Stora owned the local pulp and paper mill and held licenses to harvest the forests of eastern Nova Scotia. Stora wanted the government to pay for spraying the forests with 2,4-D and 2,4,5-T to counter an epidemic of spruce budworm. Within months the provincial government agreed to cancel the permits due to health concerns, as children’s deaths in New Brunswick from Reye’s Syndrome were linked to the spray program there. Every year for the next four, the pulp company attempted to convince the government to spray, threatening to shut its mill and put thousands out of work. The fact the Liberal government of Gerald Regan continued to agree with the local residents was a first in Canada. The budworm outbreak collapsed of natural causes. The issue was the subject of Elizabeth May’s first book, ‘’Budworm Battles’’, as well as CBC program The Fifth Estate in a segment called “Miss May’s War,” and a National Film Board documentary called “Budworks.”
In 1980, disillusioned with the federal election sparked by the loss of confidence vote on Joe Clark’s budget, May launched a political party to raise environment and anti-nuclear issues. The party, dubbed "the Small Party" and based on the ideas in E. F. Schumacher’s book, Small is Beautiful, ran 12 candidates in 6 provinces, in the 1980 federal election. They made no pretense of attempting to win seats, calling the effort a “beau geste” to raise awareness. Elizabeth May, at the time a 23 year old waitress, ran against the former Deputy Prime Minister, Allan J. MacEachen in Cape Breton Highlands—Canso. May placed fourth in a field of four candidates receiving 272 votes.
Between 1980 and 1982, Ms. May worked in the local movement opposing uranium mining. It succeeded when the provincial government announced a moratorium. She was also very active in the effort to stop approval of the Point Lepreau nuclear plant in New Brunswick.
In 1982, the Nova Scotia government of Conservative Premier John Buchanan re-approved the spraying of forests with the herbicides 2,4-D and 2,4,5-T. Those same chemicals, in 50-50 combination, were known as Agent Orange and used as defoliants during the Vietnam War. All of the major pulp and paper companies in Nova Scotia received permits to spray Agent Orange to kill hardwood trees and shrubs. Elizabeth May was between her second and third year of law school when the permits were granted and began organizing to stop the spraying. The government announced it would convert the spray permits from aerial to ground spray. Seventeen local residents went to court to stop the spraying. Elizabeth May’s role was as both plaintiff and as volunteer lawyer. The plaintiffs received an interim injunction in August 1982 that prevented the spraying. Following the initial hearing, the case against Scott Paper was rejected. That initial decision resulted in a bill of costs against the plaintiffs for $15,000. Elizabeth’s mother sold 80 acres of family land to cover the costs to Scott Paper.
The trial of the 17 plaintiffs against Stora, reported as Vicky Palmer et al v. Stora Kopparberg, Nova Scotia Supreme Court Trial Division, was heard over the month of May 1983. Mr. Justice Merlin Nunn ruled that the chemicals were not dangerous and had not caused health effects in Vietnam. By the time the judgment came down, the chemicals were no longer available for use in Canada. On behalf of the plaintiffs, Elizabeth May and Chief Ryan Googoo of the Mikmaq First Nation traveled to Sweden to raise funds and support for an appeal. The tour of Sweden gained support for the Nova Scotians opposed to Agent Orange, with Prime Minister Olof Palme endorsing their cause. While they were away, the pulp company pressured the other plaintiffs to drop the appeal and accept a settlement. In the settlement, Stora insisted that, while other plaintiffs and lawyers could be reimbursed for their costs, the May family could not be. The herbicide case is documented in an National Film Board film called Herbicide Trials.
May graduated in 1983 and, following law school, worked as an associate at the firm of Kitz, Matheson, Green and MacIsaac in Halifax (now Patterson Palmer). In 1985 she moved to Ottawa to accept the position of Associate General Counsel to the Public Interest Advocacy Centre. During this time May helped found the Canadian Environmental Defence Fund with the aim of funding groups and individuals in environmental cases. She was admitted to the bar of Nova Scotia in 1984, and the Law Society of Upper Canada in 1989.
In 1986, Elizabeth May was recruited by the federal Minister of Environment, Tom McMillan to provide environmental policy advice. As Senior Policy Advisor, May worked on many critical environmental issues. She was involved in the negotiation of agreements with the seven Eastern provinces and with the U.S. to reduce sulphur dioxide emissions in order to combat acid rain, writing new legislation, the creation of five new national parks, the negotiation of the Montreal Protocol to protect the ozone layer, the clean up of the Great Lakes, and the first agreement to clean up the Sydney Tar Ponds. In June, 1988, she discovered that the minister had broken the law approving permits for two dams in Saskatchewan (Rafferty and Alameda dams on the Souris River) without environmental review. She resigned on principle, but did not make her reasons for resignation public. In September, the Winnipeg Free Press broke the story of her resignation on the front page, unleashing a storm of anger from Manitoba residents, who were downstream from the Souris. The day after the story broke, the Manitoba Legislature held an emergency debate on the issue. The Canadian Wildlife Federation brought a law suit against the decision to grant permits without environmental review. The Federal Court of Canada ruled the permits had been granted illegally.
May received praise from David Suzuki for her work on Quttinirpaaq National Park (known as Ellesmere National Park prior to February 19, 2001), Gwaii Haanas National Park Reserve and Haida Heritage Site (previously the South Moresby National Park Reserve, it was renamed on February 28, 1996), Grasslands National Park and the ozone protocol files. She resigned, in 1988, from her post after learning that the government's plan for Grasslands National Park meant granting permits for the Rafferty-Alameda Project in Saskatchewan without performing environmental assessments in exchange for the parkland and the translation of Saskatchewan's statutes into French.
Sierra Club of Canada Executive Director
In 1989, May became the founding
Executive Director of the
Sierra Club of Canada. May sats on the boards of the International Institute of Sustainable Development and Prevent Cancer Now!. She is also a former vice-chair of the
National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy.
In 2001, May went on a 17-day hunger strike in front of Parliament Hill to demand the relocation of families at risk next to Canada’s largest toxic waste site, the Sydney tar ponds in Cape Breton. She had co-authored a book on the tar ponds with Maude Barlow. As a result, the federal government pledged to relocate people living nearby to a safer location.
After that, May was involved in lobbying Paul Martin, then Minister of Finance, raised the issue that him that gross domestic product was not a viable measure of economic performance, a position Martin clearly advanced in public in Canada through 2003.
When Martin became Prime Minister of Canada in late 2003, he was however circumspect on this point, and his replacement in Finance, Ralph Goodale, was concerned mostly to cut Canada's debt to GDP ratio. May rallied and repeated her conversion feat, and by February 2005 Goodale announced "the greenest budget ever", representing the Green Budget Coalition.
May is a supporter of Help Lesotho and has experience in international lobbying. She said that the Montreal Action Plan (which came out of the 2005 UN Climate Change Conference) was "a set of agreements that may well save the planet". She counts Bill Clinton, who attended the Montreal Conference in 2005 at her request, among her contacts; Clinton became acquainted with May and her parents (then living in Connecticut) while a student at Yale University in the 1970s. In his conference speech Clinton thanked May for inviting him to Montreal. Clinton's presence was instrumental in getting the US to agree to talks on climate change for the first time.
May resigned as the Sierra Club's executive director in April 2006, intending to step down that June. As one of her last major acts in this post she participated in a poll of experts that determined that Brian Mulroney was Canada's "greenest" Prime Minister for an award presented by Corporate Knights magazine, due in part to his influence over the USA on acid rain. For her prominent role in this initiative, May took some criticism from leftist commentators and environmentalists. However, as Mulroney himself noted, she saw him as "the best of a bad bunch", and the timing of the event was calculated to pressure current Prime Minister Stephen Harper to improve his environmental policies in the spring 2006 federal budget. This was May's last public nonpartisan announcement.
Leader of Green Party of Canada
On May 9, 2006, May entered the Green Party of Canada's
leadership race.
She announced her intent to make the party "a force." She cited the "major planetary catastrophe" and "climate crisis" and the "crisis of democracy" as primary issues. "I find myself despairing when I see four men in suits engaging in a debate where nothing important is said… if the voters get to hear a whole bunch of really exciting new ideas, they might like them… instead of trying to do a calculation of who they hate the least."
On August 26, 2006, May won the leadership election on the first ballot. She tallied 65.3% of the votes beating her main rival, David Chernushenko (33.3%) and Jim Fannon (0.88%). She said one of the main platforms for the next election would be to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). She also said that she would insist on the party being represented on the televised debates. At the time of her election as leader, May said she intended to run in the riding of Cape Breton-Canso in the next federal election, although she also said she would stand in a federal byelection if one occurred prior to the next general election.
London North Centre by-election
In the fall of 2006,
London North Centre Member of Parliament Joe Fontana announced he was resigning his seat to run for
Mayor of
London, Ontario. Prime Minister Stephen Harper scheduled a by-election for that seat on November 27, 2006, and May stood as the candidate for the Green Party. She shocked some analysts when she finished second to
Glen Pearson of the
Liberal Party, ahead of the
Conservative and
New Democratic Party (NDP) candidates. At the time, May's showing in this by-election was the best result, percentage-wise, ever achieved by the Green Party of Canada. She received 9,864 votes, about 26% of the total votes cast.
2008 federal election
On March 17, 2007, May announced that she would run in the Nova Scotia riding of
Central Nova, in the next federal election. Central Nova is located on mainland Nova Scotia, rather than
Cape Breton Island where May once lived. However, it is adjacent to the
Cape Breton-Canso riding in which May previously expressed interest, and overlaps with the area covered by the former
Cape Breton Highlands—Canso riding in which she ran in 1980 as founder of the "Small Party", precursor to the Green Party of Canada. The riding was held by Conservative
National Defence Minister Peter MacKay. May has explained that she chose Central Nova to avoid running against a Liberal or NDP incumbent. She acknowledged, however, that this would be a more difficult riding for her to win than others she had considered. The Green Party received less than 2% of the vote in Central Nova in 2006.
On April 12, 2007, Liberal Party leader Stéphane Dion announced that the Liberals would not run a candidate in Central Nova in return for the Greens not running a candidate in Dion's safe Saint-Laurent—Cartierville riding. May had attempted May had attempted to talk to NDP leader Jack Layton about ways to cooperate to avoid Harper’s party forming government. Layton refused to meet and attacked May for agreeing to a “leader’s courtesy” agreement with Dion . When the May-Dion deal was announced, it was criticized by the Conservatives and NDP, with Layton describing it as "backroom dealing", while former NDP leader Ed Broadbent said that it deprived voters of choice.
May was initially excluded from the televised leadership debate in the 2008 federal election, based on the lack of any elected Green party MPs. She argued that the TV network consortium's initial exclusion of the Green Party of Canada was "anti-democratic" and blamed it on "the decision-making of a small group of TV network executives". Prime Minister Harper, NDP leader Jack Layton, and Bloc Québécois leader Gilles Duceppe, all initially opposed her inclusion. Layton initially said that he was following the rules of the broadcast consortium, while NDP spokesman Brad Lavigne confirmed that Layton had refused to attend if May was present, noting that May had endorsed Liberal leader Stéphane Dion for prime minister, and arguing that her inclusion would in effect give the Liberals two representatives at the debate. Rod Love, former chief of staff to Ralph Klein, has suggested that the Greens could potentially cut into the NDP's support. Layton's stance drew criticism from the YWCA, Judy Rebick, and members of his own party. Layton dropped his opposition to May's inclusion on September 10, 2008. Many commentators proclaimed May’s debut in the leaders debates to be a major breakthrough for the party, and were surprised that she proved to be a strong debater on a wide range of issues. In fact, many commentators proclaimed her the winner of the English language debate.
May did not win Central Nova on election day, losing to MacKay by a margin of 5,619 votes. The party failed to elect a candidate and finished the election either $2 million in debt. There was criticism from prominent Green Party members of May's failing to support all Green candidates unequivocally during the 2008 election, as she made favorable comments about Liberal leader Stéphane Dion and said that supporters in close ridings might consider voting strategically to attempt to defeat the Conservatives, but despite this, the Green Party of Canada was the only party to see an increase in its popular vote in the 2008 election. While all of the other parties had fewer voters in 2008 than in 2006, Green support grew to 6.8%. Nearly one million Canadians voted Green. Still, the party failed to elect a single MP. Fair Vote Canada and other public interest groups have pointed out this is due to the perverse results of the first past the post system. While nearly one million votes did not elect one Green Party Member of Parliament, 1.3 million votes elected 49 Bloc Quebecois MPs.
Coalition government support
On December 2, 2008, Liberal leader Stéphane Dion spoke to May about Green Party support for the coalition government of the possible Liberal-NDP coalition government. However the coalition ultimately fell apart. After Prime Minister Stephen Harper prorogued parliament to avoid a non-confidence vote, Liberal leader Dion resigned and was replaced by Michael Ignatieff, and when parliament finally resumed in January, 2009, the Liberal Party decided to support the Conservative government's new proposed budget. While parliament was prorogued, Harper also announced his intention to fill all current and upcoming Senate vacancies.
Speculation of a Cumberland—Colchester—Musquodoboit Valley By-Election Run
May had indicated she would consider running in a by-election in the rural Nova Scotia riding of
Cumberland—Colchester—Musquodoboit Valley, which is adjacent to the Central Nova riding she contested in the 2008 election. The Cumberland-Colchester-Musquodoboit Valley riding became vacant when incumbent independent MP
Bill Casey resigned to accept a job as representative of the Nova Scotia provincial government in Ottawa.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper announce on October 3, 2009 that these
by-election will be held on November 9, 2009. Since May made these comments the
Green Party has selected Jason Blanch as the candidate for this riding, and the by-election was held without her running for its
Member of Parliament. In the 2008 federal election, May endorsed Casey's independent campaign in Cumberland-Colchester-Musquodoboit Valley and the Green Party did not run a candidate.
41st federal election
May will run as the candidate in the riding of
Saanich-Gulf Islands. The nomination meeting took place September 19th, resulting in May winning by a landslide against Stuart Hertzog. She will face Conservative cabinet minister
Gary Lunn, who has held the seat for the past twelve years. May had considered the Ontario riding of
Bruce-Grey-Owen Sound where the Green Party received over 27% of the vote in 2008, and the riding of
Guelph, where the Green Party received 21% of the vote. On August 11, 2010, 85% of the party’s members voted to support Elizabeth May as leader, and 74% percent of Green party members voted to hold a leadership review after the next election, rather than August 2010, which was when May's term as leader was set to end.
Controversial statements
Stance on abortion
The Green Party's policy is described as “pro-life, pro-choice”, confirming support for legal safe abortions, while also finding ways to support women who find themselves facing economic hardship and having a wanted to child. May maintains that comments she made to the sisters of St. Joseph during the London North Centre by-election, though widely disseminated, were also misinterpreted.
Following reports of May's statements, prominent Canadian feminist Judy Rebick announced that she was withdrawing her previous support of May and the Green Party due to May's questioning "the most important victory of the women's movement of my generation".
Responding to Judy Rebick’s open letter, May explicitly reaffirmed that she supported a woman's right to access a safe and legal abortion and that “I never said a woman's right to choose trivialized anything. Not ever.” To clarify the misunderstanding around the Green Party’s recently approved Pro-Choice/Pro-Life position, Elizabeth May further wrote “Some feminist scholars have pointed out that the slogan 'right to choose' focuses on too narrow a context. What are a woman's real rights in society? Where are our economic rights? While a woman must have the right to terminate a pregnancy, what of the larger context? What about the on-going struggle to create a truly equal relationship of sexual equality that might (would) help avoid unwanted pregnancies in the first place? What about the responsibility of both sexual partners to avoid unwanted pregnancy (and while on the topic, to avoid sexually transmitted diseases that would be reduced through use of condoms)? I believe that respectful dialogue is possible even around such an emotionally charged issue as this. Not every opponent of legal abortions is unthinking. Neither is every supporter of legal abortion unwilling to acknowledge the moral complexity of the issue. Some common ground could be found, I believe, when the discussion shifts to a broader context”.
Chamberlain analogy
In April 2007, during a speech Elizabeth May to a
London, Ontario United Church of Canada, Elizabeth quoted British author
George Monbiot stating, in reference to climate policy, that "In the eyes of history, John Howard, George Bush, and Steven Harper will be judged more culpable than
Neville Chamberlain." Her alleged statement drew criticism from the Canadian Jewish Congress and the Conservative Party. While Opposition leader Stéphane Dion refused to respond to Harper's request for him to distance himself from May and these remarks during Question Period, Dion did state to reporters outside Commons that May should withdraw the remarks, and that the Nazi regime is beyond any comparison.
In a Green Party of Canada press release May stated that she was referencing comments made by journalist George Monbiot a few days earlier at the Toronto Green Living Show, saying that he "echoed the views of many people around the world when he expressed his deep distress at Canada's abdication of responsibility in the current climate crisis. As a failure of leadership and moral courage, he compared it to the appeasement efforts of Neville Chamberlain. I made reference to Mr. Monbiot’s statement to highlight the damage being done to Canada’s international reputation, something that should concern all Canadians." Both Prince Charles and Britain’s foreign secretary, Margaret Beckett, are on record recently making similar analogies
.
The reaction to May's comments led to a Macleans.ca story recounting several instances of politicians on record using Chamberlain analogies, including NDP leader Jack Layton, Liberal MP Robert Thibault and Conservative MP Peter MacKay.
Personal life
May lives in
Sidney, British Columbia with her daughter, Victoria Cate May Burton (born 1991).
May is studying theology at Saint Paul University, and describes herself as a practicing Anglican.
She indicates that her devout religious position and path towards becoming an ordained minister with the Anglican Church does not clash with her role in the Green Party of Canada, and sees a clear separation between religion and politics.
Electoral record
|-
|Glen Pearson
|align="right"|13,285
|align="right"|34.86%
|align="right"|-5.28%
|-
|Elizabeth May
|align="right"|9,845
|align="right"|25.84%
|align="right"|+20.38%
|-
|Dianne Haskett
|align="right"|9,327
|align="right"|24.48%
|align="right"|-5.48%
|-
|Megan Walker
|align="right"|5,365
|align="right"|14.08%
|align="right"|-9.62%
|-
|Steven Hunter
|align="right"|146
|align="right"|0.38%
|align="right"|-0.09%
|-
| Robert Ede
|align="right"|78
|align="right"|0.20%
|align="right"|-
|-
|Will Arlow
|align="right"|53
|align="right"|0.14%
|align="right"|-
|- bgcolor="white"
|align="left" colspan=3|Total
|align="right"|38,123
|align="right"|100.00%
|align="right"|
|-
|Allan J. MacEachen ||align=right|18,262||align=right|50.40%||align=right|+2.30%
|-
|Bill Kelly ||align=right|12,799||align=right|35.32%||align=right|-3.44%
|-
|William J. Woodfine ||align=right|4,902||align=right|13.53%||align=right|+0.39%
|-
|Elizabeth May ||align=right|272||align=right|0.75%||align=right|*
Honours and awards
International Conservation Award from Friends of Nature, 1985
Commemorative Medal for the 125th Anniversary of the Confederation of Canada, in recognition of significant contribution to compatriots, community and to Canada, 1992
Elizabeth May Chair in Women’s Health and the Environment,
Dalhousie University, 1998.
Harkin Award from the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society for her lifetime achievement in promoting the protection of Canada’s wilderness, 2002
Best Activist Award, Coast Magazine, Best of Halifax Readers’ Poll, 2002
Honorary Doctorate of Laws,
University of New Brunswick, 2003.
United Nations Global 500 award.
Officer of the
Order of Canada, 2005.
Couchiching Award for Excellence in Public Policy, 2006
Honorary Doctorate of Laws,
Mount Allison University, 2007.
Newsweek Magazine: One of World’s Most Influential women, November 28, 2010
Selected works
Budworm battles : the fight to stop the aerial insecticide spraying of the forests of eastern Canada (with Richard E.L. Rogers). 1982. Four East Publications. ISBN 0-969-0041-5-X
Paradise Won: the struggle for South Moresby. 1990. McClelland & Stewart. ISBN 0-7710-5772-5
Frederick Street: life and death on Canada's Love Canal (with Maude Barlow). 2000. HarperCollins Publishers. ISBN 0-00-200036-9
At the cutting edge: the crisis in Canada's forests. 2005. Key Porter Books. ISBN 1-55263-645-3
How to Save the World in Your Spare Time. 2006. Key Porter Books. ISBN 1-55263-781-6
Global Warming for Dummies (with Zoe Caron). 2008. Wiley & Sons Publishing. ISBN 0470840986
Losing Confidence: Power, Politics And The Crisis In Canadian Democracy. 2009. McClelland & Stewart. ISBN 0771057601
See also
List of Green party leaders in Canada
Canadian federal election, 2008
References
External links
Candidacy website
Party website
Elizabeth May on YouTube
Elizabeth May on Google Video
Category:1954 births
Category:American immigrants to Canada
Category:Canadian Anglicans
Category:Canadian environmentalists
Category:Sierra Club
Category:Female Canadian political party leaders
Category:Canadian people of Welsh descent
Category:Green Party of Canada candidates for the Canadian House of Commons
Category:Green Party of Canada leaders
Category:Dalhousie Law School graduates
Category:Living people
Category:Officers of the Order of Canada
Category:People from Hartford, Connecticut
Category:People from Inverness County, Nova Scotia
Category:Canadian women in federal politics
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![Although Wigan Parish Church was mentioned in the Domesday Book, the current building dates to the 15th century.[16][17]](http://web.archive.org./web/20110524074531im_/http://cdn.wn.com/pd/73/e4/d8d16bf99144669981c0165d5558_grande.jpg "Although Wigan Parish Church was mentioned in the Domesday Book, the current building dates to the 15th century.[16][17]")
![Although Wigan Parish Church was mentioned in the Domesday Book, the current building dates to the 15th century.[16][17]](http://web.archive.org./web/20110524074531im_/http://cdn.wn.com/pd/73/e4/d8d16bf99144669981c0165d5558_thumb.jpg "Although Wigan Parish Church was mentioned in the Domesday Book, the current building dates to the 15th century.[16][17]")
