Elizabeth May might not get my vote, but she's got my respect
If you’re open-minded and heard her speak for more than 30 seconds last week, it’s probably pretty hard for you not to like Elizabeth May, the leader of the Green Party.
She’s sharp, she’s tough and she’s not afraid to speak her mind. It might not mean you want to vote for her, but like a lot of Canadians, you’ll probably think about it and that ain’t such a bad place for her to be just over a week into this federal election campaign. Could be a helluva lot worse, like where May found herself early last week, on the outside looking in when a bunch of backroom-dealing television-empire billionaires decided to block her from having a spot in the upcoming televised election debate. A lot of Canadians clued in pretty quick to how much power the half-dozen rich old men who rule our country’s airwaves have in electing our prime minister – way too much – and made a big stink about it.
And rightly so.
A few days later, the bigwigs flip-flopped on their unfair order and May was allowed in, to the cheers of common Canadians from coast to coast to coast. To hear the leader’s of the Conservatives, the NDP and the Bloc – all rich men in suits - tell another bunch of rich men in suits that if they let the only woman leader of a federal party have a say in the debates, they’d take their ball and go home, was to say the least, humorous.
To put it another way, I nearly split me guts laughin’.
Come on now. They could hold that debate in the middle of a firefight in downtown Baghdad and each and every one of those fellas would be there with bells on.
Like one of the political pundits said last week, media coverage is like oxygen to these guys. Don’t participate in the nationally televised debate and you’re dead. That’s what they wanted to happen to May, but all they did by trying to block her and then flip-flopping was hurt themselves. Just desserts too, cause nobody likes bullies.
May seems to be crawling her way up the polls ever since. One poll had her Green Party at 7 per cent yesterday and at 9 per cent today. She may be a contender yet.
“The pen is mightier than the sword, but the pencil is mightier still when you pick it up in your ballot box, you mark your X and you say `I vote for my future. I reclaim democracy. I take back my country, and I do this for future generations,’" May said in Guelph, Ontario last week.
She may not be getting my vote, but she’s definitely got my respect and that’s more than I can say for most of the guys running this time around.
She’s sharp, she’s tough and she’s not afraid to speak her mind. It might not mean you want to vote for her, but like a lot of Canadians, you’ll probably think about it and that ain’t such a bad place for her to be just over a week into this federal election campaign. Could be a helluva lot worse, like where May found herself early last week, on the outside looking in when a bunch of backroom-dealing television-empire billionaires decided to block her from having a spot in the upcoming televised election debate. A lot of Canadians clued in pretty quick to how much power the half-dozen rich old men who rule our country’s airwaves have in electing our prime minister – way too much – and made a big stink about it.
And rightly so.
A few days later, the bigwigs flip-flopped on their unfair order and May was allowed in, to the cheers of common Canadians from coast to coast to coast. To hear the leader’s of the Conservatives, the NDP and the Bloc – all rich men in suits - tell another bunch of rich men in suits that if they let the only woman leader of a federal party have a say in the debates, they’d take their ball and go home, was to say the least, humorous.
To put it another way, I nearly split me guts laughin’.
Come on now. They could hold that debate in the middle of a firefight in downtown Baghdad and each and every one of those fellas would be there with bells on.
Like one of the political pundits said last week, media coverage is like oxygen to these guys. Don’t participate in the nationally televised debate and you’re dead. That’s what they wanted to happen to May, but all they did by trying to block her and then flip-flopping was hurt themselves. Just desserts too, cause nobody likes bullies.
May seems to be crawling her way up the polls ever since. One poll had her Green Party at 7 per cent yesterday and at 9 per cent today. She may be a contender yet.
“The pen is mightier than the sword, but the pencil is mightier still when you pick it up in your ballot box, you mark your X and you say `I vote for my future. I reclaim democracy. I take back my country, and I do this for future generations,’" May said in Guelph, Ontario last week.
She may not be getting my vote, but she’s definitely got my respect and that’s more than I can say for most of the guys running this time around.
posted by Street Wise Guy | 7:56 PM
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