Elizabeth May wants Greens to go back to basics
Posted May 8, 2011 8:12 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
BURNABY (NEWS1130) – Elizabeth May says she wants her Green party to stay true to their grassroots ideology. That was her message at the Green party AGM today in Burnaby.
One week after her historic win as Canada’s first-ever Green MP, May says she’s feeling exhausted. She tells us she’s planning on making changes in the House, saying what she calls the mud-slinging and disrespectful behaviour is causing Canadians to tune out politics altogether.
“[It’s the place where the decisions about our lives get made, and which ideally should be an extension of our own hand — our own will, caring, and values,” she says. “Instead, it’s as if it’s something else that we can choose to be interested in or not.
May also says she’s worried by the restricted ability of MPs and its “eroding democracy in Canada.”
She says BC is the strongest Green province, and May wants all of her candidates to back to the basics of a grassroots movement when it comes to getting voters onboard.
“We have to break down the notion that we’re Greens municipally, Greens provincially, and a different group of Greens federally,” she explains. “I think we all pretty much recognize that we’re a Green movement globally.”
She’s advising party members to go to little house parties to meet people, or even stand with a sign and wave at people driving by as a way to connect with voters who might otherwise be afraid of politics.
