Wednesday, October 28, 2009

The Protestors Showed More Maturity Than Elizabeth May

Here's what the Green Party's leader Elizabeth May said about the protesters in Parliament yesterday:
At a press conference, Green Party leader Elizabeth May said it was "heartbreaking" that MPs"laughed" as the young people were removed from the gallery.

She said "those were our children we threw out of the House of Commons today....the most responsible young adults in Canada."

May said they were protesting because a climate-change bill was delayed last week in Parliament. "The youth in the galleries showed more leadership than the MPs on the floor."

Really Elizabeth? All the MPs? Even the NDP and the BQ MPs who were trying to pass some important legislation? The ones the protesters where there to support?

May couldn't give credit where credit is due, because the NDP is her party's arch-rival. It was partisanship that prevented her from being honest and from acknowledging the importance of what the NDP was doing. By putting partisan concerns before acknowledging the good that some parliamentarians can do, she herself exhibited gross immaturity.

May seems like a nice person and, also, a person who is sincerely dedicated to her cause and her own moral principles. But as a politician she's given to glib, unfair pronouncements that she imagines will resonate well with her base and her voters. (I found her snarky "Jack Layton would rather negotiate with the Taliban than with me" in response to the NDP's refusal to allow her to run against Peter MacKay alone a particularly glaring example of this.) She doesn't represent a "new" kind of politics and it irritates me to read or hear it said that she does. I don't look forward to her eventual election to the House of Commons.

(h/t to stageleft for the link)

4 comments:

Mike said...

The only MPs May cares about are the Cons and Libs. The ones she's in league with are the Libs. Her worldview doesn't seem to include much concern for the working class, because she is more conservative than Canadians are being led to believe.

thwap said...

The last straw for me will be if she runs as a Liberal.

Sir Francis said...

I don't look forward to her eventual election to the House of Commons.

Oh, I don't think that's an eventuality you really need to worry about, Thwapster. Over the past two years, May's made herself less electable than a leprous mule with Tourette's.

thwap said...

"May's made herself less electable than a leprous mule with Tourette's"

You'd think so. But then again, look at harper.