Greens need Elizabeth May to leave

Large swathes of British Columbia submerged in days of rainstorms. It caused mayhem and horror for people and animals who lived where the water accumulated. The Fraser Valley will physically recover in weeks. It will take years for those displaced to recover from the memory of their homes sunk in a lake of stagnant rainwater. What happened was not ignored. People witnessed it across Canada. Rhetoric and calls to action on climate change, which contributed to the floods, have been rightfully rampant. The prime minister visited the Fraser Valley to meet with the residents. He was not the only politician to publicly make note of the disaster. Elizabeth May spoke in Parliament about what she labelled the “catastrophic climate events in B.C." Few noticed. The Green Party of Canada’s Twitter went mostly dark in November. Why are the Greens so quiet when calls for climate action are more prevalent and more popular than ever? Elizabeth May’s Twitter is as active as ever by comparison. It posts daily and has thousands more followers than the Greens’ official account. The most May’s account accomplishes is to make it obvious she is still the biggest thing the party has going for it. That is not a good thing. Green parties are gaining power in the Western world in countries like Germany and the Netherlands. Not so in Canada, at least at the federal level. May’s statement in Parliament was nearly as obscure and inconspicuous as the party she once led. She may still be the true leader of the party, depending on who you ask. The Greens were once a serious, or nearly serious, political entity. The party punched above its weight in media attention considering it has never held more than three seats in Parliament. May was, and still is, a compelling figure. Her charisma and record on climate activism balanced her party’s hilarious penchant for promoting homeopathy, presenting a petition on 9/11 conspiracy theories in the House in 2014, and peddling fears of WiFi-generated carcinogens in 2011. Geoff Russ is a journalist and commentator focusing on political and cultural affairs in Canada. Photograph: handout May did not lead the party into the 2021 federal election. That thankless job went to Annamie Paul who only received thanks from the Greens when she resigned soon after failing in her thrice attempt to win a seat in Toronto. Annamie Paul was supposed to be the baggage-free leader who bridged the respectability gap of the Greens. Paul never even got to sit in parliament and the Greens’ influence has flatlined. Something changed when May resigned as head of the Greens prior to the 2021 election. It stopped being Elizabeth May’s Green Party and became the simple Green Party of Canada. It has become the party that people forget actually has seats in Parliament. The party’s Twitter account resembles less a national organization and more of a two-bit municipal party whose constituents are mostly goats and fields of wheat, along with a few people. Within six months, British Columbia has burned and flooded with catastrophic results. It should have been time for the party dedicated to climate action to leap forward. It didn’t. It has been falling backwards while the Liberals and NDP swallow up the lead on federal climate action. The curse and lifeline of the Greens is proving to be May herself. The party didn’t win the seats to become a consequential parliamentary caucus with her as leader. Paradoxically, the party might not have any seats at all without May’s iron grip on her riding of Saanich-Gulf Islands. The power of personality trumps all in politics and that can go either way. The Greens cannot move forward with May remaining in Parliament. There’s a reason why Stephen Harper and Thomas Mulcair stepped down as party leaders and left Ottawa after their time was up. May is refusing to follow their example and must publicly deny she pulls the strings behind the scenes. Some people out there probably believe that and others probably believe the party has a bright future. Perhaps the Green Party can take morbid solace in the fact that climate emergencies will only proliferate going forward and its policies will overshadow the looming presence of its former official leader. Maybe someday it will be the party in the right place at the right time to become a force. That day will not come so long as Elizabeth May remains in Parliament. Geoff Russ is a journalist and commentator focusing on political and cultural affairs in Canada. He is a graduate of the University of Victoria and a member of the Haida Nation. The Hill Times