One thing that bothered me about the last federal election is the way, on the national stage, many people were at pains to ensure Green Party leader Elizabeth May was given equal opportunity with the Liberal, PC and NDP.
The media, and the Green Party itself, should show respect for the fact Canadian voters choose not to vote Green. In the 41st federal election in 2011, the Green Party dropped to an 11 year national low of 3.9 per cent of the popular vote; May herself was the only Green candidate elected in the entire country, one seat out of 308 which equals 0.3 per cent of the Commons. The voters gave Greens one seat (May’s); even the Bloc Quebecois, a regional party, beat them. These are the results many wrongly felt owed Greens a place on the national stage.
As if popular vote isn’t enough to show that Canadians, in general, are not interested in the Green Party and the party doesn’t deserve, nor did they earn, special treatment, a bit closer examination of their leader, May, probably will.
Not surprisingly, May, a leftist, isn’t just a card-carrying Green, she was executive director of the Sierra Club of Canada for 17 years. The Sierra Club, a special interest environmental lobby group, is defined by the website www.activistfacts.com, as “Once dedicated to conserving wilderness for future human enjoyment, the Sierra Club has become an anti-growth, anti-technology, anti-energy group that puts its utopian environmentalist vision before the well-being of humans.”
Does May still buy into the Sierra Club 1960’s hippy Canadian-intellectual anti-American philosophy? Let’s look at something she did about one year ago in the House of Commons that CTV called “bizarre.”
On Dec. 3, 2014 May, in a supreme slap in the face to rational thinkers, stood up in the House of Commons and presented a 9-11 denier petition which according to her came from Canadians in four provinces. The petition inferred the entire 9-11 tragedy was staged by the American government in order to justify foreign wars, in essence. The 9-11 kooks and nuts ponder, for example, why the Twin Towers fell straight down. It’s not clear where exactly the towers were supposed to fall, if not down.
9-11 conspiracy theories have been thoroughly debunked by a number of critical thinkers, scientists and skeptics. One claim, for example, that 9-11 must have been state-sponsored terrorism is that no jetliner parts were recovered. In reality, lots of parts were recovered. Also, jetliners are made out of aluminum. Aluminum is flammable. Yes, that’s correct. Aluminum burns, especially when it crashes into a building at 400 miles per hour and then doused in explosive jet fuel. Most of the jetliner’s components were reduced to ash.
Regardless, May wrapped herself in the flag and said she had no choice but to present the petition as a Member of Parliament. May told CTV, “It is an obligation of an MP to present every petition submitted to them.”
Of course no such obligation exists. The House of Commons procedure and practice rules note that, essentially, MPs choose which petitions they bring forward, if any.
May insulted the integrity of the House of Commons with the stunt, and damaged not only her own reputation among rational thinkers, but the reputation of the Green Party as well.
Despite the waste of taxpayer dollars through a waste of Parliament’s time, perhaps May, her party and her petitioners have entertainment value to offer. The next petition could demand national laws to protect the Ogopogo, a prohibition on Bigfoot lurching around without pants on or a statutory holiday every month to go UFO sighting.
Stu Salkeld is the new editor of The Leduc/Wetaskiwin Pipestone Flyer and writes a regular column for the paper.