The Ottawa Press Gallery felt that Elizabeth May let them down at their annual dinner. They usually just throw stale dinner rolls at the poor performers. They tend to get too many who try but do not measure up. They think the politicians are going to entertain them by being funny.
Elizabeth was sick with a flu. She was exhausted and so would you be if you tried to match her schedule. She is trying so hard to hold things together as the only sitting member for her party in Ottawa. And she could not think of a Goddamn thing funny about her situation or the dreadful Harper government.
Many of us have stood at a microphone before in the wrong place at the wrong time and wished the floor would open up and help us to disappear. It took a compassionate cabinet minister to drag Elizabeth from the podium. All Elizabeth could do was to apologize.
But the time for apologies is now over. Stephen Harper never even goes to that sophomoric media event. He despises the news media anyway. He never has had a sense of humour. Go throw buns at him, you bums. Leave Elizabeth alone.
The other day at the end of another subject, we suggested that Elizabeth May bring her environmental program to the Liberal Party. There is little doubt that the Liberals should unanimously adopt the Green Party’s environmental agenda. It could not be done overnight but Elizabeth would not expect that even if she was Prime Minister.
But she should be the Minister of the Crown who sees to that environmental plan for a Liberal government. She and her party are not going to get proportional representation in Canada to get her party into any position of influence. Yet all she has to do is bring herself and her party into the Liberal fold and the Greens can have plenty of influence.
What the Green Party has to realize is that there are more Liberals ready and willing to support their environmental objectives than there are Green Party members. There is no competition there. There is no objection to many Green Party objectives because they are already Liberal Party objectives.
We all know that Justin Trudeau is conflicted on the Alberta tar sands exploitation. We need Elizabeth May to join the Liberals and explain things to young Trudeau. He has to understand that if Alberta cannot convert that bitumen to synthetic oil without destroying the environment of Alberta and neighbouring provinces, it should not be shipped anywhere. With a Liberal government in Ottawa and an NDP government in Alberta, we can take some major steps to saving this poor old planet.
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Copyright 2015 © Peter Lowry
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