Elizabeth May Blog: Why Central Nova
It is the question of the moment. Everywhere I go, on web sites and blogs, I stand accused of doing something: (pick one)
- stupid
- egomaniacal
- deluded
- courageous, but still stupid, or
- selfish.
This is all because I decided to run in Central Nova. True, this criticism is most severe the farther one is from Nova Scotia and the least aware one is of life in Central Nova.
May 31st, 2007 at 11:32 am
I was surfing the greenparty.ca site and I came across this blog posting for Elizabeth. I would have put it up sooner if I hadn’t been taking a break from all things Green in April.
I think her choice of ridings is being done for the right reasons. My uncle, who lives in Antgonish, complimented my on our choice of leader: “It’s about time you gots a Maritimer with sense in there!”
The real challenge I think is how to relate our national message with the local message. To talk about a national childcare plan with local examples drawn from Central Nova (human interest, profound visuals) would reinforce both. To quote William Blake’s poem Auguries of Innocence:
… to see the universe in a grain of sand, and eternity in an hour.
Full poem link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auguries_of_Innocence
To see Canada in the day to day lives of the people of Central Nova parallels this quite nicely. By taking large issues and illustrating them in the lives of Canadians can be quite profound.
May 31st, 2007 at 11:37 am
The actual William Blake quote is:
To see a world in a grain of sand,
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
And eternity in an hour.
June 1st, 2007 at 3:40 pm
On hearing of Elizabeth’s decision, I wrote the following email to her:
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Way to go Elizabeth!!
When I read of the ridings you were considering, my hope was that you would choose this one.
There are all kinds of advantages:
* You wanted to run in Nova Scotia and this choice remains consistent with that.
* Central Nova borders on your original choice of Cape Breton-Canso, and it can be argued that you’d prefer not to run against a Liberal.
* Central Nova is a high profile riding, because it’s held by a Cabinet Minister.
* That Minister is Peter MacKay, who tends to trip over his own tongue, is a poor debater, and seems to perform even worse when he is confronted by a woman.
* The GPC can demonstrate it’s more than a one-issue party in virtue of challenging a Foreign Affairs minister.
On that last point, going against Baird would have been more of the same.
————–
In other words, I count it a brave and smart move.