ANDREA LAWSON
NEWS REPORTER
At a party platform launch for the Green Party in Toronto on April 7, discussions ranged from the Conservative government and the war in Afghanistan to the plight of the honeybee.
The Greens are not your typical political party.
As I approach the London Club on Richmond Street West, I see a woman who looks exactly like Green Party leader Elizabeth May.
She is talking to people at the door – no security or entourage of PR people, just her.
“Welcome,” May says to me and walks inside. She disappears in the crowd.
Were it not for the people decked out in green and carrying party signs, I wouldn’t know it was a political event.
There are people crowded at the bar ordering drinks and music is blasting on the speakers.
It’s a lot like Saturday night at a club in downtown Toronto.
Someone on a megaphone yells into the crowd, “Elizabeth freaking May, where are you?” My thoughts exactly.
As people set up the stage and put up banners, May, wearing a green purse and a black pantsuit, is talking to supporters.
She greets some with hugs, makes jokes and poses for pictures.
I talk to Chris Lea, Green Party leader from 1990 to 1996, after he asks to borrow a pencil.
Later, while on stage, he decries May’s exclusion from the televised debates.
“I thought we were done with this nonsense,” he says.
The crowd roars as May takes the stage. Her speech pokes fun at Conservative leader Stephen Harper with the entourage of people “who aren’t allowed to talk to him.” She talks about poverty, Afghanistan and the state of democracy in Canada.
“Coalition is not a dirty word,” she says.
She, too, is upset over the media’s presentation of the party.
“Not only were we not invited to the leaders’ debates, in a lot of the national media, we seem to have been not invited to the election.”
Her speech is often interrupted, as the crowd bursts into chants of “shame,” “change” and “cowards.” She finishes her 20 minute speech and walks off the stage as the crowd chants, “let her speak!” for over a minute.
As I catch the Spadina streetcar at Queen, a woman with a Green Party sign gets on. She looks familiar. “Were you at the Green party event?” I ask. She was.
She is Ellen Michelson, the Green candidate for the Toronto Centre riding. We take the subway together and talk about bees and the environment.
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