It's about our home...
...and our future.
It's about building bridges instead of walls
It's about finding solutions that will stand the test of time
It's about engaging the citizens of Canada to build a better world
It's about inter-generational equity and offering hope to younger generations that their future will be bright
It's about taking responsibility and participating in our democratic processes
It's about people and all the life that shares this precious planet with us
It's about closing the income gap and providing real opportunity for all
We are committed to building a new economy that values the contributions of the individual within a community, that protects the bounty of our ecosystem, that respects the boundaries of a finite world, and that provides opportunities for all life on earth to thrive.
In this we follow in Elizabeth's footsteps.
Elizabeth May, O.C., is our M.P. and Leader of the Green Party of Canada. She received the honour of being made an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2005 for her achievements on protecting the environment. Elizabeth has represented the constituency of Saanich Gulf-Islands since her election to parliament in 2011. She is widely recognized for her work on behalf of our riding and all Canadians.
The Saanich Gulf Islands Green Party is made up of volunteers who believe in a new democracy that values the citizens of this earth and the ecosystem on which they depend. We engage communities of volunteers to influence change in Ottawa. You can support our efforts by joining our volunteer team or helping to fund our activities.
For more details on the Green Party of Canada platform, see Vision Green.
Elizabeth May - Brief Biography
Elizabeth May is the Leader of the Green Party of Canada and its first elected Member of Parliament, representing Saanich-Gulf Islands in southern Vancouver Island since 2011. Elizabeth is an environmentalist, writer, activist and lawyer, who has a long record as a dedicated advocate — for social justice, for the environment, for human rights, and for pragmatic economic solutions.
Born in Connecticut then moving to Nova Scotia with her family in 1973, Elizabeth grew up working in her family’s small business, a restaurant and gift shop on the Cabot Trail. She first became known in the Canadian media in the mid-1970s, through her leadership as a volunteer in the grassroots movement against proposed aerial insecticide spraying on forests near her home on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. Her efforts helped prevent aerial insecticide spraying from ever occurring in Nova Scotia.
Years later, she and a local group of residents went to court to prevent herbicide spraying. They won a temporary injunction in 1982 to hold off the spray program, but after two years, the case was eventually lost. In the course of the litigation, her family sacrificed their home and seventy acres of land in an adverse court ruling to Scott Paper. However, by the time the judge ruled the chemicals were safe, the export of dangerous 2,4,5-T herbicides from the U.S had been banned. The forests of Nova Scotia were spared being the last areas in Canada to be sprayed with Agent Orange.
Her early volunteer work also included successful campaigns to prevent approval of uranium mining in Nova Scotia, and extensive work on energy policy issues, primarily opposing nuclear energy.
In 1986, May became Senior Policy Advisor to then federal Environment Minister, Tom McMillan of the Progressive Conservatives. She was instrumental in the creation of several national parks, including South Moresby. She was involved in negotiating the Montreal Protocol to protect the ozone layer, new legislation and pollution control measures. In 1988, she resigned on principle when the Minister granted permits for the Rafferty-Alameda Dams in Saskatchewan because of no environmental assessment. The permits were later quashed by a Federal Court decision that the permits were granted illegally.
Elizabeth has held the position of Associate General Counsel for the Public Interest Advocacy Centre, representing consumer, poverty and environment groups from 1985–86. She has worked extensively with indigenous peoples internationally, particularly in the Amazon, as well as with Canadian First Nations. She was the first volunteer Executive Director of Cultural Survival Canada from 1989–1992 and worked for the Algonquin of Barriere Lake from 1991–1992.
She has taught courses at Queen's University School of Policy Studies, as well as teaching for a year at Dalhousie University to develop the programme established in her name in Women's Health and Environment. She holds three honorary doctorates from Mount Saint Vincent University, Mount Allison, and the University of New Brunswick.
May is the author of eight books:
- Budworm Battles (1982)
- Paradise Won: The Struggle to Save South Moresby (1990)
- Frederick Street; Life and Death on Canada’s Love Canal (co-authored with Maude Barlow, Harper Collins, 2000)
- At the Cutting Edge: The Crisis in Canada’s Forests (Key Porter Books, 1998, as well as a major new edition in 2004)
- How to Save the World in Your Spare Time (Key Porter Books, 2006)
- Global Warming for Dummies (co-authored with Zoe Caron, John Wiley and Sons, 2008)
- Losing Confidence: Power, Politics and the Crisis in Canadian Democracy, (MacLelland and Stewart, 2009)
- Who We Are: Reflections on My Life and Canada (Greystone, 2014)
Frederick Street focused on the Sydney Tar Ponds, and the health threats to children in the community – the issue that led her to go on a seventeen-day hunger strike in May 2001 in front of Parliament Hill.
In June 2006, May stepped down as Executive Director of the Sierra Club of Canada, a post she had held since 1989, to run for the leadership of the Green Party of Canada. Upon leaving the Sierra Club, Board President Louise Comeau noted, "Elizabeth has led the Club at the national level from its infancy to the enormously effective entity it is today, she was also instrumental in supporting development of the Sierra Youth Coalition, the Atlantic Canada Chapter and other Sierra Club chapters and local grassroots groups." She was successful in her bid for Green Party leadership, and was elected the party's ninth leader at their national convention in August 2006.
In 2005, she was named an Officer of the Order of Canada, and in November 2010, Newsweek magazine named her "one of the world's most influential women." In the 2011 Election, May made history by being the first Green Party candidate to be elected to the House of Commons. She now represents the riding of Saanich-Gulf Islands.