Raise the Hammer

While her statement might be true, how is she going to be any different? She'd make a great lobbyist, not a good leader. Elizabeth May will complain about anything that she doesn't like ESPECIALLY when she feels that doing so will help her own electoral position.

What I'm trying to say is...Right issue, wrong person raising the issue. She lost my respect after watching the leadership debate.

Frank...what is it about Elizabeth May's performance in the debate that caused you to lose respect and feel she is the wrong person to be discussing confidence in our political system? She was consistent with everything she said here in her actions throughout the campaign.

To me she raised some very good points in the debate, was respectful but assertive in doing so. To her detriment, she positioned herself as part of a 4 on 1 against Harper, and didn't really convince anyone why they should vote Green over the other 3 parties sitting opposite Harper.

Hey Frank, did you bother to watch the interview or did you just see her name a spit out a knee-jerk reaction?

She addressed your concerns with very credible answers, and she has a history of action to back it that far outweighs the hypocrisy of democratic reform from the NDP, Liberals, and Conservatives (old Reform & Alliance who's foundation was built on democratic reform).

I'm not a huge May fan either, although I am curious enough to find some reviews of her book now, but she hit on some key issues in the interview.

For FPtP vs MMP voting, we had a vote in Ontario, which kept the status quo, but upon reading the wording of the question, I immediately wrote a letter to Elections Ontario. The wording of the referendum question was:

Which electoral system should Ontario use to elect members to the provincial legislature? * The existing electoral system (First-Past-the-Post) * The alternative electoral system proposed by the Citizens' Assembly (Mixed Member Proportional)

My issue with it being framing the existing versus the unknown, which is a huge problem when 47% of people surveyed have no idea what you are talking about and only 12% know what you mean. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/archives/...

Elizabeth May states that 84% of Canadians have no interest in affiliating themselves with a party (myself included), but I wonder if that would change under MMP.

Ryan...that's true, the Greens WERE successful in growing votes, which none of the other parties did. However relative to expectations, this outcome couldn't really be considered all that successful.

I do think that to be more successful, Greens need to do two things...

1. Convince voters on both sides to move over their camp, not just those who might vote Liberal or NDP. Considering that their strongest support is in rural Ontario ridings that typically lean Conservative, that means highlighting the parts of their platform that appeal to the "right wing" i.e. fiscal sustainability, farm policy, firearms registry, income splitting, etc. Make it absolutely clear to Canadians that this is not a left-wing party. A difficult thing to do when an uninformed media continually reinforces that assumption.

2. Get people more involved in and participating in politics, especially young people whose future these leaders are deciding on. The fact that more than 40% of us are too apathetic to even cast a ballot once every few years is a national disgrace.

@Koby, yes I watched the interview. I don't recall her raising the fact that what she says is usually spun to make herself look better and put her party in a better position. She's doing exactly what she accuses the others of doing - politicking. Like I said, she'd make a great lobbyist (maybe I should've used the word activist) but not a leader in any way shape or form - activism does not equal leadership.

@arienc, during the debate she never shut up! Sure she raised great points but she would rarely let others finish their comments or responses without interjecting with either a scoff or muttering under her breath. In general, the others acted as adults, she acted like a kid. A leader should be able to recognize that other people bring good things to the table and must be able to listen to them. Her performance was incredibly distracting.

@Frank she explained in the interview that if she was elected prime minister it would be through FPTP and that changing the system to PR would therefore hurt her parties interest by ... mandating that her party gets a number of commons seats that is proportional to their share of the popular vote (sinister I know).

I didn't think May was any worse than Harper or Layton in the debates. Dion was slightly more animated than usual, which was still about a tenth of anyone else. What always kills me is that I always like Duceppe the most after the debates. It's funny that my one major objection to the Bloc's platform is one of their biggest issues (sovereignty) although it hasn't come up in who knows how long.

Speaking of "a proliferation of unmitigated garbage that isn't vetted by anyone for accuracy... the Most salacious gossip and outrageous slander can appear on internet sites" (2:20)

Frank wrote: "I don't recall her raising the fact that what she says is usually spun to make herself look better and put her party in a better position".

You must have missed the part where she describes a political leader's job: "I think your job must be to protect you parties interest, but the country and the planet have to come first"(18:12) Again, a history of her actions prove this true.

IMHO, your comments hold no credibility, and your desire to have her "shut up!" are hypocritical to the topic.

the only guy I enjoy watching in these debates is Duceppe. He clearly isn't trying to persuade anyone to do anything. He knows he's going to lose and just relaxes and let's it fly. Too bad he's a separatist who wants to ruin our country.

I just wish they could all be real people and stop with the party line nonsense and quit being so power hungry and corrupt.

While I did not watch the big federal debate, I did go to public forums around the city for the provincial and federal elections. I find both the liberals and conservatives very much the same, empty words and empty promises.

I was impressed with the platform of the greens as they do recognize issues related to poverty, the environment and the economy.

The liberals and conservatives are losing ground, I think people are tired of the same old crap from them.

There are many other voices in the mix that do not got airtime and to me that is a shame because in a democratic society, all would be given the same opportunity to voice their platforms. We need to get more third party people into government to break that suffocating party hold.

Maybe when there is no more corporate donations fueling things, we will see other voices be given the opportunity to speak to the public.

Nobrainer.... I don't think you're understanding what I'm saying. Elizabeth May has the appearance of a child in a temper tantrum. She's mad cuz she doesn't have seats and will do what it takes to get them. At this point, it's political pandering - and she's good at it. While FPTP system might be beneficial for our country (and I voted yes for it), the only reason she's so loudspoken about it is because it'd give her people in parliament. You can bet that if it was something that would damage her ability to get or retain seats in parliament she'd never raise the issue.

and Koby, because someone disagrees with you it's unmitigated garbage? Your idiocy is surprising. When you wake up in the morning is your first word "baaa" cuz you're definitely a sheep. Step back a bit and forumalate an opinion based on something other than blind support for a leader that skuttles the green party ambitions. Elizabeth May is protecting her own interest at the same time as her party's interest. It's easy to sit in the cheap seats and say "I'd do things differently if I were in power" because you don't have to prove it and judging from the polls being released, won't have to prove it for a while. Layton's exactly the same albeit a bit more sinister in my opinion.

The problem we have is that while in opposition (or in the Green's case not present) our political parties spew stuff that sounds great. Then when they get into power, they don't stand by what they say or believe and blame it on past administrations.

I have never said I don't like some of the green party platform or that they don't have some great ideas... What I've said is that Elizabeth May is NOT the leader the green party needs if they plan on getting a marked improvement in support.

I echo JonC and jason... Giles Duceppe shows himself as a composed individual at debates... To bad he's not a leader of some other party.

In the debate, Layton was his typical bulldog self and Dion got mad but looked like he was going to cry. Harper was kind of hard to read and while they all interrupted each other, most did it in a manner that wasn't ignorant... May did so by muttering under her breath and snickering or scoffing at others comments. She must have missed debate class in high school.

grassroots, I hate to break your bubble, but only individuals are allowed to contribute to federal campaigns. http://www.faa-lfi.gc.ca/faa-lfi/faa-lfi...

Jon C: Thanks for the info, now if only they could get that past into both provincial and municipal elections.

There is hope for reform yet!

Too bad he's a separatist who wants to ruin our apple.

Why would Quebec's separation ruin the orange of non Quebecers?