‘So Much Emotion’: Elizabeth May Stumps for a Repeat

In Saanich-Gulf Islands, the current election campaign feels much the same as past ones to Green Party co-leader Elizabeth May.

While the Liberal and NDP candidates argue there has been a seismic shift in Canadian politics and they have a good chance of winning this time, it doesn’t seem that way to May, who has represented the riding since 2011.

“It’s a two-way race,” she said. “It’s between the Conservative [Cathie Ounsted] and me.”

At the same time, May acknowledged, what’s on people’s minds is different this time. “I’ve never experienced so much emotion at the doorstep,” she said. “People are feeling so anxious. The craziness of [U.S. President] Donald Trump, and then the fear factor — which is dissipating as the polls change — of [Conservative Party of Canada Leader] Pierre Poilievre becoming prime minister.”

With the April 28 election day about two weeks away, national polls have the Liberals with a lead over the Conservatives, a major comeback from the deep hole the governing party was in before Mark Carney won the leadership and replaced Justin Trudeau as prime minister.

The Green Party, co-led by May and Jonathan Pedneault, is polling nationally in the low single digits, but Saanich-Gulf Islands is one of a few ridings where the party is competitive. There are at least as many green signs on the streets and along the Pat Bay Highway as there are blue, red or orange, and May’s team has been sharing local polls that show she and the Conservative are in a close race with the Liberal and NDP candidates trailing.

Along with Kitchener Centre in Ontario, it’s one of just two constituencies where the Green candidate is the incumbent.

Voters have a clear choice, May said. “In Saanich-Gulf Islands, people who are afraid either of Donald Trump or Pierre Poilievre, just take a deep breath and choose the candidate that you think will do the best job in ensuring that we get through whatever uncertainties economically lie ahead of us.”

‘No change in my energy’

Even after May had a hemorrhagic stroke in 2023, an episode she recovered fully from, she is committed to being the hardest-working member of Parliament.

“No physical limitations, no change in my energy levels, I haven’t lost any part of my memory,” May said. Surviving something like that, she said, “The message is your work here is not done and I really feel that strongly.”

Saanich-Gulf Islands stretches from the Gulf Islands in the north to the University of Victoria campus in the south. It includes the retiree-dominated town of Sidney, along with the suburbs of Gordon Head and Cordova Bay.

Before May won in 2011, the riding had been held for nearly three decades by the Conservatives and the related Alliance and Reform parties.

The Conservative candidate this time is Cathie Ounsted, a business person who has been the chair of the Victoria Airport Authority board of directors, a Central Saanich municipal councillor and a member of the Central Saanich Police Board. Her interests include “travelling across Canada to cheer on her boys playing football for Western University.”

As she puts it in a video on her election website, “I am a face that lives here and I am your neighbour.”

Ounsted was unavailable for an interview.

With many Conservatives skipping all candidates events, it remains to be seen if she will appear at events in the riding. She does have four town halls scheduled, as well as a “pints and politics” event at a café in Sidney.

But she and other Conservatives were absent from an event at the University of Victoria that she’d been invited to. So was May, who as co-leader of the Greens was campaigning in Eastern Canada that day.

The other two candidates, Liberal David Beckham and the NDP’s Colin Plant, were at the April 9 UVic event, spending time in the student union building chatting with students and others interested in their views.

Perspectives of the Liberal and NDP candidates

Beckham has owned and managed a farm for more than 40 years and has had a career in environmental remediation and renewable energy. One of his strongest pitches to voters in the riding is the role he could play in a Liberal government.

“I want to take this riding to the governing side of the House,” Beckham told The Tyee. “I just would love to bring that level of horsepower and that level of impact on the community as a consequence of being part of what I think is going to be a tremendously competent, capable and measured administration.”

He’s been a fan of Carney since he was the governor of the Bank of Canada, he said, and felt Carney’s book Values: Building a Better World for All was a revelation. “From the very beginning I was impressed by his thoughtfulness, with his sort of calm demeanour, with his very pragmatic approach.”

Issues that matter to Beckham include improving the civil discourse by engaging with people with differing views, he said. “One starts by listening, which I think is the most important thing. There’s way too much talking and not nearly enough listening.”

There’s also the need for more housing, especially for people who are in the workforce, he said, and for progress on reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples and protecting the environment. He’d like to use the power of the government to better regulate the moorage of ships in the Salish Sea, where they often wait for long periods on their way into port.

The moment also calls for engaging meaningfully with the United States and working to improve interprovincial trade within Canada, he said. “The Americans are in, I’m not going to say they’re in free fall, but I’m going to say they’re in a very unstable place right now. Economically, politically, socially, culturally.”

As the United States shifts, Canada needs to manage its way through and find ways to insulate itself and even benefit, he said.

Beckham said he would like to be part of a new Liberal government and bring the community’s voice into it. “At the end of the day this is a binary choice. One of two parties is going to win this riding. It’s going to be the Liberals or it’s going to be the Conservatives.”

The NDP candidate, Colin Plant, says the race is not nearly that narrow. “It is a riding that I do think is a four-way race,” he said, adding that while many voters do lean Green, the NDP shares many of the same values. “What I’m hearing at the door is they are open to change and there is still a settling as to where people will vote.”

Plant has been a Saanich councillor for 10 years, chair of the Capital Regional District board of directors for the last six and a teacher in the local school district for 25. “I have had the trust of my colleagues and community for the last 10 years, and as a teacher I have been very fortunate to teach thousands of people and meet thousands of families.”

A longtime Boy Scout, he is running out of a deep sense of service, he said. “I truly believe that Canada is a wonderful country and I want it to be that way when I have grandchildren and they have grandchildren,” he said. “I want to do this to make a difference and I really believe that of all the parties, the NDP party has the values of Canadians.”

The central issues locally are the same that are dominating the national debate, Plant said, citing affordability, housing and health care and adding that moving forward on reconciliation also needs to be key.

People are concerned about threats to the country’s sovereignty, but also about the direction the country is going in as the Conservatives and Liberals take turns governing, he said. “I really believe that the change that we need as a country, to have more optimism in where we’re going, will come from a different party, and that party’s the NDP.”

If the election results in another minority government, the best outcome would be to have the NDP there holding the governing party accountable, he said. “This area has NDP values and is not afraid to vote for the NDP [provincially], but I recognize that in this riding federally, we haven’t had excellent results. I’m hoping to change that.”

He cautioned that Liberals have a long history of campaigning from the left, then governing from the right. “My message is, when you elect NDP MPs you get results and we stand up and we practise what we campaign on.”

After 14 years with a Green MP, many voters are open to a change, he said, adding that the party has only ever elected four MPs, one of whom crossed the floor to the Liberals shortly after winning a seat. “I think it’s time for the Greens to acknowledge they haven’t grown in 40 years.”

Voting system hurts Greens, says May

In response, May points to the number of Greens elected to provincial legislatures and municipal councils and argues that the voting system remains a substantial obstacle. “In a first-past-the-post system, the Green Party of Canada has been the most successful Green party anywhere in the world.”

In a proportional system, which the party has long advocated for, Canadians everywhere would feel freer to vote with their hearts, she said. Meanwhile they can do that in Saanich-Gulf Islands, Nanaimo-Ladysmith and a few other ridings across the country. “They can vote for what they want and actually elect it, elect Greens.”

In the current election, success would be to return with more than the two MPs the party has now, she said.

In Canada, local voters elect members of Parliament as their representatives, rather than directly voting for a prime minister, May said, adding that she has a record as a very effective representative and that she wants to keep doing the work.

“There are many things I want to accomplish before I decide I’m going to retire, and I want to keep working,” she said.

Her priorities include fixing the health-care system; working to resolve Indigenous issues in the riding, including the failure to observe the treaties signed in the 1850s when James Douglas was governor of Vancouver Island; better protecting the Salish Sea; and limiting the parking of freighters in the area.

If the election results in one of the other parties needing support from Greens to form government, May said she would proceed one vote at a time and make support conditional on introducing proportional representation and taking real climate action.

While she would keep options open, she did rule out supporting the Conservatives. “Clearly we don’t regard Pierre Poilievre as fit to be prime minister,” she said.

For people in Saanich-Gulf Islands who want to keep the Conservatives out, Green remains a good choice, she said. “Every vote that goes to a Liberal or an NDPer in Saanich-Gulf Islands is only an assist to the Conservatives.”

So is she advocating strategic voting? Not at all, she said. Wherever they are, people should vote for what they want, but “in Saanich-Gulf Islands, that’s just the truth.”