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Petti Fong

Asked what she would do if she became prime minister of Canada, Green Party leader Elizabeth May  had an answer right away.
She did not focus on climate change, as expected. Nor did she address her critics who say her party's appeal is too limited with an answer about fixing the ailing economy.
Her first task if elected, she says, is to change the electoral system.
It's an electoral system that has kept the Green Party, despite years of angling for credibility in politics, from making any real gains.
That has changed in this election.
Ms May made history this campaign by taking part in the televised debates, one in English and one in French.  Her strong performance gave her a jump in the polls. Pundits applauded her spirited attacks against Prime Minister Stephen Harper  and her grasp of a broad range of issues.
'She challenged the stereotypical view that the Green Party only cares about lakes and mountains and wildlife,' University of Victoria political science professor Dennis Pilon  said. 'She's presenting that Green politics can touch on every aspect from crime to the economy.'
For the past decade, the Green Party has received about 10 per cent of the vote; hence Ms May's assertion that changing the electoral system to one of proportional representation would be one of her first moves. That change would guarantee her seats in the House of Commons.
There's little chance that Ms May and the Green Party will pick up any seats, but polls indicate she may have a chance in her constituency  in Nova Scotia against one of  Mr Harper's most senior cabinet ministers.
Former Liberal supporter Arthur Sproul  of Edmonton says the Liberals lost his vote because the current leader, Stephane Dion, has not shown the ability to be effective.
Ms May, on the other hand, says Mr Sproul, who plans to vote for  the Green Party on October 14,  'has the ability to provide a strong but reasonable voice in the House of Commons'.
Mr Sproul says the Green Party has the best combination of fiscal conservatism but is also progressive in areas such as social programmes and environmental conservation and management.
It's that feeding off from the right and the left that has given the Green Party, in this election, its most cohesive campaign.
Ian Bruce,  a climate change specialist with  the David Suzuki Foundation environmental group, said while his organisation was staying non-partisan, there was good reason why green issues had come to the forefront of the campaign.
'Environment has been put on the ballot in this election. Canadians have woken up to the fact there's been a huge gap in what scientists are telling us about what needs to be done about global warming and what the federal government has actually done,' he said.
Ms May got off to a strong start after arguing  she should be included in the leaders' debate, despite not  having an elected member. One MP joined the Green Party in August after he was kicked out of the Liberal caucus over financial irregularities.
But her attempts to take part in the debate were initially stopped by two of the four political party leaders. Only the Liberals and the Bloc Quebecois, which runs candidates only in Quebec, agreed to let her participate.
That refusal, especially on the part of the left-of-centre New Democratic Party (NDP) leader Jack Layton  backfired with a huge outcry on the internet. Hundreds of NDP supporters urged their leader to back down.  Mr Layton finally agreed, as did the Conservative prime minister.
A major reason why the Conservatives and the NDP tried to keep Ms May out of the debates is because she has an informal coalition with the Liberal Party. In a deal made between the Liberal leader and Ms May, the Liberals chose not to field a candidate in Ms May's constituency.
Ms May has urged that the best option would be to have a minority Liberal government with her party holding the balance of votes. That loose alliance has backfired in some constituencies for the Liberals with the Green Party taking away some of their traditional supporters such as Mr Sproul.
Most of all, Ms May hopes that by appealing to the bottom green line, her party will get in the House of Commons  by bleeding off support from the established parties.
'Green Party support is coming from the left, the right and the centre, and inspiring people to vote who have given up all together,' she said.
Her calls for deeper tax cuts attract fiscal conservatives, while at the other end her push for reduction in foreign ownership is appealing to voters on the left.
Ms May is unlikely to get into power next Tuesday, and even winning one of the 308 seats up for grabs will be considered a victory. But she has positioned the Green Party as a force that even though voters may not take it seriously enough to elect, has become a thorn in the side of the other  parties.



Greens gain  credibility in  run up to  Canadian poll