Green Party Leader @ElizabethMay attracted thousands of additional followers on Twitter Thursday night and brought hundreds to their feet at the First Metropolitan United Church in Victoria as she injected herself into a federal leaders debate to which she was not invited.
Excluded from the Globe and Mail’s debate on the economy — which earned the Toronto-based newspaper the hashtag #GlibandMale — May took to the twitterverse to relay her message.
> See May's tweets here: Elizabeth May answers debate questions in video tweets
The 625-capacity church was packed as Green supporters and others cheered. At the end of the night, they gave a standing ovation to support May, who is running for re-election in Saanich-Gulf Islands.
Her Twitter follower list jumped by 3,900 to more than 184,000.
In a war room of sorts in the back of the church, May watched a television broadcast from Calgary as Conservative Leader Stephen Harper, Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau and NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair debated.
May listened — rolling her eyes, shaking her head, and saying things like “that’s bogus” and wanting to say “with all due respect, Mr. Harper, that’s wrong” — before she’d burst.
“I want another one, Steve,” she’d call to Steve Ladurantaye, head of news and government partnerships for Twitter Canada.
With that, Ladurantaye would record May’s comments with a smartphone, set atop a tripod, and then quickly upload her under-30-second responses. She made about 25 of the recordings during the 90-minute debate.
Throughout, May was helped and coached by her most trusted adviser, daughter Cate May-Burton, 24.
May said the experience reminded her of Being John Malkovich, a 1999 film that follows a puppeteer who finds a portal that leads into Malkovich's mind.
May’s smartphone-recorded messages, which intermittently popped up on one of two screens at the front of the church (the Calgary debate played on the other screen), highlighted her exclusion from the event and how she was forced to insert herself into voters’ consciousness.
In Calgary, moderator Jane Taber called the leaders’ debating style “passionate.”
May said it was “scripted and phoney.” She said it was unhelpful when the leaders spoke over top of each other.
May said she would have preferred to have participated on the same stage as the other leaders. “I don’t think Canadians won with this format.”
May said her aim was to respond, interject and correct whatever came up and to “enhance the context of the information being shared.”
Audience member Marnie May, no relation, said: “I think it’s criminal that she didn’t get a chance to debate on the same platform as the rest of them. . . . It’s so undemocratic.”
Marilyn Antill said she welcomed May’s comments.
“Elizabeth May made her points succinctly and effectively in a fraction of the time of the other politicians. They were just repeating themselves.”
The federal election is on Oct. 19.
