Former federal Green Party leader Elizabeth May implored citizens to hold on to hope and not give into despair when it comes to facing the climate crisis and the pandemic.
As Green Party members, “we should have and must have hope,” May told the party’s leadership convention on Saturday.
May, the MP for Saanich-Gulf Islands since 2011, served as party leader for 13 years. Jo-Ann Roberts, formerly of Victoria, has been the party’s interim leader since May stepped down last November.
“If we hang on to each other and hang on together, we can get through a pandemic and we can resolve and avoid the worst of the climate crisis,” May said.
The pandemic is a real and present danger and it is not over yet, she said, calling on people to trust our institutions, follow the recommendations of medical health officers, and respect science.
We have to listen to science in the same way when it comes to the climate crisis, May said.
“The reality of this is that the climate emergency is a far greater threat to humanity, to loss of millions of lives, to the collapse of human civilization within the lifetime of our children if we do not get our act together.”
But that truth cannot lead anyone to despair, she said.
“We do not have time for despair. It is an enormous threat. We must hang together, believing and knowing that we have it within ourselves to change our society, turn away from fossil fuels and to turn toward those wonderful new technologies.”
May, 66, said that citizens can do more.
“We are the generation most responsible and we can not walk away — or in this case, die — and leave our kids with this Mad Max world of a dystopian nightmare.”
Canadians can pull together to make the difference and provide leadership to the world, she said. “It is our responsibility to do the impossible.”
A liveable world in the future will require a lot of changes, May said, listing social justice, equity, fairness and a hospitable climate.
“Resilient communities where we take care of each other — that’s the essence of Canada to me,” she said. “We are a country built on compassion.”
She said the new party leader must call out hypocrisy. “Shine a light on those politicians that I am so disappointed in, so many of those who’ve said nice words about how we must act to address the climate crisis and then don’t.”
May then called out B.C. NDP Leader John Horgan.
“Don’t worry if I’m looking at you, John Horgan. I am so angry that today they are diverting the Peace River for the Site C dam and no British Columbia government official can speak to it, they say because there’s an election.”
May said that the founder of the Green Party of Germany, the late Petra Kelly, was an inspiration to her.
When May was chosen to lead the Green Party of Canada she quoted Kelly, saying: “We, the generation that faces the next century, can add the solemn injunction that if we don’t do the impossible we shall be faced with the unthinkable.”
cjwilson@timescolonist.com
