Canada's Green Party Leader Elizabeth May runs as a de facto Liberal candidate in next election

Edited by Peter Tremblay

	Green Party Leader Elizabeth May.

Green Party Leader Elizabeth May and Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion would have Canadians believe that their "Agreement" shows a great Common Front on saving our Environment from the far-right Stephen Harper government. Is this the case? Or, does this Agreement show a certain amount of political hypocrisy and cynical manoeuvring between political party elites? Is the NDP upset because it has been "out-manoeuvred"?

"The fact is, I want to see as many Green candidates running as possible in the next election," May said. "But, ultimately, I do not believe I am in a position to tell local ridings what to do. At the end of the day, local ridings make their own decisions."

May said the best outcome of the next election would be a "Liberal minority government with enough Greens in the House to make a difference.

"I think it is pretty clear that we cannot have another government with Stephen Harper as prime minister," she said.

To run a candidate or not to run a candidate? That is the question local members of the Green party will vote on next month in St. Catharines.

Former Green party candidate and St. Catharines riding communications director Jim Fannon said Wednesday he will ask local Greens at the meeting to pass a resolution declaring they will not field a candidate in the next federal election.

"I think this is the kind of motion that will show this is not politics as usual, and that the Green party does do things differently," Fannon said. "Canadians have recently elected two minority governments. They want parities working together, and that is what this is all about."

For Fannon, that co-operation could come in the form of local Greens throwing their support behind St. Catharines Liberal candidate and former MP Walt Lastewka in an effort to defeat incumbent Conservative Rick Dykstra.

In the last election, Dykstra won by less than 250 votes. As the Green party candidate, Fannon received around 3,000 votes - enough to sway the outcome in Lastewka's favour if the next election is as close as the last.

Lastewka said Wednesday he has had no discussions with Fannon or other local Greens about the issue.

"Obviously anything that is a benefit to my campaign is not a bad thing, but I have not had discussions with anyone," he said. "I am running on my record and on my experience."

Fannon said he took his cue from a recent agreement between Green party Leader Elizabeth May and Liberal Leader Stephane Dion. Their deal means the Liberals will not run a candidate against May, and the Greens will not run one against Dion.

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