For the second time in just over a month, a federal party leader is making a stop in Squamish.
On March 27, federal Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff held a town hall at the Sea to Sky Hotel - now federal Green Party leader Elizabeth May is stopping in Saturday (April 25) on a tour following the April 13 release of her seventh book Losing Confidence - Power, Politics and the Crisis in Canadian Democracy.
May famously switched candidates in this riding during last year's federal election to take in local MP Blair Wilson after he was thrown out of the Liberal Party so she could secure a seat at the televised federal debates.
The federal Green Party candidate thrown aside to take in Wilson was Jim Stephenson who now stands as the local provincial Green Party candidate for the May 12 election. Stephenson will be joining May in addressing Adventure Centre crowds from 11:15 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Saturday.
"I just knew that when I had the opportunity to have her for a day I had to bring her here," said Stephenson. "Squamish is important to me, so there was a strategic component of that. But I also wanted to get her up the Sea to Sky Corridor, and I thought that people in Squamish would be interested in seeing her and that's certainly the reaction I've gotten."
Stephenson said Squamish stands out as a community in transition from being "basically a lumber town" to "an eco-tourism mecca." He said he's heard from locals that eco-tourism doesn't generate much for the economy, and said he believes there is a place for local sustainable lumber harvesting.
"I'm encouraged that the Green Party at the national convention in March back east bought in a speaker from the forest industry," said Stephenson. "He saw that B.C. and Canada had a long term industry future because we know better how to do it environmentally, and when the world starts to demand environmentally-certified wood, that we'll have advantage to do that. I think the Squamish area can do that as well."
Stephenson encourages locals to ask May for her thoughts on forestry since she's written a book the issue.
May's newest book has been described as "a ringing manifesto for change" by supporters, and dovetails into this year's B.C. election as a proponent of election system reform, said Stephenson.
She supports the stand taken by B.C.'s Green Party to switch elections from the First Past the Post system to the proposed BC STV, which is up for referendum May 12.
"She is using the BC STV vote in B.C. as an example of what should be done," said Stephenson.
The book uses newspaper archives, academic studies and personal recollections to provide May's take on how cabinet ministers are muzzled, how politicians fear taking on an RCMP that played a role in bringing the Conservatives to power, how the government overrides the decisions of independent watchdogs, and how a "supine media" owned by a handful of conglomerates is asleep at the switch.
It's the seventh book May has written, and it's merely one small part of the woman's accomplishments.
May has been active in the environmental movement since 1970. She first became known in the Canadian media in the mid-1970s through her leadership as a volunteer in the grassroots movement against aerial insecticide spraying proposed for forests near her home on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia.
She is a graduate of Dalhousie Law School and was admitted to the Bar in both Nova Scotia and Ontario. She has held the position of Associate General Council for the Public Interest Advocacy Centre, representing consumer, poverty and environment groups in her work.
In 1986, she became Senior Policy Advisor to then federal Environment Minister, Tom McMillan.
In 1998, the "Elizabeth May Chair in Women's Health and Environment" was created in her honour at Dalhousie University. She holds honourary doctorates from Mount Saint Vincent University, the University of New Brunswick and Mount Allison University.
She is also the recipient of the 2002 Harkin Award from the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS). In 2006, she was presented with the prestigious Couchiching award for excellence in public policy, and has been an Officer of the Order of Canada since 2005.
In March 2006, Elizabeth stepped down as Executive Director of the Sierra Club of Canada, a post she had held since 1989, to run for the leadership of the Green Party of Canada.
