Green Party Leader's Self-Approval Ratings At All-Time High

Green Party leader Elizabeth May (r), at the Ottawa Press Gallery Dinner on May 9th.

Ottawa

With one day remaining until Canadians head to the ballot box to choose their next government, much of the hype is surrounding Justin Trudeau. Mere weeks ago, the Liberal leader was, by all accounts, headed for a third-place finish. However, heading into Monday, most prognosticators have the Ottawa native set to take the keys to 24 Sussex Drive.

But Elizabeth May, leader of Canada's Green Party, is having none of it.

In a snap poll conducted by The Sentinel Dispatch on Sunday, Ms. May's self-approval ratings were found to be at an all-time high. "To tell you the truth, I'd have to say that I'd give myself a 95% approval rating at this point of the long campaign," said May when reached by phone from her wind and solar-powered home in Sidney, British Columbia. "Despite what the media might be reporting, I think I've been extremely efficient and have come up with new ideas, though it's been tempting to recycle the same ideas over and over again. The other parties are saying the same things, they seem stuck. Meanwhile, I'm the only one who's been driven," remarked the native of Hartford, Connecticut. "And speaking of driven, I'm the only party leader who is proud to drive a hybrid. That's saying something."

Ms. May is the only Green Party member to ever have been elected to Canada's parliament - she was elected MP of Saanich-Gulf Islands in 2011 after two previous unsuccessful attempts to win a seat. Her party narrowly missed forming government in 2008 and 2011 after garnering 6.78% and 3.91% of the national vote respectively.

The 61 year old lawyer and activist has been criticized by many for siphoning off votes from the Liberal and New Democratic parties and thus aiding the Conservative Party, however she still insists that her party is "vastly different than those other old parties." In some ways, she is correct. She is the only national party leader to commit to mandatory five-year prison sentences for Canadians found guilty of disposing recyclable water bottles into regular waste bins. Ms. May has also said that by the year 2025, under a Green Party government, all jet-fuelled air travel would cease. Her technology critic, a sophomore at the University of British Columbia, when reached at his parents home in Victoria, explained the innovative project: "At the Green Party, we realize that people will still need to travel by air. For the past 5 years, the brightest and most creative young minds in the country have been brainstorming, and based on the principles of aerodynamics, by 2025 we'll have built a fleet of papier-mâché passenger planes. Our working theory is that if we build tall enough airstrips around the country, Canadians will come together and be able to launch these planes by means of their collective blowing."

When asked by The Sentinel Dispatch why she only gave herself a 95% approval rating, Ms. May admitted to lingering guilt over eating a piece of processed cheese in her youth.

From Our Ottawa Bureau