All aboard the Green train

Green Party Leader Elizabeth May is taking a page out of the history books as she hits the tracks in search of votes.

Train tracks, that is. May is planning a whistle-stop train tour of Canada next week.

In the tradition of political campaigns in the days before campaign planes, May will have her own rail car and plans to speak to supporters at whistle stops across the country – some 100 in all.

The trip will be split into two segments – Vancouver to Toronto and then Montreal to Truro, ending just outside of May’s riding of Central Nova in Nova Scotia.

The Green Party has got a private rail car that will be hooked to a VIA Rail passenger train on a scheduled route.

 

Is this thing off?

A jubilant Green Party leader Elizabeth May, who was still awaiting confirmation from broadcasters that she would be allowed to participate in the debates, tried in vain to hold a teleconference from her riding for reporters across Canada trying to get her reaction.

It seemed like a good idea, until CBC Newsworld, which piped the May feed directly onto their show, decided to break away, but kept their broadcast line open.

The relentless voice of the anchor dominated over May's, even after a brief respite during a commercial. It seemed nobody at CBC bothered to hang up the line.

So the other reporters eventually had to.

May the force be with you...

Green Party leader Elizabeth May is taking a laid-back approach to her campaign in her home riding of Central Nova, but the relaxed style can sometimes be stressful for those trying to follow her around.

Without a bus or plane or even much of an official schedule, reporters on the ground here in New Glasgow, N.S., sometimes have to struggle to keep up with the reporters who are not.

Did something huge break back in Ottawa? It is hard to tell unless someone drops us a line while we are wandering around this pretty town by the river.

Can Ms. May respond to something the prime minister said? Not a problem - just as soon as she is finished her telephone interviews with the reporter in Calgary.

- Joanna Smith

All in the translation

The Gaelic translation of "Vote Green Party," according to May's brother, is "Vótadh Partaidh Uaine."

May says "partaidh" is derived from the English word for party but spelled and pronounced differently.

Joanna Smith

A little Gaelic green

Waving to drivers during morning rush hour outside her campaign office in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia, Green Party leader Elizabeth May pulled out a special skill to try and win a voter over to her side.

"Hi, how are you?" a man said in Gaelic from his truck window.

"Good," she replied, also in Gaelic. "Vote Green Party!"

The man gave her a confused look.

"That's 'Vote Green Party' in Gaelic," she told him before he drove away.

Stay tuned for the spelling - courtesy of her brother, though: she can speak a little, but she can't spell that phrase.

- Joanna Smith

To the dogs

Green Party leader Elizabeth May rummaged through her purse and pulled out a dog biscuit.

She began to laugh as she explained that it was a gift from someone who lives in the Central Noval riding where she is running against Defence Minister Peter MacKay.

“This is Peter MacKay’s business card,” she said he told her.

The man had been referring to the canine companion seen with MacKay during an interview he gave after his breakup with Belinda Stronach -- and then of course to the did-he-or-didn’t-he “dog” slur in the House of Commons.

“I keep pulling it out thinking it’s the wooden handle of my hairbrush,” May said while hanging out in the Green Party campaign office in Guelph, Ont. about an hour before she gave her opening campaign speech.

Then her teenaged daughter, Victoria Cate May Burton, offered to take care of the problem in the way any good child of a Green Party leader would.

“Would you like me to compost that for you Mom?” she asked.

- Joanna Smith