Elizabeth May Speech: Part 1

Elizabeth May, leader of the Green Party of Canada, spoke to Concordia Journalism students on Friday, March 23rd. A veteran environmental organizer, activist, lawyer and politician, May spent over an hour speaking to graduate and undergraduate students.

May worked for 17 years as Executive Director of the Sierra Club of Canada and in 2006, she entered the Green Party of Canada's leadership race. She also announced last month that she will be running against Conservative Peter Mackay in the Nova Scotia riding of Central Nova. On the other hand, the Liberals have decided not to run a candidate against her in the next federal election.

Look out for these interesting quotes:

"Politicians are single-celled organisms susceptible only to heat, pressure and pain." - (4:00) - May quoting Warner Troyer, investigative reporter and environmentalist.

"Once somebody is in power they will do anything to stay in power." - (3:50) - May referring to Stephen Harper's newly-developed environmental stance.

"If we believe that we have the power and democracy - we can change anything." - (3:48) - May referring to her new book, How to save the world in your spare time.

"You can't expect that every reporter you talk to is going to be Woodward and Bernstein." - (2:55) - May talking about the need for politicians to better understand journalists.

Here's some footage I shot and edited. Check out Part 1 of Elizabeth May's speech.