 Elizabeth May is Leader of the Green Party of Canada. An environmentalist, writer, activist and lawyer, Elizabeth has been a leader in the environmental movement since she was a teenager, when she was part of a successful campaign to stop aerial insecticide spraying near her home on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia.
In a later attempt to prevent herbicide spraying, she and her family sacrificed their home and seventy acres of land in a lawsuit won by Scott Paper – but the suit delayed the spraying long enough to prevent the use of 2,4,5-T altogether. Elizabeth's volunteer work also included successful campaigns to prevent uranium mining in Nova Scotia, and extensive work on energy policy issues, primarily in opposition to nuclear energy.
A graduate of Dalhousie Law School, Elizabeth has been admitted to the Bar in both Nova Scotia and Ontario. She has held the position of Associate General Counsel for the Public Interest Advocacy Centre. In the 1980s, as Senior Policy Advisor to federal Environment Minister, Tom McMillan, she was instrumental in the creation of several national parks and was involved in negotiating the Montreal Protocol to protect the ozone layer.
She has served on numerous boards of environmental groups and advisory bodies to universities and governments in Canada, including the International Institute for Sustainable Development and the National Round Table on Environment and Economy. She also sits on the board of Prevent Cancer Now! and is a member of the Earth Charter International Council, co-chaired by Maurice Strong and Mikhail Gorbachev.
Her awards include the Sierra Club Outstanding Achievement Award, the International Conservation Award from the Friends of Nature, the United Nations Global 500 Award in 1990, the Harkin Award from the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS) and the Couchiching Award for excellence in public policy. In 1998, the “Elizabeth May Chair in Women’s Health and Environment” was created in her honour at Dalhousie University. She is an Officer of the Order of Canada, and she holds three honorary doctorates.
In March 2006 Elizabeth resigned as Executive Director of the Sierra Club of Canada, after 17 years in that position. She ran successfully for the leadership of the Green Party of Canada.
In 2008 she became the first Green Party leader included in a nationally televised leadership debate. She finished second in the Central Nova riding in the 2008 election, with the highest percentage of votes ever achieved for a Green Party of Canada candidate.
She divides her time between homes in Ottawa and New Glasgow, NS, and studies theology at Saint Paul University. Her most important role is that of mother to eighteen year-old Victoria Cate. On September 19 2009 Elizabeth clinched her party's nomination in the Saanich-Gulf Islands riding in British Columbia, where she will run in the next federal election.
Books by Elizabeth May:
- Budworm battles: The fight to stop the aerial insecticide spraying of the forests of Eastern Canada (with Richard E.L. Rogers). 1982. Four East Publications.
- Paradise Won: The struggle for South Moresby. 1990. McClelland & Stewart.
- Frederick Street: Life and death on Canada's LoveCanal (with Maude Barlow). 2000. HarperCollins Publishers.
- At the cutting edge: The crisis in Canada's forests. 2005. Key Porter Books.
- How to Save the World in Your Spare Time. 2006. Key Porter Books.
- Global Warming for Dummies (with Zoe Caron). 2008. Wiley & Sons Publishing.
- Losing Confidence: Power, Politics And The Crisis In Canadian Democracy. 2009. McClelland & Stewart.
Columns about Elizabeth May by Silver Donald Cameron
Links about Elizabeth May
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