From: brewnoser2@gmail.com   
      
   Vancouver Sun - August 11, 2015   
      
   Greens extend conditional helping hand for potential minority government   
      
   Green party Leader Elizabeth May ruled out forming a coalition government with   
   the Liberals or the NDP Monday, but has set four conditions for her party to   
   provide support to them if they find themselves in a minority position after   
   the Oct. 19 election.   
      
   In return for helping either of the parties form a government, May said the   
   Greens want an end to the current "first-past-the-post" electoral system,   
   substantial movement on climate change action, the repeal of Bill C-51   
   anti-terror legislation and a    
   substantial reduction of the Prime Minister's Office budget.   
      
   Speaking to the The Vancouver Sun's editorial board, May said she increasingly   
   believes people are so angry at the power control politics of Conservative   
   Prime Minister Stephen Harper that Canada will be faced with a minority   
   government situation on    
   October 20.   She believes the Greens have a realistic shot at winning about   
   12 seats in the 338-seat Parliament, perhaps forming a balance of power.   
      
   That situation could be the basis for a collaborative form of government not   
   seen since Lester B. Pearson's Liberal minority governments of the 1960s were   
   supported by the NDP, she said.   Those governments brought in health care,   
   the Canada Pension Plan    
   program and the student loan program.   
      
   May said she has already talked to Liberal leader Justin Trudeau about   
   co-operating, but that NDP leader Thomas Mulcair won't take her calls.   
      
   "I am not floating a coalition, I am floating the idea that we can work   
   together after the election," she said.  "I don't want to be in a coalition.    
   I've told both my friends in the NDP who will talk to me, and the Liberals, up   
   front, I am not looking    
   for a cabinet seat in any of their governments.  I don't want it.   
      
   "I'd rather continue to have the Green caucus in opposition, holding their   
   feet to the fire, operating for responsible government and changing the tenor   
   of Parliament by making it more respectful and reducing heckling."   
      
   May said the Liberal and NDP leaders are already on record as saying they want   
   election reform and more substantial action on climate change, so what she's   
   asking for in a minority situation is not a big deal.   
      
   May said she's keeping the Governor General's telephone number in her pocket   
   in order to "facilitate a discussion" about who should form a government, but   
   she ruled out the idea of working with the Conservatives.   
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   Harper's Prime Minister's Office is a "dangerous" abuse of Canadian government   
   powers and has to be reigned in, May said.   Its $10 million budget should be   
   cut to $1 million, but May would be satisfied for now if it was cut in half.   
      
   "It doesn't exist in our Constitution.  It doesn't exist in legislation, it's   
   not part of our system of government.  And Stephen Harper has essentially   
   eliminated cabinet government.  His cabinet ministers are nothing more than   
   public relations    
   spokespersons for policies developed in the PMO," she said.   
      
   "This much power in the hands of one person is not our system of government,   
   and it is really dangerous."   
      
   May also decried party apparatchiks who are less interested in what's good for   
   Canada than in keeping their leaders in power.   
      
   "The party war rooms?  That's a whole different level of spin-doctoring and   
   kneecapping.  I think those people in all parties are suffering from a shared   
   psychosis.  They really are polluting the well of democracy by their   
   existence," she said.   
      
   Harper and Mulcair have refused to acknowledge the Green party's power, May   
   said, as evidenced by their desire not to allow her into national leaders'   
   debates during the election.   But she said MPs can still pressure their   
   leaders to work together    
   collaboratively.   
      
   "If I can't get Trudeau and Mulcair as individuals to work together, ramp up   
   the pressure on every single one of the Liberal and NDP MPs across Canada,"   
   she said.   
      
   "You want Harper to form government?   Sit where you are and let your leader   
   dictate to you.   
      
   "There's a lot of ways that we can respect the supremacy of Parliament again   
   by reducing the illegitimate power of political parties."   
      
   Trudeau has already said he won't form a coalition government.  But May said   
   that's just election politics, and that math at the end of election night may   
   be more convincing to Trudeau and Mulcair.   
      
   "He doesn't want to be a junior player to Mulcair in the midst of an election   
   campaign.   If the roles were reversed and Trudeau was ahead in the polls,   
   Mulcair would be saying no coalition," she said.   
      
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