Above: ‘Plane Talk’ is an interview like none other. Tom Clark, Elizabeth May, one plane, no limits.
One journalist and one politician.
Tom Clark and Green leader Elizabeth May took to the skies above Parliament Hill for a little “plane talk,” where she talked about the highlight and lowlight of her political career, and her biggest regret.
Best political moment: Winning a seat in the May 2, 2011 election.
Worst political moment: That same day, learning the Conservatives won a majority.
Biggest regret: Deciding to attend a social function over seeing her father before the effects of dementia took over.
Alternate career: Author of murder mysteries.
A full transcript of the interview is pasted below.
WATCH: The full interview with Green party leader Elizabeth May, where she shares her thoughts on Stephen Harper, Tom Mulcair and Justin Trudeau, as well as her plan to become prime minister.
Tom Clark:
We’re ready to go.
Elizabeth May:
Oh, okay.
Tom Clark:
Okay.
Elizabeth May:
I thought we were stalling. It made me nervous. Everything is going to make me nervous, just so you know.
It’s nice to have a different perspective on the Parliament Buildings.
Tom Clark:
Elizabeth May, what’s been your greatest political moment?
Elizabeth May:
May 2nd, 2011 when I won the seat to Saanich–Gulf Islands and all my supporters were cheering, and we were over the moon.
Tom Clark:
What was your worst political moment?
Elizabeth May:
May 2nd, 2011, when I found out, just before I found out that I’d won…actually a while before when the media says we of course have a blackout on coverage of what’s happening across the country, and a reporter put a microphone in my face and said what do you think of a Harper majority? And I said that can’t happen.
Tom Clark:
What’s the greatest threat to Canada right now?
Elizabeth May:
Well if Canada’s part of the world, then the greatest to the world is ignoring the climate crisis, allowing our kids to have to deal with something that they can no longer reverse.
Tom Clark:
On what occasions do you lie?
Elizabeth May:
Never about anything important, although I definitely, ha-ha…when a friends says how do you like my new haircut? And I say oh it suits you, it’s so cute. And I’m thinking, well it will grow out.
Tom Clark:
Okay, note to all friends of Elizabeth May who just had a haircut, you’ve heard her here, she won’t tell you the truth.
Elizabeth May:
No, I won’t.
Tom Clark:
Who are your greatest heroes in real life? Name one.
Elizabeth May:
A lot, a lot…
Tom Clark:
But if you had to choose one?
Elizabeth May:
Wow, one real life hero? Jesus. There you go.
Tom Clark:
Does that make up for lying to your friends about their haircuts?
Elizabeth May:
We’ll find out later.
Tom Clark:
What’s your single greatest regret in life?
Elizabeth May:
It’s that I didn’t spend time with my father when he still knew who was I was. And the specific regret, I made a big mistake one weekend. The press gallery dinner changed the date and we had had one date and it changed to another date, and you know the sort of Green Party themes and where you’ve got to come. And I was actually in Cape Breton…I was in Halifax enroute to drive up to Cape Breton to see my dad, and I made the wrong decision. I said okay, well I’ll come back, I’ll be there in time for press gallery dinner, which wasn’t important in the scheme of things really. And I didn’t know at that moment that there would be very, very few, like count on one hand the number of times I would be able to spend time with my father before dementia took over and he didn’t know who I was anymore. So that’s a really deep regret.
Tom Clark:
In the case the case that there is a minority government in the next election, would Elizabeth May and the Green party support a coalition to make sure that Stephen Harper didn’t come back into power?
Elizabeth May:
Actually my goal is, and our goal as a party, is to have enough seats to form balance power. We think it will be a minority Parliament. We want to work cooperatively with anyone and everyone to get rid of the first pass the post voting system to get to the kind of voting system that lets Canadians feel that every vote counts, which is important. And to deal with the climate crisis and at the same time build our economy more than we are now, create more jobs in the Green tax field.
Tom Clark:
Do you want to fly the plane?
Elizabeth May:
No, no, thank you very much though.
Tom Clark:
Oh come on.
Elizabeth May:
No, no, no, Tom, thank you very much.
Tom Clark:
You don’t want to do that?
Elizabeth May:
No, no, I don’t want to fly the plane. I’ll never…no, no. Thank you very much though. It’s such a sweet offer.
Tom Clark:
What would you do if you weren’t an MP?
Elizabeth May:
So if I change the question, what would I do if I didn’t feel I had to do what I’m doing because the climate crisis? I would love to focus on writing books that were not just about issues. I’ve written my eighth book just came out, and I love it, but I’d love to try my hand at murder mysteries.
Tom Clark:
You want to write murder mysteries?
Elizabeth May:
Absolutely, yes, I could have a very nice murder mystery set on Parliament Hill.
Tom Clark:
Who would be the bad guy?
Elizabeth May:
The person you least suspect.
Tom Clark:
You see that’s not fair.
Elizabeth May:
What? It would have to be Kevin Vickers.I love Kevin by the way, but yeah that would be a great murder mystery wouldn’t it?
Tom Clark:
We’re just about to land. Are you feeling lucky?
Elizabeth May:
Are you? Now we’ll be like the Canadian cabin in every airline. Yay! (Applause)
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