May says Conservatives won’t win election, and more Greens makes Parliament ‘function better’

Green Party co-leaders Elizabeth May and Jonathan Pedneault sat down with Vassy Kapelos to discuss their policy planks and the 'two-horse' election campaign.

Green Party co-leader Elizabeth May says while a majority-Conservative election victory seemed like a foregone conclusion at this time last year, she now believes Canada is in for another Liberal government.

“I think predictions are not a game I want to play,” May said in a joint interview with party co-leader Jonathan Pedneault on CTV News Channel’s Power Play. “Certainly, right now, the idea that (Conservative Leader) Pierre Poilievre is going to form government is vanishingly small.”

“It looks like a (Liberal Leader Mark) Carney administration is in our future, whether it’s minority or majority,” she told host Vassy Kapelos. “The main thing for us as Greens is that Parliament function well, and it functions better with more Green MPs, because we are respectful, we work hard and we work across party lines to make Parliament work better.”

Despite nearly two years of a Conservative double-digit lead in public opinion polling, the Liberals started to gain ground and close the gap around the end of January, following the resignation of former prime minister and Liberal leader Justin Trudeau, and the inauguration of U.S. President Donald Trump.

Now, halfway through the election campaign, Nanos Research data puts the Liberals four points ahead of the Conservatives. That margin is narrower than it was last week, though, as the Conservatives make gains and tighten the largely two-way race.

Nanos Research currently has the Greens at about two per cent support nationally.

May brought her campaign to vote-rich Ontario this week, as the party tries to make waves beyond the West Coast. She has been at the centre of the Green Party of Canada for nearly 20 years, and has held her seat in the House of Commons since 2011, but Carney was in her B.C. riding of Saanich–Gulf Islands on Sunday, targeting it as a potential pick-up.

Pedneault, meanwhile, said he “fundamentally disagree(s)” with the idea that a vote for the Greens would be irrelevant — when asked by Kapelos about the nature of the two-horse race — and blamed Trudeau for failing to follow through on his promise to reform Canada’s voting system.

“It is a very important problem for our democracy right now, because Canadians lose trust in our institutions at a time when we need a lot more trust in them as we navigate the difficult waters ahead,” Pedneault said. “We believe that it is critical we have a diversity of voices in Ottawa. We want more Canada in Ottawa, and maybe less Ottawa in the rest of Canada.”

Pedneault also criticized Poilievre, saying the Conservative leader doesn’t have the “character needed” to be prime minister, and that he doesn’t have any “real-life experience” beyond being a parliamentarian.

May and Pedneault in their interview also discussed their plans to boost government revenue, in part by increasing the federal tax rate for large corporations to 21 per cent.

On the campaign trail this week, they’ve laid out a series of policy promises, such as a pledge to integrate dental care, pharmacare, and mental health care to the public system.

You can watch May and Pedneault’s full interview on CTV Power Play with Vassy Kapelos in the video player at the top of this article.

With files from CTV News National Correspondent Rachel Aiello