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Your 2025 year-end gift makes principled leadership possible.

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Dear Friend,

Your support means the world to us.

Every Green volunteer across Canada is a community hero. It would be easier to just decide the world’s going to “hell in a hand cart,” as my grandfather used to say. But who even knows what a hand cart is anymore? We do know what the gathering gloom of declining democracy looks like. And instead of referring to going to hell in a hand cart, we use terms like “doom scrolling.” Our social media devices offer an addictive kick. It is hard to look away. But look away we must.

Greens take action. I know what it feels like to be the one Member of Parliament saying “NO!”

The first time was memorable. The vote was June 14, 2011. I had been sworn in less than a month before, following the May 2, 2011 election. The vote was to send our CF-18 fighter jets to join airstrikes on Libya. All the Conservative MPs, all the Liberal and Bloc MPs, and every single NDP MP were whipped to vote in favour of bombing. Yes, the world wanted to get rid of the Qadhafi regime, and so did I, but Canada had jumped over international law to say we recognized, as the new government of Libya, the rebel forces: a rag-tag bunch that included senior members of Al-Qaeda.

There was a peace proposal on the table, presented by the African Union. Harper and his government wanted none of it. I remember then Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Hon. John Baird, dismissing my concerns: “We may not know who is in the new government, but we know one thing, they cannot be as bad as Qadhafi!” Want to bet?

Libya is now a failed state. Tens of thousands more killed. The principle of “Responsibility to Protect,” used as the fig leaf to justify regime change, was discredited, making it impossible to invoke when Assad began murdering his own people in Syria.

But the bombing of Libya, the recognition of regime change, the rejection of any peace plan, and the failure to have UN peacekeepers guard the weapons of Libya’s arsenal, led to vast warehouses of Qadhafi’s munitions being emptied out and delivered into the hands of terrorists, from Mali, where innocents were slaughtered, to Iraq, launching the next wave of terror and aiding in the creation of ISIS. The murder of Qadhafi in the streets of Tripoli did not bring honour or respect for international law.

All these years later, I wish the other MPs had listened. I will never forget the newly elected women in the NDP Quebec caucus coming to me after the vote, their cheeks stained with tears. They hugged me and said, “Bon courage!”

As the only party without whipped voting, and the only party committed to researching each vote, bound to study the issue, base decisions on evidence, and stand for what is right, it led me to do something that was truly physically hard.

Before COVID, all voting was in person, each MP standing in our place. I sat while 306 MPs, one at a time, stood to vote “Yea,” and each time the clerk would say their name. Then the Speaker called, “All those opposed,” and with all eyes on me, I stood alone to vote “Nay”.

Does it matter?

I know it does. And I know that with each election, more Canadians see that just as every act by individual citizens matters, so too does every act by every MP.

I feel it in my bones that we are at a tipping point.

Voters are sick and tired of the lazy, poll-driven approach to politics. No wonder so many citizens are cynical. No wonder few young people vote.

But the cynicism of floor crossing and short-term transactional thinking will meet a blowback.

Canadians are committed to fairness and decency. Soon, more Green MPs will be elected, committed to a lifetime of service to our communities, our nation, and our planet.

As the wave builds, it is fuelled by your generosity. The maximum allowable donation for 2025 is $1,750, and after taxes, it costs far less.

Please help us build a movement grounded in belief in democracy, and in the role Canada should be playing in the world: one committed to human rights and living simply, so others can simply live:

[DONATE TODAY, before dec 31]([link removed])

I am more convinced than ever that change is at hand.

With your help, I do not stand alone. I stand with you.

Thank you.

With hope, gratitude, and determination,

Elizabeth E. May, O.C.
Member of Parliament for Saanich–Gulf Islands
Leader, Green Party of Canada

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P.S. December year-end donations to political parties are eligible for significant tax credits. For example, if you donate $100 this year, you’ll receive $75 back during tax season! If you donate the maximum amount of $1,750 this year, you’ll receive $650 back during tax season! Actual amounts vary depending on your eligibility for tax credits. [Donate today]([link removed]).

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