2 weeks Ago By [email protected] (Mark Ramzy)
OTTAWA — Green Party Leader Elizabeth May is urging U.S. counterpart Jill Stein to end her presidential campaign and endorse Kamala Harris to help prevent a Donald Trump victory.
May told the Star on Friday that a second Trump presidency would present a catastrophic threat to climate policy, women’s rights, democracy and world peace, as she broke from Canadian political convention by putting her full-throated support behind the Democratic candidate just days before the highly contested presidential election, in which votes for Stein in battleground states could be a decisive factor. “We know you hate Democrats — we know that — but this is a planetary concern,” she said of Stein, the Green Party candidate for the U.S.
presidency, in an interview with the Star. “What happens to climate if Trump gets another term? What happens to democracy if Trump gets another term? What happens to women’s rights if Trump gets another term?” May’s comments came in response to a issued by European Green parties on Friday that also called on Stein to withdraw and endorse Harris, arguing the stakes “could not be higher” in a race that’s “too close for comfort.” “We are clear that Kamala Harris is the only candidate who can block Donald Trump and his anti-democratic, authoritarian policies from the White House,” wrote the signatories from Green parties in 17 European nations, including several countries in which Greens participate in governing coalitions.
The Green Party of Canada said in a statement to the Star that May’s comments represent her own views, and the party has not taken a position on the issue. Unlike their Canadian counterparts, the American Green Party is no longer associated with Green parties abroad, in part due to differences over the Russia-Ukraine war. But with Americans getting ready to vote on Nov.
5, votes for Stein could make a difference as polls show a tight race between Trump and Harris. The U.S.
Green Party leader’s calls for an end to U.S. military aid to Israel are believed to have drawn support away from Harris in battleground states like Michigan, where voters are angry over the Biden administration’s support in the war in Gaza.
A poll released Friday by the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the largest Muslim advocacy group in the U.S., showed a statistical tie between Stein and Harris among American Muslim voters, who number some 2.
5 million people. While the Liberals and Conservatives have largely avoided weighing in on the U.S.
election, both May and NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh have warned against the prospect of a second Trump presidency. May said she is pleading with Stein’s supporters to “think twice” and consider voting for Harris in order to stop the existential threat she says Trump represents. She said the climate crisis, which Trump has routinely downplayed, is the biggest issue facing the world “other than the threat of nuclear war,” and said Trump would be worse than Harris for peace in the Middle East.
Stein’s campaign said in a statement to the Star that she remains committed to the presidential race, and that the other Green parties’ calls for her withdrawal are “disappointing and unprincipled.” The U.S.
Green Party said Friday it is a “myth” that Stein’s voters would support Harris if Stein withdrew from the presidential race. “The feedback we are receiving from voters is that Dr. Stein’s supporters had no intention of voting for either of the major-party candidates in the first place,” the party said.
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