Two minutes with Elizabeth May

In the few minutes that Green Party leader Elizabeth May was able to afford to supporters and media when her whistle-stop tour train pulled into Dorval's Via Rail train station this afternoon, she vehemently denied earlier media reports that she supported strategic voting in the upcoming federal elections.

"I never said that, I never said I support strategic voting," she told reporters as the train whistle began to blow and she had to hurriedly be ushered back into her wagon.

In remarks published in the Toronto Star yesterday, May had said she was asking voters to look at their party platform and then decide what was best for them. "I'd rather have no Green seats and Stephen Harper lose, than a full caucus that stares across the floor at Stephen Harper as Prime Minister," she had told the Star.

However she denied this was strategic voting on the train platform in Dorval earlier today.

May said she was looking forward to the debates, although admitting she was "terrified" of the one in French, which is not her first language. She also praised the mobilization of Canadians who supported her call for being included into the debates after NDP and Conservative Party leaders originally asked her to be left out. "It's really healthy for democracy," she said.

Pierrefonds/Dollard Green Party candidate Ryan Young did not want to comment on May's words, but said strategic voting might be a good way to vote during federal elections. "In my riding, it's not really a risk," he added, so he would not necessarily advocate people vote for Liberal incumbent Bernard Patry out of fear that Conservative Pierre-Olivier Brunelle might win. "It's not a riding where you need to help the Liberals," he said.

Neighbouring Lac St. Louis riding's Green Party candidate Peter Graham said he remained optimistic about his chances. "I think we'll at least double (the 2006 results)," he said.

Graham brushed aside criticism that some prominent environmentalists, such as Daniel Breton, a co-founder of the Quebec provincial Green Party, are running for the NDP rather than under a green banner this year. "It's a sign of frustration," he said. "We've been trying to run the Green Party on shoestrings for a long time."

Asked if there was a chance the more progressive parties in Canada could unite, both Graham and Young aimed their sights at the NDP.

"It's Jack Layton who has refused to open the door to that possibility," Graham said.

"I don't think (the NDP) even returned phone calls," Young said of attempts by the Green Party to talk to the NDP about policy points.

Young, a radio professor at John Abbot College, runs for the federal Green Party for the first time. He ran provincially for the Greens at the Jacques Cartier riding in 2007.

Graham, a part-time professor at Concordia University, runs for the federal Greens for the third time in 2008.