  Green Party leader Elizabeth May in Stratford for the Stratford Shakespeare Festival. (photo: QMI Agency) |
While other three-year-olds were playing with dolls, Elizabeth May was warning everyone about radioactive contaminants. She remembers sitting on her mother’s knee at a press conference to announce a lawsuit against nuclear weapons testing. The Hartford, Connecticut-born activist says she’s always been “very political.”
“I organized the high schools in my area into an environmental task force,” says the leader of the Green Party of Canada.
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Her family relocated to Nova Scotia in 1973. May graduated from Dalhousie Law School and continued to pursue social and environmental justice. She held a position with the Public Interest Advocacy Centre and helped found the Canadian Environmental Defence Fund prior to becoming an advisor to Brian Mulroney’s Environment minister. She was Executive Director of the Sierra Club of Canada from 1989 until 2006, when she stepped down to join the Greens.
May has written seven books, including Global Warming for Dummies. In 2005, she became an Officer of the Order of Canada. And on May 2, 2011, she made history when she won the first ever Green Party seat in Parliament.
But her favourite role, she says, “is being a mom and grandmother.”
May invited Star Spaces into her home.
Q: How would you describe your home in one word?
A: Charming.
Q: Tell us about your home.
A: It is a one-storey house located in the suburbs of Sidney, British Columbia. I think of it as an enchanted cottage in a rose garden. It is completely surrounded by trees and bushes. The corners of the house have windows that open to the garden. The living room/dining room area is the biggest space. Off the kitchen is an extra bedroom which has been transformed into my office.
Q: What attracted you to this space?
A: It is a quiet spot in a walkable, neighbourly community.
Q: Who shares your home?
A: My daughter – when she’s home from university, and occasionally her friends. Our cat, named Rosie Amelia Isabelle Odette. She bosses around the dog, Spunky C. Morse.
Q: What is your favourite room and why?
A: The kitchen. Cooking is my form of relaxation. I love to entertain and I cook a tremendous amount. I’m not a gadget person. I prefer to do all of the chopping and cutting. My specialty is homemade bread and Eggs Benedict.
Q: How would you describe your decorating style?
A: I admire people who have a decorating style. I don’t think I have one.
I like earthy tones in paints. I prefer to use Farrow & Ball clay-based paints. They have interesting colours. The living room is painted in French Grey. The tone is soft, glossy and adds a homey feeling. The paints change the tone of the walls depending on what time the sun is shining on them.
All of the furniture in the living room is soft and comfortable. In the dining room there is a table and chairs set made of Canadian pine. I have a rustic pine highboy dresser in the kitchen. I added my stained-glass angel over the sink.
Q: What is your fondest memory in this home?
A: When I moved in I had a huge housewarming party. Everyone had fun! I made the appetizers – cheesy melts, guacamole and smoked salmon. It isn’t until I have had a lively party in a house that it feels like home.
Q: What’s the one item in this house you can’t live without?
A: I’m sentimental and I surround myself with things that bring back wonderful memories, such as my grandfather’s wineglasses and a curio cabinet that belonged to my daughter when she was younger.
Q: Weekends at home, what are we most likely to find you doing?
A: Going to the farmers’ market, church on Sunday mornings and then home to work. My veg-out time (with my daughter) is watching DVDs and eating popcorn.
Q: If your walls could talk, what would they say?
A: “Stop working and take a rest!”
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