Hat's off to Elizabeth May

Yesterday, leader of the Green Party, Elizabeth May walked into the lion's den. She came to a conservative film festival to debate Ezra Levant on the ethics of the Alberta oil sands.

This act of courage is to be commended.  Unlike so many on the left Ms. May actually engaged a philosophical opponent in dialogue.  And I say, thank you Ms May!

It is good to know that a leader on the left side of the political spectrum wants to have debates and is willing to speak in front of non believers.  That really shows well  her character. 

Now, I wouldn't want any of her policies enacted and I will never vote for her but I do have a new respect for her. 

Through the debate there were times when she made me laugh, frustrated the hell out of me but I confess she has given me a few things to think about - information that I didn't have earlier, but want to investigate.  Okay, her voice got a little shrill and shrieky when the two of them were really going at it but she is improving in her debate skills. 

Note to Ms. May's staff - while practice makes perfect perhaps a few lessons with a vocal coach and a communications specialist will help with that.  Really, she needs to control the modulations of her voice - it will help get her points across better.

That's democracy in action.  When people from opposing issues can come together (and it was a sell out crowd BTW) debate the issues and try, or at least try to try, to find some common ground on which policies and governance can be built.

Also let's face it - what kind of masochist do you have to be to take on Ezra?  I wouldn't debate Ezra on something we both agree with!  He has a memory that allows him to recall obscure bits of information, a vocabulary that should be consulted by the good people who publish the Oxford English Dictionary and the tenacity of a pitbull.

By coming to the Free Thinking Festival, Elizabeth May showed she has really big ovaries!  And I want to again offer my sincere thank you for her agreeing to come and debate.

BTW people - it is not too late to come on down to the National Library and Archives to watch some fine films and get engaged yourself in debate.  Today we are showing Mr. Conservative. 

Producer, narrator and granddaughter CC Goldwater takes viewers on a cinematic journey into the life of Barry Goldwater. The film reveals Goldwater as a man either glorified or  vilified by the American public, and traces the roots of Goldwater’s conservative philosophy, conveys how he united the conservative movement to lead the Republican Party into a new generation of politics and demonstrates how his consistently Libertarian mindset led him to diverge from the Conservative party orthodoxy in the ‘80s and ‘90s. As journalist George Will has said of Goldwater’s pivotal presidential race against Lyndon B. Johnson, “People say Goldwater lost in 1964. Some of us think Goldwater won. It just took 16 years to count the votes. In 1980, we finally got the results in. And conservatism had won.”

Speakers after the film include John Robson from the Ottawa Citizen, Joseph Ben Ami from the Canadian Centre for Policy Studies, Karen Selick of the Canadian Constitution Foundation and our lefty in residence Terry Glavin journalist and author!

We are also showing the film For Neda, about the Iranian woman who during the recent protests for democracy was murdered.  This is her story and it's important to hear it and help the people of that oppressed country find the freedom they so desparately deserve!

Our gala film tonight will be The Stoning of Soraya M, another story out of Iran.   Academy Award® nominee Shorheh Aghdashloo stars as Zahra, a woman with a burning secret. When a journalist (Jim Caviezel) is stranded in her remote village, Zahra takes a bold chance to reveal what the villagers will stop at nothing to hide. Thus begins the story of Soraya (Mozhan Marnò), a kind woman whose cruel, divorce-seeking husband trumps up false charges of infidelity against her, which carry an unimaginable penalty.


Soraya and Zahra attempt to navigate the villagers' scheming, lies and deceit to prove her innocence. But when all else fails, Zahra must risk everything to use the only weapon she has left - her voice - to share Soraya's shocking story with the world.

From the Wall Street Journal:

"The Stoning of Soraya M." is as blunt as the rocks hurled in the execution of its title. The independent film, set in an Iranian village in the late 1980s, tells the story of a woman falsely accused of adultery, then put to death according to religious laws enacted after the country's Islamic revolution. A grisly climax helped doom the film's chances for traditional distribution in the U.S., but the filmmakers say it was essential to call attention to the horror of stoning, which still occurs in Iran and some other Muslim countries, according to human-rights groups.

"A movie like this needs to be absolutely uncompromising in its approach. The subject demands it," says director Cyrus Nowrasteh, who was born in Colorado to Iranian parents. He has tackled sensitive topics in his previous work, such as the ABC miniseries "The Path to 9/11," which he wrote and produced.

Please come.