Green Party Leader Elizabeth May addresses candidates and supporters during a rally in Vancouver, Saturday, Oct. 19, 2019.The Canadian Press
Green Party of Canada Leader Elizabeth May says the health issue that sidelined her over the last week turned out to be a stroke.
However, she has suffered no lingering neurological effects and looks forward to returning to her work as party leader and British Columbia MP after a rest, she said in an interview Thursday.
“It’s best described as a miraculous near miss,” Ms. May, 69, said from her home in the riding of Saanich-Gulf Islands, where she has been the MP since 2011.
“I am not alarmed about my own situation because I had incredibly good luck in that there was an event, but it had no impact. It doesn’t affect brain functioning or speech or motor control or anything.”
She said she does not have a long road of recovery ahead: “I am just resting. I don’t have to overcome any symptoms of having had an event. There are none.”
Ms. May, speaking after she said she had received a get-well call from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, said that her doctor has told her she suffered bleeding into the tissues of her brain, otherwise known as a hemorrhagic stroke.
At the end of June, Ms. May was at a high-school graduation event, presenting a scholarship award, when she was hit by what she described as a “blindingly painful headache” unlike anything she had previously ever experienced.
It led her to seek medical assistance, and to being hospitalized for two-and-a-half days on Vancouver Island. She said her specific diagnosis is unlike any health challenge she has ever faced.
“I’ve never had a bad headache. I’ve never had high blood pressure.”
Ms. May had her first stint as Green Party Leader from 2006 to 2019. She regained the role last fall, with Jonathan Pedneault of Quebec serving as deputy leader.
“We’re focusing on party business. Elizabeth is resting. That’s all I have to say,” Mr. Pedneault said Thursday, declining to comment in further detail.
Ms. May said she does not think her health issues will affect her leadership of the party.
“I think it’s unlikely that there are very many people who want to seize on somebody having a health issue which is under control, and the prognosis fantastic, and think it means anything about that person’s political career. It really doesn’t.”
Were her medical situation to affect her ability to carry on with her leadership responsibilities, Ms. May said that Mr. Pedneault would “absolutely” be ready to carry on.
Ms. May is one of only two Green Party MPs in the House of Commons, alongside Mike Morrice of Kitchener Centre.
In newsletter remarks to the Green leader’s constituents, Ms. May’s husband, John Kidder, had expressed concerns that the heavy workload facing MPs in the final days of Parliament’s sitting before the current summer break had an impact on her health.
Asked if her workload could have affected her health, Ms. May said, “Probably, but I haven’t asked my doctor that.”
She said her last day off before her illness was May 26, and that she, alongside other MPs, experienced a long string of 19-hour days in Parliament with sittings until midnight.
“I am not one who complains. I do the work. I don’t shirk. But I recognize that this isn’t healthy for people,” she said, adding that late sittings in Parliament are not in aid of a better functioning democracy for Canadians.
Ian Bailey