Elizabeth May

Elizabeth May ( born June 9, 1954 in Hartford, Connecticut ) is a Canadian environmental activist, author, politician and lawyer. She is the current leader of the Green Party of Canada.

Biography

May was born in the United States. Your American mother was an activist in the anti - nuclear movement and co-founder of the peace organization SANE. My British father was vice president of Aetna Life and Casualty. May attended Miss Porter 's School in Farmington, Connecticut. 1972 her family moved to Margaree Harbour, Nova Scotia. After high school, she attended the university and graduated in 1983 in Law at Dalhousie Law School. During this time she became involved with the Swedish company Stora Enso, which used 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid and 2,4,5- trichlorophenoxyacetic acid as a herbicide. In 1989 she was elected to the board of the organization Sierra Club of Canada.

In 2001 she went on a 17- day hunger strike to protest against the failure of the Canadian government in the case of Sydney Tar Ponds in Cape Breton. In August 2006, May was chosen as the successor to Jim Harris to the chairman of the party. At the general election in 2011, she won in her constituency Saanich - Gulf Islands on Vancouver Iceland, and is thus the first elected Green Member of Parliament in the Canadian House of Commons.