My mother is running for Prime Minister. I have seen my mother fight for what she believes in my entire life.
When I was four years old, I travelled across the country with my mom on the Clayquoit express, a train tour that brought Canadians to Clayquoit Sound to protest the logging of old-growth forest. We won, and the logging trucks had to move on. Tomorrow, my mom and I board the train in Vancouver to cross the country once again. This time, we are under the banner of the Green Party of Canada, and my mom, Elizabeth May, is trying to change the outcome of the federal election.
Working for the Sierra Club of Canada, my mom took me everywhere she went when I was young. I went to Brazil with her for the Rio Earth Summit. We travelled together to Paris for the World Federalists' Conference. I followed her on several cross-Canada book tours. In the past few years, I have chosen to stay at home while she races around to focus on school. When she is away, she calls me in the morning to wake me up for school and at night before I go to bed. I follow her coverage in the media and give her feedback on her speeches and interviews. She asks me what I wore to school and whether I got any test results back.
My mom isn't just a mother to me. She is a political leader, a courageous activist and a hero. I didn't choose to take a leave from school to campaign with her in this election only because she is my mother. The work she does has always mattered to me. She has involved me and cared for me while all the time working to help people living near toxic waste sites, to pressure governments to take action on fighting climate change, to ensure that the forestry and fishery of Canada are sustainable and healthy and addressing so many other issues.
My grandmother often said, "thought without constructive action is demoralizing". My mother often says, "never doubt that a small group of committed people can change the world". When people ask me what I'm going to do with my life, I think of the achievements of my mother and my grandmother before her. Strong women are capable of amazing things. My mother has given me the confidence any woman needs if she wants to shake things up.
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