Elizabeth May stood alone in Parliament last week in opposing extension of the military mission in Libya, resulting in a vote of 294 in favour and 1 opposed (Jane Taber, Why Elizabeth May refuses to be a rubber stamp in the commons, Globe and Mail, 15 June 2011). 

Defence Minister Peter MacKay accused May of voting against the extension in order to gain attention in the headlines, but May strongly denied the charge, warning instead of “mission creep” in the Libya intervention:

It was principled and had nothing to do with headlines…I went to great lengths to be complimentary to all parties…. I spelled it out very clearly that this has migrated from responsibility to protect, this has migrated into we can’t have any solution to this unless we have the elimination of Gadhafi, that it has morphed into a civil war in which Canada has taken sides.