Thursday, March 28, 2024

Saanich Green Party leader Elizabeth May pictured holding photoshopped reusable cup

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Photos of Green Party leader Elizabeth May that have recently surfaced online show her holding a reusable cup with a metal straw in it, at last year’s Sidney Street Market.

This in itself does not seem out of the ordinary for the leader of a campaign that bases itself on a platform of climate action and environmentalism.

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However Green Party website archives show that in the original version of the image, May was in fact holding a compostable paper cup, and the reusable one had been photoshopped in to replace it.

The original National Post report of the images blasts the Green Party for using Photoshop “in an era of ‘fake news'”, followed by a lengthy analysis of whether or not voters will care.

On the other hand, coverage from outlets like Macleans magazine offers the possibility that people may simply “roll their eyes at this entire story”, calling the party’s hypocrisy “mildly amusing”.

Green Party responds

By and large, the Green Party has accepted responsibility for doctoring the image and states that Elizabeth May had no knowledge of the campaign team Photoshopping her in the first place.

The party has since removed the altered image from their website and Elizabeth May has responded to the ample media coverage surrounding the issue.

In a statement, the Saanich-Gulf Islands Green Party rep says the following:

“I was completely shocked to find that the party had photoshopped an image of me from last year’s Sidney Street Market. My personal daily practice is to avoid single use plastic items 100% of the time.”

“I never drink from plastic water bottles. I always carry my own reusable coffee cup. I carry my own bamboo utensils. I walk the talk every day. I hope that despite this misstep by well-meaning party staff (who hoped to brand the image with our logo), people can believe that in the original photo there is nothing I would have hidden.”

Check out the images yourself:

(Photo by @_llebrun/Twitter)
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Brishti Basu
Former Senior Staff Writer and Content Manager at Victoria Buzz.

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