Green Party Leader Elizabeth May Suffered Stroke, Not Fatigue as First Thought

Green Party leader Elizabeth May speaks during a news conference in Ottawa on July 8, 2020. The Canadian Press/Adrian Wyld

Green Party leader Elizabeth May has announced that she recently suffered a stroke , which was initially believed to be fatigue and stress.

In an interview on July 13, Mrs. May told The Globe and Mail that she has not suffered any long-term side effects neurologically and will be taking some time to rest.

Initially in a July 10 post on her website, Mrs. May’s husband, John Kidder, said his wife “was undone last week from sheer overwork, fatigue and stress.”

The Green Party leader, who has been the MP for the B.C. riding of Saanich-Gulf Islands since 2011, was hospitalized at the Saanich Peninsula Hospital in B.C. and “spent a few days under observation,” said Mr. Kidder.

“Does it not seem odd to you that we expect our parliamentarians to work double shifts through May and June, sometimes nineteen-hour days, to sit until midnight almost every day, to keep up with their always demanding constituency work, and still to have minds at all?” he said at the time.

Mr. Kidder said his wife had been working routinely 16-hour days in and out of Parliament and was constantly travelling. He said if she was part of the union, there would be grievances if it were any other workplace.

”No wonder any number of lesser parliamentarians, even some party leaders we know, restrict themselves to childish insults and silly blame games – hardly takes any brain for ‘work’ like that,” he said.

‘A Miraculous Near-Miss’

It turns out Mrs. May, 69, had suffered from a stroke, not fatigue.

“It’s best described as a miraculous near-miss,” said Mrs. May told the Globe on July 13. She said that, according to the doctor, she suffered bleeding into the tissues of her brain, otherwise known as a hemorrhagic stroke.

“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 added.

“I am just resting. I don’t have to overcome any symptoms of having had an event. There are none.”

Mrs. May first became aware of an issue at the end of June. She said she was at a high-school graduation event presenting a scholarship when she suffered a “blindingly painful headache.”

She said she sought medical care and was hospitalized for two-and-a-half days, noting that she had never experienced this specific diagnosis before.

“I’ve never had a bad headache. I’ve never had high blood pressure,” she said.

The politician, who was Green Party leader from 2006 to 2019 and was again re-elected in the fall of 2022, said that she received a call from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau with get well wishes and that she fully intends to continue in her role as leader 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,” said Mrs. May.

“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 she had not asked her doctor if the workload was affecting her health.

“Probably,” said Mrs. May, who has been an MP since 2011.

She mentioned that she and other MPs experienced a long string of 19-hour days in Parliament, often with sittings going until midnight, in May.