Green Party Leader Elizabeth May was hospitalized for a part of last week due to “sheer overwork, fatigue, and stress” incurred mostly from Parliament’s spring session, according to her husband, who says she had to work overly long hours through May and June.
Husband John Kidder said in an online post on July 9 that Ms. May, whose riding is the B.C. constituency of Saanich-Gulf Islands, was discharged from the Saanich Peninsula Hospital on July 8 after a few days under observation.
Mr. Kidder is a founding member of B.C.’s provincial Green Party and previously ran as a Green candidate in both provincial and federal elections.
Ms. May, who is 69 years old, will continue resting “for at least another week” as her health recovers, her husband said.
“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?” Mr. Kidder wrote in the post.
“In any other profession we acknowledge that people cannot do their best work when they’re over-tired—here, with those who are arguably responsible for some of the most important decisions in the country, we expect them to handle routine sixteen-hour days in and out of Parliament.”
As Parliament wrapped up its spring session through May and most of June, MPs were regularly in the House of Commons past midnight as the government endeavoured to pass central pieces of legislation into law before rising for the summer break on June 21.
Parliament is set to reconvene on Sept. 18.
