Green Party candidate Elizabeth May brought her whistle stop campaign to Kingston this morning. A lively crowd awaited the VIA train from Toronto and the lights in the distance seemed to be it. Instead a rush of freight engines swept by — with the VIA train soon behind — setting the stage for the energetic arrival on the platform a few minutes later of the candidate. Some 50 local Greens, in their green shirts, with Kingston candidate Eric Walton and Lanark-Frontenac-Lennox & Addington candidate Chris Walker, greeted May enthusiastically. She alighted carrying a bouquet of dried sunflowers which she waved at the crowd and launched into a rousing speech.

The whistle stop campaign she contrasted with the large carbon foot prints of her airborne rivals. She said she had seen up close the great sweep of the country and the vital role VIA plays in serving it. The Mulroney Tories had slashed VIA in the past. Increased support for VIA would happen if Greens were in power, she said. May said she would be traveling on from Montreal to Halifax and that all along the way she had been greeted by enthusiastic crowds and that the whistlestops had given her a chance to go to places no federal leader had ever been before. VIA she said had been very patient with her at these whistlestops but she said it was time to go and gave a final wave of the sunflowers as the doors closed and the train was off to its next stop in Brockville no doubt to be welcomed by another group of supporters.