Elizabeth May, Bruce Hyer hail from the same part of Connecticut
Green party candidates say their American roots make them appreciate 'more democratic' Canada
May said it's evidence of a small world that she and Hyer, her deputy party leader, both come from the state of Connecticut.
"We were born at the same hospital, what are the chances?"
Hyer said he moved north when he was 30, to a country he considered to be more democratic.
"We're all Canadians by choice," he said of he and his fellow Greens who came to Canada from the United States.
Thunder Bay-Rainy River Green candidate Christy Radbourne is originally from the state of Georgia.
She said she likes to think of the Greens' similar heritage as an "intended coincidence."
"What really binds us together is the fact that we all came to Canada, loved it, want to stay here, and we want to fight for it," she said.
"That's very different from the big corporate structure of the U.S., where politics and government have really become a product or a tool of large corporations," Radbourne added. "Here, people still have a voice, and community is still very important in Canada."
Hyer said he came to Canada "because it was a country that was cleaner, fairer and more equitable. And we hope to restore that."
May said her politics are heavily influenced by her formative years "having grown up through the tumultuous era of the 1960," and that her opinions on democracy were formed by "the civil rights movement and the movement against the war in Vietnam."