The federal Green Party wouldn’t support any of the other parties in a minority government situation based on their current climate action plans, Green leader Elizabeth May said last week, just seven weeks before the October 21 election.

“May would rather defeat a government and ultimately force Canadians back to the polls than allow a party with a climate plan not up to her standards to govern,” CTV News reports. “May said she hopes that this ‘existential political threat’ would prompt leaders to ‘carefully consider their obligations to continue to form government’.”

“Frankly, no party currently has a policy that is adequate…it’s about getting a deal for our kids to ensure a livable world and if there isn’t, if that isn’t on the table, then we won’t support anyone,” May told Don Martin, host of CTV’s Power Play show. “We actually would bring a government down and go back to the polls to get a government that’s prepared to be responsible.”

CTV explains the dynamics that would result if no party held the majority of House of Commons seats after the October 21 vote. “The dissolution of Parliament is the option May would push for should she hold the balance of power,” the TV network states. “That is, unless the other parties beef up their climate plans to hold global warming below 1.5°C.”

May said her condition was “not a political challenge,” but “an imperative to ensure that our economy, our society, and our kids can have security going forward into a future that’s actually not threatened by the possibility of the loss of human civilization because we were too cowardly to act when we had a chance.”

Later in the week, Environment and Climate Change Minister Catherine McKenna refused to say whether a Liberal Parliamentary minority would beef up its climate policies in the event that Greens held the balance of power. “We are happy to always look at ideas from any party, but my focus right now is moving forward on serious climate action,” she told media Thursday.

“Is there more work to be done? Absolutely, and we will continue looking at how we can be more ambitious,” she added.

“When asked twice by iPolitics if her party would adjust their environmental policies to satisfy the Greens in a minority situation, McKenna said each time that the Liberal Party would soon be announcing its own climate plan for the upcoming election,” the Ottawa e-daily states. “Spokesperson Braeden Caley said the Liberals’ 2019 election climate platform is in its ‘final stages of development’, but also wouldn’t comment on securing a partnership with the Green Party in a minority scenario.”