ON BOARD THE CANADIAN–This cross-country train, like all fast-moving vehicles, is responsible for its share of road kill. But every now and then, it becomes the object of a suicidal revolt from a considerable force of nature.

It usually happens during the rutting season: bull moose have been known to charge the train head-on. The impact is hard enough to jolt the front car, but the result is predictably unfortunate.

"The last thing that went through that moose's mind was its ass," said a train worker of a recent incident.

Thankfully, Green Leader Elizabeth May's whistle-stop campaign tour has so far been apparently free of lopsided head-butting contests. The only force of nature has been May herself, treating even the smallest of train station rallies like a high-octane family reunion and breakthrough political moment.

But before her train from Vancouver pulled into Toronto last night, she called for a form of strategic voting, which she feared might get her in a moose-size mess of trouble with her own party.

May urged Canadians to do all they can to throw Prime Minister Stephen Harper out of office, including strongly suggesting they shouldn't vote Green if another candidate has a better chance at defeating a Conservative.

"We are too close to the edge of a global apocalypse," May said in an interview. "We have got to grab the opportunities we have. And, clearly, the contribution Canadians can make to a global solution is to get rid of Stephen Harper."

May insists she's not calling for strategic voting because that leads people to simply vote Liberal. She wants Canadians to examine their riding and figure out how best to keep the Tories from winning.

"I won't say, `You've got to vote Green if you believe in our policies.' I'll say, `Here's our policies, figure out what you need to do because, frankly, the Green party has to put progress (on climate change) and principle above short-term power.'"

The goal is to prevent Harper from blocking the last chance at an international deal on reducing greenhouse gases at a United Nations summit next year, she said.

"I'd rather have no Green seats and Stephen Harper lose, than a full caucus that stares across the floor at Stephen Harper as prime minister, because his policies are too dangerous," she said.

So determined is May to keep Harper from power she also told the Star she wants Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion and NDP Leader Jack Layton to join her in a pact to beat Conservatives candidates.

The Green, Liberal and New Democratic parties should prevent vote-splitting that would favour Conservatives, and carve up electoral ridings according to who has the best chance of winning, May said. "We sit down and say, `Who has the best chance of winning in all these ridings?' What I've been calling for is proportional representation by other means."

She acknowledged that this partly works to the Green party's advantage because it would likely result in its first seats in Parliament.

She also knows some accuse her of wanting to cook the election behind closed doors. She says she's trying to redress a distorted system that creates majority governments elected by a minority of votes.

Layton has refused to even meet May. But May says Dion is interested in going beyond the deal he struck with her before the election call, in which neither the Greens nor Liberals are running candidates in the other leader's riding.

"Dion's willing to do more and I'm willing to do more. The problem is that neither one of us can do anything more when Layton won't because then it looks like, `The Greens are what, a sidekick of the Liberal party?' No we're not. There's a lot wrong with the Liberal party," she said.

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She rejected a two-way deal between her and the Liberals.

May said her proposals upset some Green party members, since they suggest voting Green isn't always the best choice. But, she says, "I will not be able to live with myself if anything I've done contributes to Harper winning, because the stakes are too high."

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