Elizabeth May, the new leader of the Green Party of Canada, plans to run for a Cape Breton seat in the next federal election.

May, 52, lived on the island for many years before moving to Ontario.

She said she'll run in the federal riding of Cape Breton-Canso, a seat currently held by Liberal Rodger Cuzner.

"I'm very fond of Rodger Cuzner and the Conservative who ran the last two times, Kenzie MacNeil," May told CBC News.

"I like to think that politics can be different. I want to be different, and I think running against people I actually like and all-candidates meetings can move to a new level of political discourse."

May said she not only plans to run in the Cape Breton riding, but plans to win.

Cuzner welcomes the challenge, and said May has a lot of work ahead of her.

"It'll be a challenge for her to just help with the national profile [of the Green party] during a campaign, as well as cover Cape Breton-Canso and meet the communities," Cuzner said.

A high-profile Green member 

May first made headlines in Nova Scotia when she led the legal battle against insecticide spraying in the Cape Breton Highlands.

In 2001, she staged a 17-day hunger strike on Parliament Hill in support of people living near the Sydney Tar Ponds.

May's track record will help her on the national stage, said Jennifer Smith, chair of the political science department at Dalhousie University.

"She's very articulate, she's never short of words and she's full of conviction about her environmental position," Smith said.

Still, she added, it will be tough for May to get elected under the Green banner, something that has never been done before.

In the last federal election, in January, the Greens did not elect any members to Parliament.  However, the party got about 4.5 per cent of the vote, enough to qualify for $1 million a year in federal funding.

May was executive director of the Sierra Club of Canada for 17 years. She resigned that post in April to run for the Green party leadership.

May won the leadership with 65 per cent of the votes at Saturday's convention in Ottawa.