Former nuclear watchdog to endorse May

CBC News has learned Linda Keen, the former head of Canada's nuclear safety watchdog agency, will endorse Green Party Leader Elizabeth May at a joint press conference on Friday.

The event will be teleconferenced, with May in Victoria and Keen in Ottawa.

The move is surpising as the women have differing views on nuclear power. May is against it, while Keen spent years in the industry and was most recently president of theCanadian Nuclear Safety Commission.

Keen was firedfrom the postin 2008. At the time, Federal Natural Resources Minister Gary Lunn said Keen lost the government's confidence over the way she handled the shutdown of a medical isotope-producing nuclear reactor in 2007.

Lunn accused Keen of a "lack of leadership," saying she failed to resolve an impasse between the commission and Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd., the Crown corporation that operates the facility, located in Chalk River, Ont.

He suggested Keen tried to obstruct efforts to quickly resolve the growing crisis.

May is currently running against Lunn, the Conservative MP for the Saanich-Gulf Islands riding.