Green ‘vote however you want’ all it’s cracked up to be?
I’m a former NDP member looking for a place to roost. I’d love to find a socialist party to nest with, but, failing that, thought the Green Party might meet my environmental needs. So I went to their website and had a look around.
I found a letter from a guy named Bruce Hyer entitled “Why I left the NDP and joined the Greens.” Couldn’t be more up my street, right? I read the letter, apparently aimed at Nanaimo by-election voters, it was all about how the NDP wouldn’t let MPs vote the way their constituents said they should. So the author, Mr. Hyer (turns out he was an NDP MP) crossed the floor to the Green Party.
I thought the name sounded familiar, so I checked. Sure enough, Mr. Hyer was an NDP MP. He did leave the federal NDP Caucus. After he voted with the Harper government to end the Gun Registry. The letter doesn’t mention the registry, or the Green Party policy on Gun Control which, as I understand it, changed to suit Mr. Hyer’s needs when he signed up.
A letter decrying the NDP for not allowing someone to vote ‘on behalf of his constituents’ that fails to mention the issue it turned on is, to me, a bit disingenuous. It leaves me wondering why the issue wasn’t presented. Are potential Green supporters (like me) more likely to support the Gun Registry? Would we wonder what other policies Green MPs would stand against?
So I won’t be getting my Green Card any time soon.
Sometimes the best you can do when seeking a new nest is to look at how you’re invited in.
Keith Simmonds
Duncan