Idlout sagt, sie habe das Gefühl gehabt, ihre Wähler zu „verraten“, indem sie bei der NDP geblieben sei
https://www.thestar.com/politics/federal/idlout-says-she-felt-she-was-betraying-her-constituents-by-staying-with-ndp/article_defdc25c-5994-561f-85e5-0989d3435da5.html
7 Kommentare
We have a very different understanding of the word betraying apparently because to stay in the party your constituents voted you in does not seem like a betrayal to me.
This really suggests some deep issues that are not being met by the rank & file. Making sure that constituents always come first, should be the priority not the party. I look forward to party renewal with the ongoing election of a new NDP leader and throwing some fertilizer on those grass roots.
Idlout probably is much better able to advocate for funding for Nunavut from the government benches than from the NDP. The NDP losing official party status meant that her ability to influence things in committees from the opposition went down drastically, and this was her best (if imperfect) path to delivering for Nunavut.
An interesting point here is that Idlout seems to suggest that Boulerice’s pending resignation played a significant role in influencing her decision. This type of thinking usually leads to death spirals, where bad news begets even more bad news, and I’m not sure how the NDP can escape from that. It’s not impossible to imagine them being wiped out, despite the „it can’t get any worse“ types insisting otherwise.
In my opinion you should have to sit as an independent until the next election. You took money and volunteers to help get elected and ran on a platform.
The end of the article explains her thinking much better than pretty much the rest of it, however, I find her reasoning still pretty
> “I’m not entirely surprised about (Idlout crossing). The NDP has seven members, it’s got no party status and it’s not very effective to influence anything for the North.”
There’s also no elaboration why the person who the star quoted said this.
I think her desire to increase the number of Native American MPs would be to to increase the opportunities for them to exist in Parliament, as an increase the quantity of seats Territories in the House of Commons and the Senate. I think it would be reasonable for each of them to have 3 on both ends (3 in the HOC & 3 in the Senate) to at least start with. More house of common seats I think would also be better for representation of the population of the territories.
A thing for advocates of (somehow) removing floor crossing is what is mentioned in the article about the political culture of the territories being different from the provinces. Party politics is not as strong as it is in the provinces and things are working on a more consensual basis, with people almost always running as independents the territorial legislatures. It is the job of a representative to make good decisions based on their judgment for their constituents in their role of representative.
Another nail in that coffin, and then with the MP that’s leaving for the Quebec legislature, pretty soon you’ll have enough NDP to count on one hand.
Long ways away from the days of Jack Layton.