Green Party And Liberal Party Have Problems In Lead Up To Labrador By-election
Elizabeth May’s plan for electoral cooperation may flop in Labrador: Hebert
MONTREAL—Under the guise of a nicely wrapped gift, Green Party leader Elizabeth May handed the Liberals an empty box this weekend. [...] It is possible that May has another more strategic agenda. As Green party leader, she has no interest in seeing either of her progressive rivals dominate the opposition landscape. That would increase the risk of a hemorrhage of Green support to whichever party has a demonstrable fighting chance of beating the Conservatives.
But if May does not
have such an agenda, she might want to consider that her calls to her
coterie of Labrador supporters to embrace the Liberals in the upcoming
by-election could end up doing her case for cooperation more harm than
good.
By the time Labrador goes to the polls in a byelection, the federal Liberals will have chosen a permanent leader.The Labrador vote will be his or her first electoral test.
Little would advance
the cause of a more cooperative arrangement between the opposition
parties than a Liberal byelection defeat to the Conservatives in the
honeymoon phase of the tenure of a brand new leader.
Former Liberal MP stays away from Labrador byelection
The Liberal MP whom controversial Tory Peter Penashue unseated in the 2011 federal election said Monday he will not pursue a chance to get even.
Todd Russell, who had represented Labrador for six years before losing to Penashue by just 79 votes, says he still feels bitter over the last election, but said his priority is to serve as president of NunatuKavut, the organization that represents Labrador's Inuit Métis.
"I believe in my heart that I lost unfairly, that I was cheated, that in fact the people of Labrador were cheated out of a fair election," Russell told CBC Radio's Labrador Morning.
"That's what makes this decision so difficult …. At the end of the day, I had to put aside some of the hurt, some of the anger, some of the disappointment." [...]
"The NDP is the party best positioned to defeat and replace Stephen Harper in 2015 and we can start right here in Labrador by punishing Peter Penashue and Stephen Harper for their ethical lapses," Nathan Rotman, the NDP's national director, said in a statement Sunday night.
