Hey! I tried to post about this earlier today, but it hasn't been accepted (yet). :-(
Anyway: what does this mean?
Ms St-Denis wasn't just some random person who agreed to stand for the NDP as a favour to a friend (like Ruth Ellen Brosseau). She's a party activist who worked for the NDP for a decade, long before they had even a single seat in Quebec - and now, after eight months of seeing the NDP caucus in action, she's decided to switch parties. And she didn't even waiting to see whether the candidate she endorsed for the NDP leadership wins - evidently she feels that the Liberals are a better choice regardless.
Of course, there's an alternative hypothesis: she's far more likely to gain a position of prominence within the Liberal party than she was within the NDP. (She's also probably more likely to win her seat at the next election.)
I don't know enough about this situation or her personally to comment beyond broad hypotheses, though. (and, to reiterate, this is a possibility. I do not mean to suggest that it is likely.)
Perhaps. On the other hand, she's in her seventies, and has been diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma: so I tend to think that advancing her political career isn't likely to be her main concern.
When judging her, there's one question to consider:
Did her riding elect her because they liked her as a candidate personally? because she represented the NDP? Or because they really voted for Jack Layton?
I suspect for the latter reasons. And, if they did elect her for her personality, that may have changed now that she has jumped ship (not a good personality trait in many people's eyes).
I don't personally have a huge problem with her deciding to change parties, but I do think it warrants a by-election, which I think would answer your question definitively.
Ms. St-Denis is also known as a staunch federalist, with an NDP source saying that she privately lambasted the fact that Ms. Turmel had recently been a member of the separatist Bloc Québécois.
Comments 6
Hey! I tried to post about this earlier today, but it hasn't been accepted (yet). :-(
Anyway: what does this mean?
Ms St-Denis wasn't just some random person who agreed to stand for the NDP as a favour to a friend (like Ruth Ellen Brosseau). She's a party activist who worked for the NDP for a decade, long before they had even a single seat in Quebec - and now, after eight months of seeing the NDP caucus in action, she's decided to switch parties. And she didn't even waiting to see whether the candidate she endorsed for the NDP leadership wins - evidently she feels that the Liberals are a better choice regardless.
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I don't know enough about this situation or her personally to comment beyond broad hypotheses, though. (and, to reiterate, this is a possibility. I do not mean to suggest that it is likely.)
Reply
Perhaps. On the other hand, she's in her seventies, and has been diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma: so I tend to think that advancing her political career isn't likely to be her main concern.
Reply
Did her riding elect her because they liked her as a candidate personally? because she represented the NDP? Or because they really voted for Jack Layton?
Reply
I don't personally have a huge problem with her deciding to change parties, but I do think it warrants a by-election, which I think would answer your question definitively.
Reply
Ms. St-Denis is also known as a staunch federalist, with an NDP source saying that she privately lambasted the fact that Ms. Turmel had recently been a member of the separatist Bloc Québécois.
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