Friday, May 04, 2007

Well, this is awkward...

A member of the Green Party of Nova Scotia intends to run as an independent against Green Party of Canada candidate Elizabeth May in Central Nova.
Sebastian Ronin is protesting May's trampling of local electoral rights for the greater good, or, as he puts it in a letter to his local paper : "treating the Canadian electoral map like a shoe store."

"Let’s not forget that if the national Liberals had their way they would be passing legislation, with accompanying monstrous bureaucracies, to accompany Canadians to the bathroom. If you think the rifle registration was a colossal boondoggle, wait until environmental initiatives come along, irrespective of the federal political party sponsoring such initiatives."

May is now in the awkward position of having to support his right to be included in local debates, much as she herself has claimed the right to be included in the federal debates.

H/T Maxwell's House
UPDATE: Mr Ronin responds to Devin at the Maxwell's House link above.
Red Tory, in his own supercilious way, is rather more sympathetic to his candidacy.
Fot the hardcore : Two threads at Babble on Central Nova.
The uneasy coalition between the right and left factions of the Green Party - this is going to be interesting.

4 comments:

Niles said...

uhm...from his quote, I'm confused. I thought the Greens were for strong environmental controls and reductions measures from federal government.

If he's a provincial level Green, but he's making statements that sound more virulently anti-'nanny state', doesn't that make him tilt more into the 'drown government in a bathtub' sector?

Red Tory said...

Niles — You got it. He's an "eco-libertarian" whatever that means. I think it's not too hard to figure out.

Alison said...

Niles : The Federal Greens may be "for strong environmental controls and reductions measures from federal government", but some considerable portion of provincial Greens are decidedly "anti-nanny-state", Mr Ronin among them.
From his website, I gather he strongly disagreed with the very idea of establishing a Federal Green Party, hence his candidacy.
It's going to be interesting when the next election comes around to see what proportion of Greens, both federal and provincial, are considerably to the right of even the Cons. I'm guessing far higher than most of Canada expects.

Anonymous said...

Hi. Thanks for picking up on this. From the comments I see, they're addressed in the dedicated site for this gig: www.roninnova.ca

Consider it meta-context, but it is important to take into consideration that this is being done after a 20-year hiatus from Green politicking, i.e. resignation from GPBC in 1986 (over creation of a federal Green party) to membership with GPNS three months ago. Again, pretty well laid out in the site.

I don't mind taking hits, but in all fairness, they can't be based on reading the home page only. BTW, Red Tory, over the next several months I will in all likelihood be called far worse than "crank." Also, thanks for the plug in your blog, banal sarcasm notwithstanding. It is the site that is a "flame" not me. I would never consider stooping to such a vain declaration.

Thanks, again.

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