Elizabeth May is no longer alone in making her pitch to NDP voters - Paul Manly is now also taking up the battle.
Once an 'orange diaper baby,' Manly begins life as a Green MP
Paul Manly said Friday that he was once an “orange diaper baby,” but now feels like the NDP has “abandoned a lot of their principles.”
... “My parents are both Green Party members, and had been out canvassing for me. It was a process for my family. My parents were CCF members; they were at the founding convention of the NDP,” he said, referring to the NDP predecessor, the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation.
“I canvassed with Tommy Douglas to get my father elected on my sixteenth birthday. So I’m an orange diaper baby. But my daughter isn’t an orange diaper baby. Neither is my granddaughter.”
... Asked to differentiate his beliefs from those held by the federal NDP, Manly referred to policy positions on defence, trade and natural resources, as well as differences in terms of parliamentary behaviour.
“The NDP have abandoned a lot of their principles. They voted for bombing Libya,” he said. In 2011, the NDP under Jack Layton approved Canada's role in the NATO-led military intervention in the North African country. The party later withdrew its support.
“They voted for the Canada-Korea free trade agreement, even though it had investor-state provisions in it,” Manly added. The NDP under Thomas Mulcair declared its support for the Harper government’s trade deal with South Korea in 2014.
Current NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh has also expressed support for the Coastal GasLink LNG pipeline in B.C., saying "the company and the government have done significant work to obtain the consent and partnership of Indigenous communities."
The Green Party is against the pipeline, and Manly said he believed it would lead to more fracking. The province's Oil and Gas Commission suspended fracking operations after a series of earthquakes.
The Green MP also noted how Vision Green commits MPs to conduct themselves “respectfully” in the House of Commons, never heckling or using ad hominem attacks, and the party would never "whip" a vote, forcing an MP to toe a party line.
“One of the key differences is the way we behave in Parliament. We don’t heckle, we don’t use personal attacks. We stick to the issues, we treat other MPs respectfully. And we work across party lines for what’s in the best interests of our constituents and Canadians,” he said.
“We also don’t have a whipped vote. So Elizabeth can’t tell me what to say, and she can’t tell me how to vote. In effect, I’m working with Green Party policy which I support, but I am free to be representing my constituents and to follow my conscience, and to follow the policies that I’ve been elected on.”
... On Friday, Manly described the Conservatives, Liberals and NDP as all tainted when it came to environmental issues.
“What we have is the three old parties,” he said. “The Conservatives can’t even agree on a carbon tax or minor adjustments to deal with climate change. The Liberals bought a pipeline, and want to expand the oilsands. The NDP, depending on where they are, are either supporting oilsands expansion or fracked gas.”
https://www.nationalobserver.com/2019/05/10/news/once-orange-diaper-baby...