CHURCHILL, Manitoba, October 20, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Winnipeg New Democratic Party MP Bev Desjarlais quit the New Democratic party Tuesday to sit as an independent after being ousted from the NDP for being the only member of her caucus to vote against same-sex “marriage.”
NDP leader Jack Layton supported a candidate who defeated Desjarlais’ for the nomination in anticipation of the next federal election – 24-year-old Niki Ashton, a recent university graduate. Desjarlais announced her decision to sit as an independent after losing the nomination.
“I’m comfortable with where it has ended up,” Desjarlais said, according to a CanWest News Service report. “I don’t believe that you have to believe in every single little thing that a party might have as their policy.”
Layton claimed to the media that Desjarlais’ failed nomination bid had everything to do with the wishes of local party members, and not because of anything he did. Conservative MP James Bezan (Selkirk—Interlake) disagreed. In comments made in the House of Commons Wednesday, Bezan said, “When the member for Churchill stood up for her conscience and her constituents by voting to preserve the traditional definition of marriage, the NDP leader stripped her of her critic responsibilities. Then he encouraged his hand-picked candidate to defeat the hard-working MP in a nomination battle, forcing her to sit as an independent member.”
“If people want an MP who stands up for her constituents and does what she believes is right, not just somebody who toes the party line, they have no home in today’s NDP,” Bezan added.
Some Manitoba voters do not appear to agree with Layton either. In a letter to the editor of the Winnipeg Sun Wednesday, James Cotton said, “What the NDP did to MP Bev Desjarlais is a disgrace. So much for the NDP being for freedom and choice. Desjarlais did something that is lacking in politicians – she listened to the wishes of her riding, and Jack Layton and the NDP punished her for that. Shame, shame! So much for the NDP trying to clean up government.”
After announcing her decision to break with the party in her vote against same-sex “marriage” last spring, Desjarlais said, “Discipline within caucus is a far lesser worry for me than my living with myself over something I believe quite strongly about.”
See related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
New Democrats Invoke Party Discipline to Force Unanimous Pro-Homosexual ‘Marriage’ Vote
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2003/sep/03090503.html
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