Dear Editor,
Have we come to a time in politics where everything a person ever says in public, on the internet or in academia can be twisted against you to suit the whims of a political party or government?
Or does a political party become so obsessed with defeating its political enemies it becomes so much like the political entity it wishes to defeat?
I was victim of this debate when the federal NDP blocked me from running in Melville-Yorkton. No vote from the local membership, no right to appeal. Instead James Pratt, federal campaign director for the federal NDP, in a phone call worthy of Senator Joe McCarthy, just demanded I withdraw my request for candidacy or I would have my request to run for the NDP denied.
The alleged transgression was sharing posts from StopHarper.ca on my personal facebook page. No criminal record. No public indiscretions. My crime was sharing the deep rooted anger many Canadians have with the current regime in Ottawa.
All the accomplishments I achieved working with amazing coalitions across Western Canada meant nothing to party brass encased in their offices in Ottawa.
The message from the Tom Mulcair NDP is we want well behaved sheep- not real working Canadians.
A sad and tragic departure from the NDP of Tommy Douglas, Ed Broadbent and Jack Layton.
The by-elections of June 30th have shown Canadians are rejecting the Mulcair NDP's obsession with the machine politics of controlled messaging and party discipline over party democracy.
The NDP's obsession with winning power at all costs may be the very thing that will destroy the best chance it has ever had in its history to form Canada's next government.
For me this was a shocking, heart rending outcome to a life long commitment to radical social democracy and doing my best to make the lives of people better.
I have torn up my NDP membership and urge all Canadians who want real change to Stephen Harper to vote for the Green Party or progressive Liberals.
George-Richard Wooldridge
Melville, SK
