Former federal New Democrat candidate for West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast-Sea to Sky Country and noted marijuana activist Dana Larsen made the trip to Halifax for the annual NDP convention last week, but found himself turned away at the door.
Larsen, who resigned from the 2008 federal campaign after videos of him driving after smoking a joint appeared on YouTube, was at the convention to push the party for reform to its drug policy.
He had hoped to push delegates to vote for a resolution to change the NDP's policy on marijuana from "decriminalization" to "legalization and taxation" but found himself accused of "vote buying".
"I had posted on babble.com and also on my End Prohibition website that if you are a like-minded NDP member and a delegate to the convention and you would support this resolution, then we would help you get to the convention if you couldn't do it yourself," Larsen said.
Larsen said he was sent an e-mail by NDP national director Brad Lavigne two days before the convention telling him his online posts were considered by party brass as vote buying and that Larsen was no longer welcome as a delegate to the convention.
Larsen decided to attend the convention as an observer, but was then turned away.
He spent the rest of the convention outside the front door with a placard reading: "I was banned from the NDP convention. Ask me why."
Larsen concedes his offer to help transport and house delegates who would vote his way was poorly worded, but he still feels that Lavigne treated him unfairly.
"I do agree the post I wrote was intemperately worded, but my intention was never to bribe anybody or make anybody change their vote to vote my way. I thought I was getting out the vote," he said. "There wasn't any hearing or chance for me to explain myself I regret phrasing it that way."
Ultimately Larsen's resolution on drug policy reform was never voted on.
Despite being barred from entering the convention, Larsen said he will continue to support the NDP.
"I love the NDP. I believe in our party. I'm not trying to embarrass the party," he said.
Coast Reporter tried several times to contact Lavigne for comment, but an interview request was not granted.
