It wasn’t really an environmental issue, but at one point during the April 21 forum in Roberts Creek, an audience member drew applause from the crowd and passionate responses from the candidates when he asked them to “share the evidence that you have the guts to oppose your own party when it’s needed, because we don’t need logos and whipped politicians.”
The NDP’s Nicholas Simons was first to answer, saying forcefully, “I don’t claim to know everything. I don’t claim our party’s always right. I’ve never done so and I never will. We’re all part human up here. We all have our own experience and our own opinions that we bring to the table … I’ve spoken truth to power on many, many occasions. I’ve taken on the government. I’ve even taken on the party.”
Simons said the NDP has “caucus solidarity,” but “argues like heck inside that caucus room” before coming out with a position they think the whole party can get behind.
He also said he’s seen MLAs from all parties vote against party lines.
Liberal Mathew Wilson said he hasn’t always felt at home in the party and thought long and hard before pursuing a nomination as their candidate.
“When I decided to run, I was very clear and said, ‘Look, there are parts of the party policy, and parts of the party history, that I don’t agree with, and if it’s not good for my riding, I am not going to vote for it,’ and they said ‘that’s OK.’ We are a party of ideas, not a party of ideology, and we have really frank conversations,” Wilson said.
“The BC Green Party is not whipped, I am not whipped,” said Green candidate Kim Darwin. “If I had to be in a whipped party, I would actually have run as an independent [instead]. I get to vote based on what you tell me you want and my conscience.”
Darwin went on to explain that two exceptions to free votes would be budgets and confidence motions that could bring down a government. She said the Green approach in those cases would be to reach a consensus and vote together based on that consensus.
