Who are the NDP? Separatists?
The NDP may have chosen Nycole Turmel as their interim leader, but that doesn’t change her previous separatist ties. While she claims that she joined the Bloc Quebecois in 2006 because a friend urged her too and didn’t like their principles, five years later, she now finds herself as interim leader of the NDP… If she really didn’t agree with the Bloc Quebecois, why would she have had a membership for five years? Not to mention that she is also a member of Quebec’s Quebec Solidaire Party which also puts Quebec sovereignty as their top priority.
Turmel also realizes the separatist ties saying, “It’s not a federalist party but … at the same time they work on issues for Quebec families, in Quebec,” on CBC’s Power Play.
Nycole Turmel is not the only NDPer who has separatist ties, and as leader of the NDP, Layton would be incompetent if he didn’t already know this when he recommended her for the top job.
Side Note: NDP MPs Who Would say Oui to Quebec Separation
- NDP MP from Laurentides-Labelle, Marc-Andre Morin, paused for about 10 seconds when asked whether he had been a supporter of Quebec independence. “I supported the Bloc for a long time. I saw that in a certain context it could have been justified.”
- The party’s youngest MP, 19-year-old Pierre-Luc Dusseault, raised his eyebrows and endorsed Quebec Separation on a Toronto radio show. “Sovereignty will be done in Quebec. And Quebecers will decide if they want to be a country. (While) awaiting this moment, I’ve said why not give us a real government that is good for us. . . We will respect sovereignty with the NDP.”
Turmel’s friend wasn’t just a friend, her friend was a Bloc MP as Turmel acknowledged in the same interview. “I was friends with Carole Lavallée who was an MP with the Bloc Québécois, so I took a membership card with her in her riding.”
Turmel’s opposition couldn’t have gotten this news at a better time, Harper’s spokesman used it as a way to question the credibility of the NDP. However, despite the fact that she had separatist ties and is now the temporary leader of a supposedly federalist party, at least she had the integrity to acknowledge her wrong doing from the past that just brings National Unity back to the front table. Isn’t that the reason why the NDP destroyed the Bloc Quebecois in the first place? More realistically, however, Quebecers voted for Jack and without Jack Layton the NDP is guaranteed to crumble in the next election. But with light of this new turn of events, how can Canadians trust Jack Layton when he has openly said that he wanted to open the constitution to meet Quebecers’ needs and has separatist members, and now a separatist replacement. Regardless how you want to see it, Turmel was part of a party for 5 years whose sole purpose was to separate the country.
“This is yet another worrying example of the NDP not up to the job of governing Canada when its interim leader was a full member of the sovereigntist Bloc Québecois just a few short months ago,” said Dimitri Soudas, spokesman for Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
The Liberals said that the NDP will “have serious questions to answer about her personal views as well as the NDP caucus’ position on Quebec sovereignty and the future of our country.”
If you don’t remember, Jack Layton is the same person who said that he would accept a sovereign Quebec with a 50% + 1 vote and got slammed for his lack of knowledge of the Clarity Act.
So who is the NDP? Are they really a federalist party, or are they a Quebec Separatist party in disguise? As for Jack Layton, I wish him well with his cancer, but choosing Turmel to take his place was a poor choice, both for his party, and for this country.
