NDP kills minority seats under cover of holida
“despicable deed” shows NDP don’t respect minorities
Under cover of the looming New Year holiday, an NDP majority voted Friday afternoon to seffectively eliminate the protected seats which have traditionally allowed Acadians and African Nova Scotians a realistic chance to elect representation from their own communities.
“We’ve already demanded that the NDP undo their unacceptable slashing of minority representation,” said Progressive Conservative leader Jamie Baillie. “What they did, and the sneaky way they did it, was utterly disrespectful to Acadians and African Nova Scotians.”
A committee of MLAs was tasked with defining the rules for an Electoral Boundaries Commission to redraw constituencies in Nova Scotia, but the NDP used their majority to pass a report that eliminates the ability of the Commission to safeguard four previously-protected seats (three in Acadian areas, plus Preston which includes African Nova Scotian communities). The NDP hold none of these seats and stand to benefit from their elimination.
“The protection of minority rights is above politics. This kind of crass manouevre by the NDP is a despicable deed,” said PC House Leader and Argyle MLA Chris d’Entremont. “In hearings all over Nova Scotia, nobody asked for this. The only explanation is partisan NDP politics. The re-election campaign of Darrell Dexter has started with him stabbing minorities – both Acadian and African Nova Scotian – right in the back,” said d’Entremont.
Without protection, the four seats would not exist because they are smaller in population than others. The four are Argyle, Clare, Preston and Richmond. Progressive Conservative and Liberal MLAs voted against the NDP move and have submitted a minority report.
In November, the PC’s opposed the way the NDP gave the relatively unscrutinized committee, which often met in-camera, the power to write the terms of reference for something so important while at the same time being dominated by one political party.
“This is exactly the sort of abuse we predicted. The NDP could get away with making changes that favoured them at the expense of particular Nova Scotians by doing it in committee without much scrutiny,” said Baillie. “But even that wasn’t a sneaky enough trick for the NDP so they did it at the start of a holiday weekend.”
Comments are closed.