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[edit] Moncton Green candidate withdraws

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Times & Transcript | Politics As published on page A10 on December 15, 2005

Green Party candidate leaves race Moncton hopeful says party cares about quantity, not quality of candidates

By Jorge Barrera Times & Transcript staff

OTTAWA - The Green Party is manipulating election financing rules and running candidates in as many ridings as it can just to fatten party coffers, says the former Green Party candidate for Moncton-Riverview-Dieppe, who dropped out of the election in disgust this week.

Camille Gabrielle Taylor, 30, said the Green Party is not interested in recruiting the best candidates for the upcoming election. She said the party just wants a name on the ballot so they can pick up a few votes here and there and increase their Elections Canada payout.

"They are gaming the system to make sure they continue to get federal funding and it demonstrates the way the federal funding formula is incredibly wrong," said Taylor. "A party that should be sticking to its ideals can't help but be corrupted by putting up candidates that aren't appropriate."

Taylor said she is disabled and gets tired very quickly. Her joints also cause her problems and she has hard time leaving her home. But Taylor allowed the Green Party to put her up as a candidate, after her mother turned down the offer, believing no one else wanted to run. Then she discovered the party had made no effort to find other candidates in the riding.

Registered political parties that gain over two per cent of the popular vote in a general election qualify for a payout of $1.75 per vote from Elections Canada. The Green Party earned 4.3 per cent of the vote in the 2004 election and $1.1 million from Elections Canada. The Liberals will get $9.1 million, the Conservatives $7.3 million, the NDP $3.9 million and the Bloc $3.1 million from Elections Canada this year.

Election spending limits are also higher for parties that field candidates in all 308 ridings.

Sharon Labchuk, Atlantic Canada organizer for the Green Party, said she believed Taylor quit the campaign because she lacked political experience and was confused about the candidate selection process.

She said Taylor was chosen because the party believed she would be an "excellent" candidate. The Green party does not have any riding associations in New Brunswick and can't hold nomination meetings, forcing the party to pick candidates for each riding, said Labchuk.

Labchuk admitted the Green Party is trying to run candidates in as many ridings it can across the country with no expectation of winning. Labchuk is running in P.E.I. against incumbent Liberal MP Wayne Easter.

Taylor's concerns over the Green Party's candidate selection process are shared by Democracy Watch, said the head of the government watchdog, Duff Conacher.

Political parties can't be trusted to uphold democracy within their ranks and should be subject to Elections Canada scrutiny when it comes to selecting candidates, said Conacher.

- Jord 21:22, 15 December 2005 (UTC)