The Editor,
I have listened to several all-candidates meetings in recent days but I still haven’t received a straightforward, non-spun answer to the following question from any NDP candidate, so perhaps a letter to the editor will elicit one.
This question is directed specifically to Fin Donnelly, the NDP candidate in Port Moody–Coquitlam and someone favoured to win. A recent local poll reported that most citizens of Burnaby — about 75% of respondents — are opposed to the planned Kinder Morgan pipeline expansion through their town, and previous polls have shown a comparable lack of enthusiasm in Coquitlam, where the private pipeline would run alongside nature zones of the Brunette River while carrying low-grade fossil fuel that contributes significantly to global warming and will endanger our province’s coastlines.
If MP Donnelly’s constituents are overwhelmingly opposed to the pipeline expansion, yet Mulcair’s party decides (after the election, of course) to support the pipeline expansion — as seems likely, given the NDP provincial leadership in Alberta — then will Donnelly stand with us or against us on this specific issue?
I could ask the underlying question as well. Like the federal Conservatives and Liberals, the NDP is a “whipped party” that forces all its MPs to support the party line. I would like to understand how Donnelly believes he can effectively represent the wishes of his constituents in Ottawa on occasions when his party forces him to act against those wishes.
Ann McGhee, Coquitlam
