Tuesday, January 20, 2004

COPPS PROMISES NOT TO RUN FOR NDP...SORT OF

A CP article at canoe.ca reports:

Sheila Copps says she's willing to sign a Liberal party form promising not to run for the NDP if she loses the Grit nomination in her riding, but she doesn't consider herself legally bound by the promise.

"I don't believe that the form is worth the paper that it's written on," Copps said in an interview Monday. "But I will sign it, because I have no choice." All candidates for a Liberal nomination in the next federal election are being asked to make written declarations that they will not run for any other party if they fail to get the Liberal stamp of approval.

So really Copps has not ruled out anything. Basically the form will be used for political embarrassment if Copps decides to run for the NDP. As I have already said here, Copps needs to make her decision about which party she's running for before her nomination meeting.

I suspect, that as a life long Liberal, and one who, as Warren Kinsella says, kept the party alive during the Mulroney years, Copps is very reluctant to leave the party. If she goes it would be next to impossible to return in a post-Martin era, which she may want to do. However, Copps is also a career politician dedicated to her constituents, Canadians, and public life. Faced with the prospect of having no seat in the Commons at all she may still switch her alliegance.

Basically, like the rest of us, I have no idea what she's going to do. But speculation is what this forum is all about.

Posted by Matthew @ 1:44 a.m.