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Bill Vankoughnet: a concern about internal party democracy
My main concern is basic to all of our problems, and that is democracy. To me the people have the right to choose their candidate that they want without undue influence.
Thats how Bill Vankoughnet describes his motivation to run as an independent in the current election. After serving as a Progressive Conservative Party member both provincially and federally he is running as an independent for the first time in his political career, as the result of a controversial, and much publicized, refusal by the Conservative Party of Canada to accept his application to seek their partys nomination.
He has some strong things to say about that decision, going so far as to intimate that the party was intent on having Scott Reid as a candidate because of his donations to the Stephen Harper leadership campaign.
This is a unique riding, Vankoughnet says, and it requires an MP that is focused entirely on the riding; one that understands the way people think, not someone who is parachuted in. Its not good enough just to say, I sit in a rural caucus, thats not good enough. When I was Federal MP I used to travel around in a motor home to meet with people in the riding. Thats what you need to do.
In a clear reference to Scott Reid, Vankoughnet said Its fine to speak four languages, but it is important to speak the language of the people in the riding.
Vankoughnet also says, that although he may return to party politics in the future, he likes the freedom that being an independent affords him, although I was pretty much an independent representative all along, he said.
As an independent he is free to question things like the mantra of balanced budgets. Im not one to advocate deficit spending, but when you are up against SARS, BSE, etc, you have to borrow for the future to help people get through.
He also argues that in a close election like this one, sending independent members to the house might be very beneficial for individual ridings.
If there are two or three independent members, and maybe a Green party member or two, they might tip the balance for one group or another. They might actually have quite a bit of power.
As a long-time parliamentarian, Vankoughnet is suspicious of promises to hold free votes on various issues.
The only free vote is a secret ballot, because as long as the party establishment can watch people vote, then they are going to ultimately exercise control, removing people from committees, etc.
Vankoughnet describes the riding as a rural, agricultural, and tourism oriented riding, and it has received little or no support from the federal government in recent years. Farm organisations should be involved in developing supports for farmers, who are hurting so badly. The MP must spend all his time fighting for his constituents in a riding like this, and Ive spent many years doing just that.
