Ottawa

This weekend in Nycole Turmel

Elizabeth May defends the interim NDP leader. Stephane Dion has questions.

The Canadian unity issue: Turmel’s judgment has to be questioned. It is one thing to vote for the Bloc as a private individual without being a sovereignist; it is something else entirely to buy a membership in a party whose primary objective is to separate Quebec from Canada. Turmel says she was attracted to the Bloc’s social program. Did she, and does she still, believe that the Bloc’s social program is better than that of the NDP — a party that also runs candidates in Quebec?

She says she became a Bloc member because one of her friends was a Bloc MP, but what does friendship have to do with political affiliation? We all have friends with different allegiances: do we have to become card-carrying members of their parties to prove our friendship?

Mr. Dion also wants to know how many New Democrat MPs were, or still are, members of separatist parties and how many would vote for independence in a referendum held today.

Meanwhile, our own Emma Teitel argues in defence of changing one’s mind.

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