Friday, May 18, 2007

NDP MPP Votes Against Endangered Species Act

Timmins-James Bay NDP MPP Gilles Bisson joined four Tory MPPs in voting against third reading of the Endangered Species Act on Wednesday. The new law, heralded by environmentalists, expands the number of protected animals and allows scientists to determine which species should be added to the list each year. Ontario NDP leader Howard Hampton and Nickel Belt NDP MPP Shelly Martel skipped the vote. These northern members had reservations about the bill, but by voting against the bill (or abstaining in the latter case) they have allowed the Ontario Liberals to emerge as the greenest party in the legislature in the run up to this fall's provincial election.

See the final vote tally by clicking here and scrolling to the bottom of the page.

Read more about this issue here.

2 comments:

NO ONE said...

I was horrified when I first read about this, but then I read Bisson's statements and now I'm starting to think that folks are making a mountain out of a molehill.

Bisson didn't vote against this legislation because he is an anti-environmental creep, he's voting against it because his constituents told him that they felt like they were not consulted / were not able to be involved in the process of drafting this legislation.

This is not a problem of credibility, it's a problem of optics.

uncorrectedproofs said...

Joshua, you are letting him off the hook way too easily.

What if, for example, Bisson said that he couldn't support equal marriage or anti-scab laws because his constituents were not able to be involved in the process of drafting the specific legislation?

The fact that other NDP MPPs were comfortable enough voting for this legislation indicates that there is a serious north/south divide in the caucus.