Green organizer quits over seal hunt opposition
Last Updated: Tuesday, December 6, 2005 | 11:56 AM ET
CBC News
Lori-Ann Martino, who was a candidate in Labrador riding in the 2004 federal election, says she cannot abide the party's opposition to a commercial seal hunt.
"This is a terrible strategy," said Martino, who feels the Green party is attempting to recruit voters who are morally opposed to the seal hunt but may not be informed about it.
"I have put so much work personally in distancing Newfoundland from that generic, stereotypical view [that] completely overrides the complexity of the issue ... and the economic importance and cultural importance of the hunt," Martino said.
Jim Harris, leader of the Green party, said the decision was made following a vote held at a recent party convention, in which 93 per cent of delegates voted to phase out the commercial fishery.
"Lori-Ann made a very valuable contribution to the party, but the Green party is a democratic, grassroots-based institution," he said.
Martino, though, said Green strategists hoping to appeal to new voters devised the initiative.
She said rank-and-file members she consulted did not support the decision.
"There was just such a disconnect between the membership and the leadership. And the Green party was never supposed to be about leaders," Martino said.
Harris said potential economic replacements for the seal hunt could include ecotourism.
