Turmel admits being ex-member of Bloc Québécois

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 03/08/2011 (5465 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA — The NDP’s new interim leader admits taking out a membership in the Bloc Québécois to support a friend was “not the best move,” but assures she is and has always been a federalist.

Nycole Turmel was on the defensive Tuesday after news emerged she was a card-carrying member of the Bloc Québécois for five years before she gave it up in January, just prior to becoming the NDP candidate in Hull-Aylmer.

She says she voted “no” in both the 1980 and 1995 Quebec referendums and only joined the party because her friend, Carole Lavallee, asked her to.

The Bloc’s former labour critic represented Saint-Bruno-Saint-Hubert from 2004 until the last election when she was defeated by the NDP’s Djaouida Sellah.

Turmel, the former president of the Public Service Alliance of Canada, befriended Lavallee when they worked together on anti-scab legislation.

Turmel said her Bloc membership was for her friend’s riding only and she even refused to transfer her membership to her own riding when asked.

She also acknowledged membership in the provincial Quebec solidaire party, a democratic socialist party that also supports Quebec sovereignty.

She said she joined the party because the NDP doesn’t exist in Quebec at the provincial level but said she would “let that card go” as well.

Noting she was also approached by the Liberal party and the Bloc prior to the last election, Turmel said the choice has always been clear.

“I said for sure the Liberals, I cannot run for them. I said I cannot support sovereignty so I said if I did decide to run, it would be for the NDP,” she said.

NDP spokesman Karl Belanger noted Turmel had been a New Democrat for 20 years. She served as the party’s associate president in the 1990s and co-chaired the party’s social democratic forum on Canada’s future.

That said, both the Conservatives and Liberals wasted no time lambasting the New Democrats for selecting a former Bloc Québécois party member as their interim leader after Jack Layton stepped down temporarily a week ago to battle a new bout of cancer.

“This is yet another worrying example of the NDP not up to the job of governing Canada when its interim leader was a full member of the sovereigntist Bloc Québécois just a few short months ago,” said Dimitri Soudas, a spokesman for Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

Liberal spokesman Daniel Lauzon said it’s time for Turmel to come clean about her personal views and her party’s position on Quebec sovereignty.

“We hope those questions will be addressed in the coming days as I imagine members of her own caucus will want clarity on those issues as well,” he said.

Bloc Québécois president Vivian Barbot said it’s “unusual” to hear somebody would have joined the party simply to support a single individual and not because they “believe in our objectives.”

She also noted Turmel made donations totalling $235 to the party, though she does not recall her being a particularly active member.

Barbot said party membership is usually kept confidential and she wouldn’t say whether any of the 57 other newly elected Quebec New Democrats had previously held a membership in her party.

— Postmedia News