NEW GLASGOW – Green Party leader Elizabeth May announced that her party considers Independent Member of Parliament Bill Casey "an honourary Green". The Green Party of Canada and its Electoral District Association in Cumberland—Colchester—Musquodoboit Valley will not be opposing the re-election of Mr Casey. The nominated candidate for the Green Party in Casey's riding, Darryl Whetter, has decided to step aside and is now the Green candidate in Halifax.But what exactly makes Bill Casey "an honourary Green"? Is he a hard-line environmentalist? I doubt it. Has he ever expressed his intention to join the Green party? No, that never happened; since his expulsion from the Conservative caucus, Bill Casey has been sitting as "Independent Progressive Conservative", not as "Independent Green". But maybe Mr. Casey was expelled from the caucus because of his disagreement with the government's position on Kyoto? No, the question was whether or not offshore oil revenues should affect the equalization transfers to the province. That's hardly a "green" issue...
So why did Elizabeth May decide not to run a Green candidate against him? Alberta Ardvark blogger suggests that by yielding another constituency, she may try to convince Dion not to run a Liberal candidate against the recently turned Green MP Blair Wilson. But Bill Casey is not a Liberal. Come election, he's going to be still opposed by the actual Liberal candidate. Endorsing him won't help Blair Wilson in any way.
Then why was Bill Casey named "an honourary Green"? Most likely - just because he had voted against Harper. That's the only thing what makes him valuable to Elizabeth May, who is still acting as a Sierra Club activist, not as a political party leader. Instead of trying to get as many Green MPs elected as possible, all she wants is to elect more anti-Harper MPs - even if they don't support the Green party policies. She may succeed in getting Bill Casey re-elected, but I doubt that her own party will thank her for that.
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