The Leader of the Green Party of Canada sees no reason not to keep an allowance for votes cast for one of their disgraced candidates who quit before the federal election.
Elizabeth May told The Leader she believes voters in Fleetwood-Port Kells who cast ballots for Alan Saldanha were putting their support behind the Green party.
The Leader learned before the election that Saldanha, 63, had posted as his favourite quote on Facebook: “If rape is inevitable, lie back and enjoy it!”
Saldanha told The Leader his comments were taken out of context, and apologized for them.
He quit the election race an hour after The Leader posted the story online.
His resignation was after Elections Canada’s April 11 deadline for nominating candidates, so Saldanha remained on the ballot, under the Green party banner.
He received 1,476 votes on May 2.
The Green party stands to make $2 per vote annually, or $2,952 per year until the next election.
May doesn’t see a problem with that.
“Even though the candidate wasn’t there, they (voters) wanted to see support for Greens,” May said. “That number of voters consciously put an “X” next to the name of a candidate they knew wasn’t there, because they wanted to support the larger Green national vision.”
Green party press secretary Debra Eindinger had previously told a local Surrey paper the party would not accept the money.
On Monday, she’d softened that position.
“At the time we were sticky about not accepting that funding,” Eindinger said. “Our federal council will want to raise this issue... Of course the individuals who voted Green, they voted Green, some of them knowing they wouldn’t get a Green elected, but they wanted to at least give some financial support to the party so we can move forward.”
The council will decide whether to keep the money or not at the council meeting this Sunday.
kdiakiw@surreyleader.com
