Voters should elect MPs, not parties: May

Watch above: Green party leader Elizabeth May speaks with Tom Clark about the newest addition to her caucus, former NDP MP Bruce Hyer.

When the Green Party doubled in size this week with Thunder Bay, Ont.  MP Bruce Hyer’s defection, he acknowledged some constituents might not be happy about his move. But his new leader says voters should elect the individuals they feel will best represent them regardless of party affiliation.

Hyer was elected as a member of the NDP but he left that caucus in 2012 after voting against party lines to scrap the long gun registry and sat as an independent until last week.

But Green leader Elizabeth May doesn’t think Hyer should have to go to the polls again in order to be able to sit in her caucus.

“We do not have a system based on you elect a political party when you go to the polls.  You’re electing your member of Parliament and under our Constitution. Members of Parliament represent their constituents,” May said in an interview on The West Block with Tom Clark.

“The problem is, it’s almost as if political parties have hijacked the system to such an extent that people running for Parliament are sort of cardboard cut outs representing the leader in that riding.”

Watch the full interview with Elizabeth May above.