EDMONTON – The tables have turned on Peter Goldring.
The Independent member of Parliament is demanding an explanation for what he describes as an “abrasive, unilateral action,” after he was barred from hosting a table to “promote Canadian unity” at the Legislature on Canada Day.
In a June 28 letter obtained by the Journal, Goldring said he has handed out maple leaf pins and flags, ‘O Canada’ bookmarks and an information pamphlet about the federal government every year since 1996.
Goldring was first given permission to host the table when he worked with the Special Committee on Canadian Unity, and has continued in the years since, he wrote.
When he tried to book the space this year, however, Goldring said Sergeant-at-Arms Brian Hodgson denied him.
“(Hodgson said) permission had been granted in 1996 because the table was to deal with Canadian unity, and it was only in 2011 he became aware that I was a Member of Parliament,” Goldring wrote.
“(Hodgson said) permission should not have been granted for that year or any previous year because of my political affiliation.”
Goldring said Hodgson refused to put his objections in writing, and demanded and explanation.
“I find it odd that a celebration of Canada’s birthday … excludes arbitrarily a member of our federal government and his group of Canada Day volunteers,” Goldring wrote. “Would you please respond with an official reason for such abrasive, unilateral action.”
In an interview Sunday, Goldring said celebrating and promoting Canadian unity is crucial, especially in the face of increasingly ambivalent attitudes toward the possibility of Quebec seceding from the rest of Canada.
“Otherwise we’ll fall into the same problem we had in 1995 when we just about lost our country. And why? Because we were ambivalent, we didn’t stand up for Canadian unity,” Goldring said.
Goldring insisted that nothing at the table could be construed as political. “This year, it’s even less political,” he said. “I’m an independent. What am I promoting?”
Calls to Speaker Gene Zwozdesky were not immediately returned.
Goldring was first elected to office as a Reform MP in 1997, and was re-elected to his fifth term in May 2011 as Conservative. He voluntarily resigned from caucus in December to sit as an independent member after he was charged for failing to provide a breath sample when he was pulled over in December 2011 by an Edmonton police officer.
Goldring, who has previously opposed roadside breathalyzer tests, insisted he had just “one beer” and wasn’t impaired when the officer stopped him on his way home from his annual constituency fundraiser on Dec. 4 2011.
He entered a plea of not guilty in an Edmonton court in April and has said he will provide the reason for refusing the breath sample when the case goes to trial in November.
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