Seal Hunt and Green Democracy

It is probably fair to say that no policy within the Green Party of Canada is more contentious than the Harp and Hooded seal hunt in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Official current policy is to phase out the commercial hunt. Personal hunting of seal, as with deer hunting, for example, is still fine. A mass vote of the membership just before the last Annual Convention resulted in approval for a well-managed commercial seal hunt according to green principles. But at the Annual Convention the mass vote was overturned in favour of banning the commercial hunt. The Terra Nova Greens of Newfoundland & Labrador were some mad at this.

Bear in mind that the Greens are nowhere near to forming a government. The issue of phasing out the seal hunt, or not, is pure fantasy. The more likely and real issue would be how an elected Green Party of Canada MP would vote should another party propose a bill on modifying the seal hunt.

In an ordinary political party one would expect its politicians to toe the party line, shut up, or jump ship. The central authority is always all powerful. In the Green Party of Canada this is not the case.

The Green Party of Canada is a decentralist party. The ultimate power in the Green Party is the local riding, aka the Electoral District Association. The EDA takes in all the presentations of the leader, green "values," green policy, green platform, opinions of EDAs from all over Canada, and lastly, the local candidate. Then the EDA tells the green MP how to vote.

Since there are no green MPs, the leader of the Green Party of Canada and the executive of the green party try to gather all opinons together themselves and create a political platform for communication to Canadians. The platform is, of course, a very gray concensus of the many disparate green views. This is necessarily so as the Green Party of Canada is neither left nor right but is instead a wide and broad party. However, being decentralist, it is of little or no concern except to the would be petty dictators who believe they are more green than those who would disagree with them.

The greens of Terra Nova are expected, nay, encouraged to vote for a proper commercial seal hunt, and some scattered greens from there and other places would vote against it. The leader of the Green Party of Canada would probably vote against the commercial hunt if he had his druthers although I have no idea what his EDA would vote to do.

A decentralized party reflects the character and nature of all the peoples and regions of Canada. It is one of our principle values, "Respect for Diversity." "Grassroots Democracy" is another. And a supporting important principle is "Community-based Economics." It is no wonder that the Terra Nova Greens would vote to support the commercial hunt.

In the end, the decentralized process works. You just know that an excellent, viable demonstrably GREEN hunt will probably result should a Green government be elected. And you know that this is very unlikely right now. What is important to take note of is that the Terra Nova Greens are supporters of a "good" hunt -- and rightly so, whether we agree with them or not.

To draw a clear parallel, we could briefly compare the "pro choice" issue. The Green Party of Canada supports the right of a woman to choice. In a vote in parliament, currently, there would probably be a free vote for members. However, for greens, it is my contention that green MPs represent the EDA. So each green MP vote would essentially be representative of each of their respective EDAs. It is the EDA that is effectively voting in parliament, not the individual.

The concept of free vote or party vote does not really apply to greens. We have only the EDA vote. The only exception to this rule that I can imagine is a "money matter" vote where it would be the decision of the Green Party itself on whether to bring down a government or not.