Federal Liberal leadership candidate Gerard Kennedy must resign from his seat in the Ontario legislature if he moves to Quebec this summer, Ontario's opposition parties said Monday.
If Kennedy heads to Quebec for an extended time, then he should give up his seat in the west-end Toronto riding of Parkdale-High Park, said New Democrat Peter Kormos...
"I don't know how you could do your job properly as an MPP for Parkdale-High Park if you're living in Quebec," Tory said. "I think they should very carefully examine whether someone can do their job when they're not even in the province."
Kennedy's initial response might be to get some feedback from his constituents to gauge their feelings. If this issue becomes embarrassing, it might be advantageous for Kennedy to just resign and eliminate the bad optics. Partisanship aside, there is a point to criticism that Kennedy's isn't fulfilling his duties as an MPP. If reports are accurate, Kennedy has failed to show up at Queen's Park since his declaration, which adds weight to the detractors arguments.
Kennedy's circumstance isn't unique, we see the same scenario play out stateside when Senators run in the primaries. However, unless Kennedy is prepared to split his time between running and serving(which could hurt his leadership chances), it makes for bad appearances and more negative press. If Kennedy were to resign, it would eliminate the irritant and could be spun to show how serious he takes his leadership bid- willing to risk his parachute back to Ontario.
2 comments:
Unfortunately I have to say, since he is my MPP, he should resign. I assumed he would. I think the provincial NDP has been smearing him by posting the identical spam commens in every pro Kennedy blog they can find saying the same thing. The fake blogger uses the handle "KennedyFacts" and here's their generic posting:
"Please ask Kennedy: When are you going to resign your provincial seat? Why is your website half done and not updated? Kennedy has not voted once in 4 weeks of sittings at Queens Park and pulled downed his constituency website to put up his leadership website."
The contituency office on Dundas street in Toronto is still up and running at full speed I might add. But the NDP wants Kennedy's seat badly and so do the Conservatives, the wolves are howling at the door.
He should resign, but the NDP's criticism is ironic given Olivia Chow's example.
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