Manitoba politician wants option of joining another party by next week
WINNIPEG — The lawyer for an Independent Manitoba politician is hoping a judge will agree Monday to immediately strike down a ban on floor-crossing so that his client, Steven Fletcher, will have the ability to join another party later in the week.
“The legislature is back in session on Wednesday, the fourth of October, and Mr. Fletcher wants to be in a position to explore all of his options,” lawyer Bill Gange said Friday.
Fletcher was kicked out of the governing Progressive Conservative caucus in June after criticizing the government’s plan to set up a new Crown corporation to promote energy efficiency.
He filed a lawsuit in August that asks the Court of Queen’s Bench to strike down a section of the Legislative Assembly Act, which says politicians who leave or are removed from one party’s caucus cannot join another. The law, enacted in 2006 by the former NDP government, requires such politicians to either sit as independents in the legislature, or resign their seat and run in a byelection under a new party banner.