Andrew Weaver made history three years ago, tripling the Green Party’s seat count and holding the balance of power for a minority NDP government.
But now, the former B.C. Green Party leader is taking aim at his MLA caucus mates.
Weaver, who’s now sitting as in independent MLA, took to Twitter over the weekend to blast his former colleagues — calling Sonia Furstenau’s pitch for a four-day work week “an absolutely kooky idea.”
He finished the tweet saying: “Perhaps u should do background research before shooting from the hip.”
This is an absolutely kooky idea. We aren't New Zealand. U clearly haven't thought this through as it's far more complicated than just a few sound bites & a tweet. Perhaps u should do background research before shooting from the hip. Classic decision-based evidence-making #bcpoli
— Andrew Weaver (@AJWVictoriaBC) May 24, 2020
In another tweet, Weaver says: “Adam Olsen and Sonia Furstenau were afraid to stand up to the BC NDP” on LNG and “were more interested in re-election than standing up for BC Green principals.”
My former colleagues @AdamPOlsen & @SoniaFurstenau were afraid to stand up to the BC NDP wrt to the LNG development. I was ready to go to election, but in my opinion, they were more interested in re-election than they were about standing up for @BCGreen principles.
— Andrew Weaver (@AJWVictoriaBC) May 24, 2020
“I’m not really paying attention to tweets that go out in the middle of the night,” Furstenau told CHEK News in response. “What’s really important is that as elected representatives, we really model the capacity and intention of having healthy, respectful debate.”
Furstenau, who is in the running to be the party’s new leader, says she was quite surprised by the unprovoked attack, which points to a rift within the party before Weaver stepped down.
Weaver told CHEK News on Monday that he’s worried the “Greens will lose the goodwill of the business community if they’re not careful.”
When asked about the rift, Weaver said: “There’s no rift but we are very different people and we disagreed on (key) issues and the future of the party.”
“We are going to disagree at times,” Furstenau says. “There should be space for healthy debate and disagreement within caucuses, within political parties. It’s part of what makes democracy work.”
Tess van Straaten
