I was stopped. But there are other ways to continue.

I was stopped. But there are other ways to continue.

I decided to run for the next Federal Election in Canada (2015), in the riding of Richmond Hill (North of Toronto), where there are already two other Canadian-Iranians, nominated by the Liberals and the Conservatives, running.  I knew it would mean sacrificing an enjoyable time for retirement. But it would be for the sake of making it possible for our children, grandchildren, and great-grand-children to continue living a healthy or just possible life on this planet.

My goal was to bring change and to help stop the present mercantile system of conflict, competition, and greed, which is destroying life on Earth, and it does it at an accelerating pace.

My plan was to run simultaneously for both the NDP and the Green Party, something that has never been done before and seemingly impossible. But I wanted to be such candidate for change, for solidarity over division, for cooperation over competition, for love over hatred. Rules that push us against each other need to be broken. New traditions of cooperation need to be created, and I wanted to personify this change, right from the beginning.

I, therefore, filled up my papers for both the NDP and the Green Party to be a prospective nominee, having contributed to both parties for years. I wrote to the leaders of the two parties, Elizabeth May and Thomas Mulcair, to invite them to work with each other. I also asked them to make a constitutional exception for my case of being a member of both parties - without specifying.

Yesterday, my project was stopped. In a phone call from Ottawa, I was told my candidacy was rejected. Not because of my double sympathies. No, they weren't probably aware of it. It was because of political positions expressed on Facebook considered as controversial. Not that the Party was necessarily against.

In 1997, I had run for the same party, holding the same opinions and positions, and there was no controversy at all, ever. But there was no Facebook, neither. Also, in 1997, decisions were made, democratically, in the riding. My nomination was contested, but members of the riding voted for me over my rival. Now, despite the riding being favorable to my candidacy and no one contesting it, the National Director of the NDP sitting in Ottawa, Anne McGrath, decided to be the authority rejecting my prospective nomination.

What controversial issues? They were five, I was told: (1) Last summer, I had expressed a favorable opinion on the issue, debated in England, of banning the 'burqa' (this hideous and obvious symbol of women as sub-human); (2) I used wordings in favor of a UN reform; (3) I wrote ''alleged war criminals'' in reference to George W. Bush and Dick Cheney (unfortunate, of course, but factual); (4) I had favored Assad’s regime over ISIS-ISIL-DAESH; (5) I had expressed sympathy for the French  Front National, for their standing for France’s culture of freedom and secularism versus Islamism. (In fact, I was criticizing the TV journalists who were constantly interrupting her, and attacking her instead of being neutral.)

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To the young lady in charge of announcing me the ‘’bad news’’ I responded: ‘’bad news for the NDP, not for me’’.  Presently, I am listening to some beautiful music played in CBC 90.3 FM in French, English, and Spanish; Oldies, not yet banned by the Islamists[1] who will expand their killings globally and take over, if we aren’t vigilant (as they did in my motherland, Iran) if we don’t find a better way to stop the present trend of overpopulation, of over-exploitation and the pillage of our global resources, of killing all life on Earth.  

(Please indulge English weaknesses and mistakes) Shodja, February 14, 2015

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[1] Note: Islamist or Islamic and Muslim are two different categories. I, personally, am a Muslim but not an Islamic /Islamist.