Prince George’s Stuart Parker is stepping down as leader of the B.C. Ecosocialists Party and as the party’s candidate in the Prince George-Valemount riding in the October 24 general election.
Parker, in a post on his blog, he is stepping down because of “a slew of false allegations of transphobia” against him. He later said in a Tweet that “all I did was defend a group of three elderly women who spoke out against the rape threats JK Rowling received when people were suggesting a campaign to get one of them fired. I think we all deserve secure employment and a life free of rape threats.”
Parker was leader of the B.C. Green Party in the 1990s.
The BC Ecosocialist Party bills itself as being farther to the left than the NDP and greener than the Green Party. The party is inspired by people like Greta Thunberg, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Jeremy Corbyn, Bernie Sanders, Autumn Peltier and protestors at the Unist’ot’en camp.
The following is Parker’s resignation blog, entitled “It turns out the resignation letter is my literary sub-genre.”
Comrades,
I see that BC’s two counterfeit left parties have chosen their strategy for derailing our campaign. A slew of false allegations of transphobia are being circulated against me and being used to tarnish the party and derail the important work of the coming campaign.
We cannot afford to have that happen. The primary voting issue in this election must remain climate justice. Nothing can distract us from what is truly at stake: the very survival of our species. Every day we spend discussing whether it was wrong for me to defend a local Vancouver activist from a campaign to blacklist her from employment is a day we do not spend discussing John Horgan using the RCMP as Royal Dutch Shell’s brute squad to drive a fracked gas pipeline through the territory of the Wet’suwet’en people. And we cannot afford that distraction.
So, it is with regret and reluctance that I am tendering my resignation as director, leader and candidate effective midnight tonight. I know, from the sterling group of young people who have joined our slate and our board over the past eleven months that I am leaving this party is excellent hands. You folks will do a great job and I will be proud to cast a vote for whomever the party selects in Prince George-Valemount.
Solidarity and courage,
Stuart Parker