Biologist Alexandra Morton confirms she will not run for the NDP

Vancouver Island-based biologist Alexandra Morton has confirmed to the Straight that she will not be running for the provincial or federal NDP any time soon.

“I decided that if I was going to do this, people from here on in would not know if I was speaking the truth from my heart, or I was supporting the party line, or I was working with people in caucus,” Morton said by phone today (January 11). “I really felt that I need to be true to the waters here and what is in my heart.”

Morton said she admires B.C.-based federal NDP MPs like Fin Donnelly, Nathan Cullen, Jean Crowder, Denise Savoie, and wants to work with them in protecting B.C.’s coastline.

However, she said she is not ready to jump into the political ring now, knowing so little about the political system, and added that the B.C. NDP itself appears to be behind.

“They don’t even have their leadership package ready to go,” she said. “So all these people who are throwing their hat in the ring, they are just saying that. They [the NDP] are very unprepared. I would like to support individuals across parties. So, for example, Elizabeth May running federally for the Green Party. I think that’s fantastic, and I like what she has to say. There are members of the NDP federally and provincially that inspire me and, who I think will help this small community and help us come into ecological compliance.”

Morton has said that any candidacy in the future will likely be as an independent.

“For me to jump on this, when I don’t know what I’m doing—let go of the Cohen Enquiry—that would have been destructive to what I am trying to do,” Morton added.

Morton responded to media rumours that began last year—and reported in the Times Colonist—regarding her possible candidacy with the federal NDP in a race to defeat North Island MP John Duncan, which Morton said she wants to see happen, but from the outside.