OTTAWA -- There is no hope of a socially moderate Conservative Party of Canada in the next few years, MP Keith Martin said yesterday in announcing he's quitting the fledgling movement to run for the Liberals in the next election. Martin, thrice elected as a Reform and Canadian Alliance MP since 1993, said he will sit as an independent for now and seek the Liberal nomination in his Vancouver Island riding for the coming general election.
"I've been in the system for 10 years and all I can say is that, in looking down the road for four years, I do not believe the new party's views on social issues will be consistent with what I've always fought for," said Martin.
He believes former Alliance leader Stephen Harper, the only formally declared leadership candidate so far, will win the race and the new party will largely reflect the values of the Alliance.
"Stephen has made it very clear that a true Conservative party is one that's a socially conservative party, and that's not an area that I embrace."
Martin noted he's been at odds with his former caucus over the party's position on many issues, including the Iraq war, Canada-U.S. relations, drug policy and social issues such as same-sex marriage.
"I don't want to be in an environment where I'm, quite frankly, banging my head against the wall," said the 43-year-old medical doctor.
"I'd much rather be in an environment where I'm able to work constructively on these big issues."
Martin was the second high-profile MP to abandon the new Conservative party in as many days.
Andre Bachand, the lone Tory MP elected in Quebec, said Tuesday that he'll sit as an independent until the next federal election and then quit politics.
The new party will be viewed as a socially conservative takeover by the Alliance that cannot fly in Quebec, said Bachand.
Three other Tories -- former party leader Joe Clark, New Brunswick's John Herron and one-time leadership candidate Scott Brison -- have also abandoned the new party.
Clark and Herron will sit as independents and likely won't seek re-election. Brison jumped to the Liberals.
"What's troubling is seeing so many of the moderates leaving. That's got to be very worrying for the party," one senior Tory organizer said yesterday. "You need both wings to fly."
Martin's defection, however, may be among the least damaging, judging by the comments of good riddance he received from his former colleagues.
Martin acknowledged yesterday he met last month to discuss riding business with controversial Liberal organizer David Basi -- amid published reports that Basi had brokered a deal in the Esquimalt-Juan de Fuca constituency to stack the local Liberal riding executive with hand-picked members.
Basi has since been fired from his job as a senior aide in the provincial Liberal government after his office was raided by police as part of a criminal investigation. A member of the Esquimalt-Juan de Fuca Liberal executive, Mandeep Sandhu, has been questioned by police as part of the same probe.
