What does the CPR want?

Several months ago the CPR embarked on a quest to aid our democracy. They told us that given the public interest in the proposed cruise berthing facility they were fighting for the people’s right to decide.

On several occasions leaders of the CPR even said that they were not necessarily against the port. All they wanted was for the people to have the right to decide the country’s fate.

Immediately after securing the number of required signatures to trigger the people’s initiated referendum, the CPR switched into a full ‘Vote No’ campaign with the significant support of special interest parties and is in full swing with the campaign against the project.

It’s no wonder many are now accusing the CPR of being no more than a pre general election tactic for some of its members.

Many postal ballots have already been submitted, resources have been allocated by our elections office, laws have been passed (unanimously by all members of the government and opposition), and tens of thousands of dollars have been spent to inform the electorate on the project, and the country is in advanced stages of having the referendum on December 19th.

Now, at this stage, the CPR is fighting to delay the referendum which they themselves triggered under the pretense that all they wanted was the right for people to choose either way.

They are now fighting against the people’s right to decide on December 19th, something which ironically they fought for.

We can only wonder about this duplicity of the CPR which continues to behave more like a political platform for 2021 than an initiative fighting for the people’s right to decide.

Chris Kirkconnell