VANCOUVER - A prospective Green candidate rejected by the leader over controversial remarks about the 9/11 terror attacks says the party had better get used to dealing with scandal.
Green Leader Elizabeth May announced in a release Sunday that she would not sign Kevin Potvin's nomination papers for the riding of Vancouver-Kingsway.
May said she and the party had "irreconcilable differences'' with Potvin over an article he wrote for an alternative newspaper in 2002 that described the terror attacks as "beautiful.''
Potvin said when the story broke Friday that he was speaking symbolically in the article but stands by what he said.
He added Sunday that if the Greens think getting rid of a candidate will squelch a controversy, then they don't know what national politics is like.
"I think the Ottawa headquarters of the Green party misplayed this whole issue and they're not ready for prime-time national politics,'' he said.
The Potvin imbroglio was the Green party's second brush with controversy on the same day.
Also on Friday, Liberal Leader Stephane Dion announced he would not run a candidate in May's Nova Scotia riding, saying that having a Green member in the Commons was critical for the environment.
In return, May agreed to not run a candidate in Dion's Montreal-area riding.
The deal fomented grumbling in Liberal ranks and prompted NDP Leader Jack Layton to complain that voters in May's riding -- now held by Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay -- were being denied a full choice of candidates.
Potvin said the unflattering attention he has received likely made the Liberals nervous. He cited a editorial in the National Post as an example.
"(The editorial) worried the Stephane Dion people enough to the point where they were able to say to Elizabeth May, `Look we took our guy out of a riding for you, you take your guy out of a riding for us,' '' he said.
May said Sunday she isn't attempting to vilify Potvin and what it comes down to is that his views don't correspond with those of her party, which stands for peace and non-violence.
The two spoke on Friday and May said she'd sleep on the matter.
The next day, a Vancouver Green member contacted Potvin to inform him he wouldn't be endorsed by the leader.
"Fundamentally, he felt that the views he expressed were legitimate and he didn't want to enter politics based on a lie,'' she said. "Well, I don't want to enter politics based on a lie either.''
May said it was too early to know who will replace Potvin as a candidate in the riding.
Potvin said since the controversy come to light, he has received several death threats.
He does not know if he will continue to pursue politics.
The controversial article was printed in November 2002 in the alternative newspaper The Republic of East Vancouver, which Potvin publishes.
It bills itself as "your completely biased news source since 2000.'' The paper has a distribution of 6,000 and is available online.
In the column, Potvin wrote that when he saw the first of the World Trade Centre towers fall on Sept. 11, 2001, "there was a little voice inside me that said `Yeah!' ''
"When the second tower came down the same way, that little voice said `Beautiful.'
The column goes on to say "I know lots of people were killed. But then again, I see lots of people getting killed whenever I turn the TV news on, and frankly, it doesn't really get me any more.''
