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Svend Robinson is making good on a promise to push his own party to make climate change a key election issue, despite running the risk of causing friction with his colleagues.

Robinson, the federal NDP candidate for Burnaby North-Seymour, slammed his party in a tweet Wednesday after its loss Monday to the Green party in the Nanaimo-Ladysmith byelection.

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“Nanaimo byelection is wake-up call to federal NDP,” Robinson wrote. “Apology owed to @ paulmanly for shameful treatment in 2015. And we must as party take clear stand opposing fracking and all new oil-and-gas infrastructure including LNG, and Site C, champion UNDRIP + Pact for Green New Deal.”

The Green party’s Paul Manly won with 37.3 per cent of the vote, followed by the Conservatives with 24.8 per cent and the NDP with 23.1 per cent. The Liberals trailed with 11 per cent.

Robinson said Wednesday that the main message he wanted to drive home with his tweet was that his party needs to make climate change a priority in its election platform.