Dear editor,
Isn’t it interesting that the conservative Bill Vander Zalm has suddenly appeared out of retirement?
It’s becoming very tiresome watching him as he wanders about the province trying to convince voters to recall their MLA (not his) as a way to bring the government to heel. Is he hoping to jump onto the Conservative or perhaps the First Party band wagon as a spokesperson after a trial run at recall speech-making?
On the other hand maybe he’s just tired of retirement and needs another “kick at the can.” Political speeches or not, his motivation for continuing the recall process is unclear.
First it was about HST and now it’s about “fighting for democracy.” Is he really blaming our “rookie” MLA for all the ills of government and the downfall of democracy?
It’s clear that both recall and anti-recall proponents will never agree. It’s also clear, even to Vander Zalm, that the referendum will happen and the voters will get to say yea or nay to HST. So aren’t we getting sidetracked by the wrong issues?
The debate should not be about whether our MLA, Don McRae, needs to be recalled because the Liberal government has not planned an earlier date for a referendum on the HST, or that in recalling him we are “fighting for democracy.”
What the debate should really be about is whether the voters of B.C. should continue to be subjected to the continuing nonsense of unnecessary, expensive recalls (about $500,000 each).
It should be about whether the voters are going to continue to let a minority of people abuse the recall legislation and set in motion the idea that government changes can be made by mass recall instead of elections.
Most importantly, it should be about whether we really want to recall an MLA who has been working hard in his first elected term and is being swept up by the public dislike of HST and the influence of an ousted political warhorse looking for a new job.
For goodness sake, are we really going to fire a young family man because a minority in the Comox Valley are unhappy with his boss? Think about it carefully and then really fight for democracy.
Janice Cashin,
Courtenay