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NDP runs into democracy
Letter to the Editor
Brian Hutchinson in the National Post, Oct. 19: “Want equity status in British Columbia’s NDP? You can’t keep mum about why you fit the criteria.”
Mike Smyth in The Province, Oct. 19: “NDP’s equity mandate backfires as mayor forced out of the closet.”
Comedy or farce, we have a mayor claiming to be a minority but not willing to state what his minority is, though it is a qualifier to enter the candidate selection process.
The Columbia Valley Pioneer, Oct. 18: “The party in their equity mandate allows people to make confidential disclosures.”
If so, it’s time the party woke up to democracy. Gerry Taft’s belief “that an MLA should represent all people” led him to keep his equity status private.
How does a MLA ever represent all the people while choosing a path of sneaky confidentiality over transparency? A politician unable to distinguish public from private is hardly ready for the big house.
Taft, in the Cranbrook Townsman, Oct. 21: “I am choosing now to disclose so that we can turn our attention away from the equity mandate towards issues that really matter to this region.” Equity mandate—a form of quota and a side show to the big event—will remain an issue, while transparency and character needs a lot of work.
According to the National Post, Spring Hawes, who ran against Taft for the Columbia River-Revelstoke nomination, expressed concerns to BC NDP brass, asking for clarity and some transparency. She received no reply. Central Soviet Planning is not there to handle issues percolating up; it’s there to dictate.
Les Leyne in the Victoria Times-Colonist, Oct. 20 (NDP quota policy theatre of the absurd): “How can someone represent a minority if they won’t state the minority to which they belong?”
To some, facts and logic and history don’t matter.
William G. Hills,
Cranbrook
