Open letter to
the constituents of
Westside-Kelowna:
As you face a byelection there are some issues that I would like to speak of prior to you casting your ballot.
First off, in the general provincial election you didn’t vote for Christy Clark but for your returning Liberal candidate, Ben Stewart, who as an incumbent obviously had your trust and support.
Yet now Mr. Stewart has stepped aside in order to allow Christy Clark to run for a seat to be able to sit in the legislature.
While this has happened before in the history of B.C. politics I ask you to consider Christy Clark as a candidate herself and whether she deserves to represent you on her merits alone.
She is simply assuming that as major supporters of the B.C. Liberals you will in fact support her whether or not you feel her support as Premier is deserved is up to you.
I may also remind you that if she is defeated it does not mean that the B.C. Liberals will not remain the government for the next four years. They are the government and will be so until the next writ is dropped.
Thus, if you do decide that as an individual you feel that she doesn’t deserve your support as a candidate you will not be impacting the B.C. Liberals as your government.
However, you will be sending a strong message to all political parties that as voters you feel a strong conviction that your representative should know the local issues that you face, that parachuting candidates doesn’t serve the best interests of democracy and that Mr. Stewart was your choice and as citizens to deny you that choice speaks broadly about the issue of accountability in our political system today.
Accountability during elections, accountability on running on what a candidate brings to the table.
Perhaps this is why voter apathy, cynicism and turnouts are so low.
People almost expect to be lied to and for that it cries in the face of what democracy is about.
As a last note I must state that the first priority of Ms. Clark was to give raises to her staff, something that was never discussed during the election.
If families are first and jobs are key alongside fiscal prudence then one must question the optics of handing out large raises right after the election.
Speaking on the issue of families first that Christy was so hard to impart as being first and foremost on her priorities, was her cancelling four government committees on the naming of her new cabinet.
The committees gone are as follows: Families First, Jobs and Skills Training, Open Government and Engagement and Family Affordability.
I think that as citizens who are working hard to make ends meet, who are striving to ensure that your children have a future this speaks loudly about a party’s true agenda when speaking so loudly and passionately on prior and during an election yet quietly dismantling and ignoring afterwards.
I think that the spotlight is on the residents of Westside-Kelowna and it’s up to you to send a message to the B.C. Liberals, a message that, while they have achieved power for the next four years, they better curb their arrogance shown by Christy Clark only weeks after the election dust has settled.
I’m not advocating you support a particular party, but what I am asking you to do is, at the very least, show that as citizens in your riding you will not be mocked by politics.
Ultimately it’s your choice but please remember these issues when you do.
Michael Nenn,
Mission
