A Faustian bargain is made in Victoria

Re: “Plecas voted out of Liberal party,” Sept. 10.

The decision by Darryl Plecas to permit himself to be acclaimed as Speaker of the legislature was a classic Faustian bargain.

Plecas was sent to Victoria by a constituency that soundly rejected the NDP option in the recent election. In assuming the Speaker’s chair and the $50,000 or so additional annual salary, together with the prestige and perquisites that go with it, Plecas has betrayed those who placed their trust in him.

While this treachery must be disconcerting for the residents of Abbotsford South who elected him, what should be even more troubling to the rest of us, of whatever party stripe, is the revelation that Plecas was not up front and truthful with his party colleagues. Even after he had made his Faustian pact, Plecas misled his colleagues by telling them that he would not be taking the Speaker’s chair.

By taking the Speaker’s chair, Plecas betrayed his party, his colleagues and his constituents. In announcing that the deal had been made weeks earlier, the NDP revealed that Plecas had also been deceitful. As was the experience of Faust in literature, Plecas’s treacherous actions have now ensured his own downfall. He might have the money and power that accompanies the position of Speaker, but he has the respect of no one.

As the story goes, he has truly lost everything and deserves only our pity.

Roxanne Helme Victoria