Kelowna voters are not mindless dupes

Re: “Premier denies Kelowna being shut out,” column, Nov. 11.

In his call for Premier John Horgan to set the date for a byelection in Kelowna, Les Leyne has glossed over the role of the former premier, Christy Clark.

Readers will recall Clark’s defeat in Point Grey in the 2013 election. Desperate to remain in control, she induced the elected member for Kelowna to resign a super-safe seat for the B.C. Liberals, paying that person off with some sort of patronage appointment. Part of the deal was that Clark would take up a residence in Kelowna. That never happened, as with so many of her pronouncements.

Fast forward to the 2017 election, where once more the electors of Kelowna, many of whom are retirees from Alberta dragging their prejudices from a much different province, re-elected Christy Clark. Her throne speech fooled no one, and the B.C. Liberals moved to official Opposition. This was not good enough for Clark, so she betrayed her supporters in Kelowna, tossed them aside like a worn-out shoe and disappeared.

Why did Leyne not point this out, showing that Clark is the cause of this upcoming byelection and the thousands it will cost B.C. citizens? Sooner or later, Horgan will call the byelection, and one can only hope that Kelowna voters will put the boots to the B.C. Liberal candidate to show that they are not the mindless dupes that many believe them to be.

Lorne Finlayson Cumberland