Liberals to elect new leader in February
Between Feb. 1-3 the B.C. Liberal Party will elect a new leader to replace outgoing former premier Christy Clark, who resigned on Aug. 4 after her party was relegated to the opposition. Running for the party leadership are Michael de Jong, Michael Lee, Todd Stone, Sam Sullivan, Dianne Watts and Andrew Wilkinson. On Nov. 4 the leadership candidates were in Prince George for a leadership debate.
The candidates were asked what they would do to strengthen the forestry, energy and mining sectors to keep British Columbians working.
“We’re less vulnerable today than we were because of steps we took to diversify our international markets and you know about that here in Prince George” de Jong, the former forestry and finance minister, said during the debate.
“This is not just the northern capital, it’s the forestry capital and it’s why I think the forestry ministry should be located here in Prince George.”
Wilkinson, the former advanced education minister, said if he becomes leader of the party he would make it easier for resourcebased industries to obtain the permits they need to start up projects.
“What we need to do is have a leadership approach that says what you can do, how to build industries here that otherwise wouldn’t settle here,” he said.
“This applies to the forest industry but to mining as well. We’ve got to clean up our permitting process so that when people are applying to make investments and create jobs they have the knowledge they’re going to get answers in a timely fashion. Right now it can take years, and that’s simply not acceptable in a competitive world.”
Candidates in the 90-minute debate talked about their plans to defeat the NDP-Green coalition and take back the government the Liberals held for 16 years leading up to last spring’s election.
They stated their opposition to the NDP’s proposed change of the province’s electoral system to proportional representation, which would allot the number of seats each party receives in the legisla- ture based on their percentage of the popular vote. It would replace the current first-past-the-post system in which the candidate with the most votes wins.
The NDP passed legislation a month ago that will ask voters in a referendum in the fall of 2018. The vote will require 50 per cent approval to pass.
“When we look at proportional representation, that is my No. 1 priority and I’m Hell-bent in terms of making sure that we defeat that referendum,” said Watts, the former MP for South Surrey-White Rock-Cloverdale and mayor of Surrey, who resigned her federal seat on Sept. 30 to seek the Liberal leadership.
Sullivan, MLA for VancouverFalse Creek and former mayor of Vancouver, said the rural-urban divide leaves B.C. residents who live outside population centres in Vancouver and Victoria feeling alienated and undervalued for the contributions they make to the provincial economy.
“Within walking or wheeling distance from my home there’s over 1,000 mining and resource companies with their address in Vancouver-False Creek, so I know that when the northern and interior communities succeed and prosper, Vancouver-False Creek succeeds and prospers,” said Sullivan.
“I don’t think that message is delivered well enough in our urban areas just how dependent we are on each other.”
Developing northern B.C.’s resources is the backbone which pays for the province’s roads, schools and hospitals and Lower Mainland residents need to be reminded of that fact, said Lee, a former business lawyer elected in May as MLA for VancouverLangara.
“There’s a direct connection between urban British Columbia and the rural and north of this province – we built this province on the strength of our resource economy, much of the infrastructure and the benefits for this province derived as a whole have come from this region,” said Lee.
“We need to respect that and understand that. We need encourage migration into our regions and build up the capacity around our colleges and university systems here.”
Stone, the Kamloops-based former transportation minister, also highlighted the need to train engineers in the north and said it would be his priority to approve health care projects to establish cardiac services such as angioplasty to Prince George.
“I think it’s unacceptable that in rural communities like in Fort St. James and along Highway 16 across the north that it can take up to six days to be medevaced and flown to a larger hospital to receive the services you need,” said Stone.
“We need to make sure the resources are there for the people who need them. This is not about urban and rural, it’s about making sure that health care, education and critical services are there for people when they need it, wherever they are in this province.”
Approximately 300 people attended the Prince George event, which was the second of five scheduled debates. The final debate is planned for Vancouver in January.
Video of the Prince George debate can be found online at bit.ly/2yu4vbg.