Strong views create political pariah
Former NDP candidate’s statements were intemperate but reaction was quick, harsh
Ihate the term “politically correct.” It’s used to discount words or actions as being supported only by an allegiance to an ideology, and ducks the question of whether they represent the right thing to do.
Yet there is a real sense this week that the dumping of Dayleen Van Ryswyk as the NDP nominee for Kelowna-Mission panders to the notion that there are politically correct beliefs and anyone who strays beyond them isn’t welcome in the political system.
I don’t fault NDP leader Adrian Dix for dropping her so quickly. In the age of the sound bite, he doesn’t have the luxury of a thoughtful discussion of the issues she raised. And it was just a year ago that Danielle Smith, the leader of the Wildrose party in Alberta, was roasted by pundits for first defending free speech after what was termed a “bozo eruption” in her party, rather than immediately distancing herself from two controversial candidates.
But by joining with the Liberals in condemning Van Ryswyk’s opinions, he confirmed that they are, in the words of Liberal Mary Polak, “unacceptable and hateful.”
“Clearly, these remarks are not becoming a potential member of the legislative assembly of British Columbia,” said Polak.
So what did Van Ryswyk say that made her a political pariah?
Her comments on a local Internet chat forum were made three and four years ago. The most recent were written during the Olympics, when, like many British Columbians she bristled at the report by Canada’s language commissioner that complained there wasn’t enough of a French language presence at the games.
Her language was intemperate. It reflected the vein of sentiment in British Columbia once articulated by Bill Vander Zalm, when he complained about having to read French on his box of cornflakes. He later became premier.
“Speak French, don’t speak French ... I couldn’t care less but when you force it down my throat every time I turn around, it pisses me right off!” she wrote.
A year earlier, she argued against the ongoing funding of First Nations. She argued, again in fairly undiplomatic terms, that despite what she conceded were terrible wrongs done in the past, Canadians today aren’t born with an ongoing obligation.
“I don’t think anyone is saying that wrongs didn’t happen ( incredible wrongs) you could have almost any race, group or ethnic people tell you horrible haunting stories of what happened to them,” she wrote in 2009.
“In my opinion. we have paid our debt ... a thousand fold ... it’s time to move on, heal and grow. If the native people are to be the proud nation they keep talking about, then stand on your own two feet and hold your heads high.”
Van Ryswyk’s remarks have been described in news reports as “racist.”
I think she is wrong and ignorant of both the legal and historical context for First Nations’ claims in British Columbia. But are her views “unacceptable” and “racist?” Of course Dix may have been more offended by Van Ryswyk’s view of government, and specifically the actions of the government of which he was a part in the 1990s.
“The government is nothing more than a big black hole that feeds off the working man, sucking his last penny from his hand so they can give it away freely or lose it stupidly on things like fast ferries and about a zillion other stupid things.”
Van Ryswyk is clearly a poor fit with the New Democrats and it is a wonder that she was nominated. But it’s a leap from being a poor fit for a political party to a judgment that a strongly held view should never be uttered.
Polak was a curious choice to lead the attack on Van Ryswyk. Her nomination as a Liberal was opposed by the Liberal MLA she replaced, who called her “too right wing” for the Liberal Party.
Polak made her name provincially by supporting restrictions on the use of children’s books that portrayed gay and lesbian families as normal while she was on the Surrey school board, a position other British Columbians argued was intolerant and hurtful.
Was that a view “becoming to a member of the legislative assembly?” Voters in her Langley riding said “yes.”
Voters in Kelowna- Mission may get a chance to make the same judgment about Van Ryswyk. She told a television reporter on Wednesday that she’s thinking of running as an independent. You can judge for yourself. Her full posts are available at www. castanet. net.