Dear Editor:
Re: Hospital issues are ongoing, Letters to the editor, The Record, Jan. 6.
If ever there was a case proving the NDP is synonymous with Big Labour, it's Judy Darcy. Fresh off a plum post at the Hospital Employees' Union, she glides in effortlessly to fill the New Westminster NDP MLA candidate vacancy, as if she's simply been transferred by her bosses to a cozy new position within the exact same organization. And then, right on cue, her shrewd negotiation skills are put to work in the form of a letter to this paper about health care.
Crowing about the "appalling" Royal Columbian Hospital situation, Darcy demands taxpayers essentially get out their chequebooks without "further delays" and take care of "staffing issues," i.e., more money for her people. It's a blatant conflict of interest that voters should not stand for.
Why should voters in New Westminster simply hand over comfy seats in Victoria as baubles to labour leaders, as if they have a divine right to them?
Don't get me wrong. It's perfectly legitimate in our free country to have a Labour Union Party like the NDP, whose aim is to make union members their top priority with other stakeholders like taxpayers, employers, patients, customers, business owners and rank-and-file citizens taking a back seat. Union members pay dues. Those dues help elect NDP politicians who then try to get their benefactors better pay, perks, pensions, benefits, time off, etc. It's that simple.
Since the vast majority of voters in B.C. are not in unions, the NDP needs to use fuzzy terms like "families" and "working families" to woo the people who are not really their top priority. It's crafty PR spin, but getting pretty tiresome.
The solutions for our health-care woes will likely be found in technological and organizational innovations that require less labour, not more. Innovation requires change and often huge investments of intellectual and financial capital.
The entrenched "unions good/management bad" world view of the NDP breeds cynicism and an entitlement culture that is toxic to the visionary innovation and change we need to save our precious health-care system.
Change is hard. For example, it will be hard for New Westminster to reject the NDP and send a candidate to Victoria who will represent the average citizen. But we can do it if we work together.
David Brett, New Westminster
