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Don't count out Joyce Murray

Joyce Murray is driven - and that's not a bad thing. The current Vancouver MP, and former New Westminster MLA, has thrown her hat into the federal Liberal leadership race and those who underestimate her may be surprised.

Joyce Murray is driven - and that's not a bad thing.

The current Vancouver MP, and former New Westminster MLA, has thrown her hat into the federal Liberal leadership race and those who underestimate her may be surprised.

She is surely a long shot by virtue of her western roots, lack of a star name, and her somewhat aloof reputation.

But her work ethic and smarts are a powerful combination.

Murray and I have had our clashes. She once compiled an extensive "report card" on a slew of our editorials, marking them from A to E if they, in her opinion, displayed a bias against the Liberals (needless to say the 'A's were the ones seemingly supporting the Liberals).

I found it rather entertaining, but I think she believed it was a powerful argument showing editorial bias that shouldn't exist. I had a rather more plebian view: if something looked stupid, I railed against it. It is, after all, an opinion. But I consistently give her A for effort and tenacity. And, believe, in my experience watching from my perch in the ivory tower of the press, Murray is still one of the hardest working MLAs I have ever observed. She does her homework, and she does her legwork. She also has a seemingly insatiable - almost scientific - interest in uncovering the best way to do things. She seems to approach things as you would hope more politicians do - not as people pleasers, but as problems requiring workable, human solutions.

As a novice MLA in Gordon Campbell's government she toed the party line and ended up on the wrong side of the closure of St. Mary's Hospital. But that controversy overshadowed the fact that the new Liberal MLA (and novice politician) cracked an historical NDP stranglehold on the city riding.

Yes, to be sure, she got in because the NDP were seen to be bungling things, but her coalition building, environmentalist reputation and - yes, again - incredible hard work made the difference.

She formed an early sisterhood with Christy Clark and both of them suffered, in my opinion, because they bought into the usual political party culture of unquestioning loyalty to the leader.

Murray should have stood up to Campbell on St. Mary's and other issues, and, I believe, might have if she hadn't bought into the whole political boy's club thing and been so inexperienced and just plain grateful that she had a seat at the big table. In fact, she would have achieved sainthood in the city had she saved St. Mary's. She also toed Campbell's party line on the B.C. environment, supporting Bill 84 - a contentious piece of legislation at the time that allowed land to be removed from parks to allow oil and gas exploration. She also supported Campbell's moves to make environmental protection standards achievable through "voluntary" moves by companies. Would she support those acts now? I doubt it. However, she lost her seat in 2005.

But witness her learning curve: she ran for the Liberal federal seat next in New Westminster-Coquitlam and lost and then later she moved to a safer riding in Vancouver, kept her own counsel, won her seat (albeit by a slim margin) and may now emerge as one of the forces in a redefined Liberal party.

What do I think Murray has learned? She's learned to trust her own thinking. Which is formidable.

Her platform includes a plan for the NDP, Greens and Liberals to stop splitting the vote by having the option of conducting runoff nominations in tightly contested races to knock off the Conservative candidate. She's the first to take such a stand and should be rewarded for this almost revolutionary thinking in a political system that values "silo" politics over collaboration.

She also favours legalizing marijuana, and wants to reform the current first-past-the-post electoral system providing fairer representation across Canada.

Her Achilles' heel or heels? She holds herself to very high standards and often expects the same of others giving her a public persona of being aloof and sometimes judgmental.

She is, I'm sure, probably much harder on herself than any critics could ever be.

Will she lead the Liberals? Odds are against it - but, don't ever count Murray out.

Pat Tracy is the editor of the Royal City Record.