Dear Editor:
I read the letter written by Paul R. Thompson in the March 30, 2017 edition of the Record. “Where do candidates’ real loyalties lie”? As a rather astute political observer, I couldn’t help but laugh at the over-simplicity of Mr. Thompson’s “observations.”
For one, Lorraine Brett running for the B.C. Liberals isn’t a deviation from her Conservative party membership and former candidacy for the Progressive Conservatives outside of New West. Any political watcher of provincial politics knows that the B.C. Liberals are practically Liberal in name only. They have no formal association with their federal counterparts. And many of the sitting B.C. Liberal MLAs and party members are far more conservative and to the right of the political spectrum than anything remotely “Liberal” centrist. I need not delve into the ways that the Campbell-Clark agenda in many ways mirrored that of the Stephen Harper era of reign federally.
Going on to his assertions about Jonina Campbell: If you’re going to try and make a point about someone having an affiliation of a political party being a school board trustee, fact checking would be a good thing to engage in. Fact is there is no such thing in New West as an “NDP school trustee,” as Mr. Thompson refers to Ms. Campbell as belonging to.
As a member of the provincial and federal NDP in New West, I can most assure everyone that there is no official NDP civic party that ran in the last civic election. Mr. Thompson seems to want to link the “DLC” (for the record, that means the New West and District Labour Council, and its endorsement) to the NDP when he states: “Jonina Campbell, staunch defender and member of the NDP/DLC.”
That’s interesting to me, because Patrick Johnstone, who is not a member of the NDP, received a district labour council endorsement, resources and money in the last New West civic election. So to try and pass off this “NDP/DLC” stuff as fact is ludicrous, to say the least.
So already, Mr. Thompson’s rhetoric has already fallen short of reality and the truth. And that’s before going on to his allegations about the current MLA in New West, Judy Darcy. A Wikipedia search shows just how out of touch with reality Mr. Thompson’s assertions are about Judy and her current political activities. The following was found on Wikipedia. Yes, she once was a member of the Workers Communist Party of Canada and even ran unsuccessfully for them in 1981 in Ontario. In 1985, she left the Communists and joined the NDP, stating, “I’m older, I don’t think we’re going to remake the world, but we’ve got to change what we can.”
When Mr. Thompson states that Darcy “left her comrades in the Ontario Communist Party only to parachute into New West as an avowed NDP/DLC member,” he portrays this as her just leaving the Communist Party in 2012, moving to B.C. and running in New West. Completely and utterly wrong!
Again, if you’re going to attack people you should stick to the facts rather than going around making up entities that don’t exist like the “NDP/DLC” one, or skipping 27 years of trade union activism, leadership in the union movement and in the communities in which a person resides. A simple check of Wikipedia of Judy Darcy’s name will fill in the 28 years Mr. Thompson plainly ignores or omits to suit his purpose, which is to smear everyone running in New West.
Funny enough, I don’t see his name on a ballot. If he’s so dissatisfied with the candidates running, maybe he should step out from behind his keyboard and his hyperbolic, made-up fanciful observations and take his shot. Why stay at home and sacrifice the right people fought in wars to give to you? As Judy Darcy did say in 1985: “We’re not going to remake the world, but we’ve got to change what we can.”
It’ll be interesting to see if Mr. Thompson reaches for the brass ring in front of him and decides to “change” what he can, or at least try to.
Dave Lundy, New Westminster
