BIG COUNTRY: MLAs are enmeshed in an argument over preserving the number of up-country ridings. It’s a complicated wrangle over comparative populations, effective representation, fairness and the urban-rural split. One of the issues is the geographic size of the remote ridings. Which brought NDP MLA Doug Donaldson to his feet, to describe the vastness of his Stikine riding.
How big is it?
It’s 196,000 square kilometres (Vancouver-False Creek is seven). You could fit Ireland, Switzerland, Denmark and the Netherlands into the northwestern wilderness, with room left over.
It’s a 20-hour drive end to end. And it’s home to just 20,000 people, 60 per cent below the average riding population.
“Oftentimes for Atlin, it’s easier for me to fly from Smithers to Vancouver to Whitehorse, to rent a car and drive 21Ú2 hours to visit Atlin. That’s a faster way of visiting Atlin than driving from Hazelton.”
DISTRACTED DRIVING: NDP MLA Lana Popham went where most men would fear to tread while attacking the Liberal government for its budget, its priorities — and for winning the election.
“They’ve been given the honour of governing B.C.; it’s not supposed to be a position of entitlement. But as we see in this chamber and outside this chamber, they continue to primp and preen and apply lipstick in the rearview mirror while driving through the red lights of B.C.”
It was a shot at Premier Christy Clark, who ran a red light with a reporter in the car while driving her son to an early hockey practice.
Popham (Saanich South) also said only 52 per cent of registered voters voted. “In fact, 733,000 voters voted B.C. Liberal, but 2.5 million registered voters didn’t. That’s the way our system works at the moment, and it has allowed the B.C. Liberals to stay in power.
“The funny thing is that this government believes that British Columbians gave them a mandate in the last election to do whatever they wanted to do in this budget.”
UNITED THEY STAND: NDP MLA Spencer Chandra Herbert thanked the legislature and B.C. in general for the goodwill expressed after his Vancouver constituency assistant was attacked by a man shouting homophobic slurs while objecting to rainbow flags on display at his office.
Chandra Herbert said the overall response to the incident made him proud of B.C.
“While there may be a few who harbour hatred in their hearts, the vast majority of us are united with one heart, I believe, and one hope for a province that does not support hatred.”
Earlier, Liberal MLA Jackie Tegart expressed the Liberal caucus’s support for Chandra Herbert and his assistant over what he called a “shocking incident.”
“We stand united against this type of hateful attack.”
PIPE DOWN OR MOVE: NDP MLA Nicholas Simons was heckling in the legislature this past week, as is his wont, when he got a note from the Deputy Speaker, Liberal Doug Horne. “You can’t heckle from a seat that isn’t yours.” (Simons was perched at someone else’s desk at the time.)
He promptly took a picture of the note and tweeted it, acknowledging his mistake. “He’s right of course, so I had to move.”
Simons said later: “I got a bunch of retweets.”
DUCK DUCK GOOSE: The Liberals performed a razzle-dazzle worthy of the Harlem Globetrotters to avoid a question from Vicki Huntington.
The Independent MLA directed a query at Justice Minister Suzanne Anton only to see it pass to Social Development Minister Don McRae, who then got up and directed it to Children’s Minister Stephanie Cadieux.
All well and fine except that while Anton and McRae were both present, Cadieux was nowhere in sight.
Outside, Anton told reporters that it was deputy house leader Todd Stone who decided the best minister to answer the question was the one missing from action.
Last we checked, Huntington was still waiting for an answer.
