G.D. Maxwell just can’t let it go. See his column in the Nov. 1 Pique: “The two Green MLAs will have about as much power as the legislature’s cafeteria staff.” That is a patronizing if not demeaning comment, which I cannot leave unanswered.
First of all, in our riding, it was the Green Party who defeated the Conservatives, who he clearly doesn’t like. Secondly, G.D. Maxwell seems to think of politics as being a sports event where in the opinion of many, only the gold medal counts. That, in my opinion, is a very superficial attitude. It ignores all the physical and sociological health benefits that sports activities provide to youth and it ignores all the parents and volunteers who make it all happen. Similarly, in government there is a tremendous amount of work done in legislative committees by MLAs or MPs of all parties before new policies or pieces of legislature come to pass and impact all of our lives.
I would like to remind G.D. Maxwell of the policies that came to pass during the NDP/Green coalition government 2017 to 2020 that he probably appreciates, such as: CleanBC acts and regulations to lower GHG emissions in B.C.; The Province of British Columbia commissioning a review of old-growth forest management in 2019, which was released in 2020 and resulted in better protection of our old-growth forests; the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act, 2019, when B.C. became the first jurisdiction in Canada to enshrine UNDRIP into law. These pieces of crucial policies and regulations were substantially influenced by the hardworking Green MLAs at the time.
Finally, we only have to look to the south to see how a two-party-only system can lead to the tremendous polarization that we see today. We need more voices in the Victoria legislature to make our democracy work better and not fewer to represent all of us.
