What had
been an uneventful election campaign in West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast-Sea to
Sky Country finally got interesting Wednesday with NDP candidate Dana Larsen
announcing his resignation.
Larsen
resigned after word got out that he used to work for a company that sold
Peruvian coca seedlings. There are also videos of Larsen smoking marijuana and dropping acid on YouTube.
Larsen, who
has not worked for the company since 2007, responded: “Stephen Harper is
advancing another failed drug war in this country, and I do not want these
harmless coca seedlings to become an issue for Harper’s campaign to sping
against the NDP.”
A release
from Larsen, the founder of the B.C. Marijuana Party, states that coca plants
have been used for thousands of years in South America as a mild stimulant,
similar to coffee. The release further states that “it is virtually impossible
to produce cocaine from coca unless the coca is grown on a very large scale.”
“I believe
in the benefits of medicinal plants like coca,” Larsen said in the release.
“But I didn’t want this to distract from the campaign to elect Jack Layton as
prime minister.”
“I do not
want anything to distract from the important work of your New Democrats.”
It is not
known if the NDP will nominate another candidate for the riding. Candidates
must be nominated by Sept. 23 to run in the Oct. 14 election.
Meanwhile, John Weston, who has been the Conservative Party’s
candidate for three and a half years, took advantage of his early start to get
signs up and meet with constituency groups.
For some of those meetings he
was accompanied by Diane Ablonczy, a Calgary MP and the Secretary of State for
Small Business and Tourism, who was promoting the creation of a BizPal network
for West Vancouver to streamline applications and certifications for
entrepreneurs. For others he was accompanied by Coquitlam MP James Moore, who
is the minister responsible for the Olympics and Pacific Gateway project.
The
message, says Weston, is that the riding needs to have representation in
Ottawa.
“In my meetings the issue of
leadership comes up again and again,” he said. “We are contrasting the decisive
leadership of Stephen Harper and the fact that he’s done so much for Canadians
in the past two and a half years, versus the riskier and more indecisive option
of Stephane Dion.
“People
understand now that they need a voice in government (with the governing party),
which is why I’ve brought so many MPs to the riding in the past few years… I’ve
actually got a lot done for Whistler and the riding even though I wasn’t an
MP.”
Weston pointed to the recent
changes to immigration laws and the working visa program. Many visas are now
valid for two years instead of one and Citizenship and Immigration Canada is
giving higher priority to applicants with skills relevant to the tourism
industry. Weston said those changes were achieved after he helped bring
immigration minister Monte Solberg to Whistler to meet with the Whistler
Chamber and other tourism industry representatives.
“The minister will tell you
that he was strongly influenced by his meetings at Whistler,” said Weston.
The Conservatives have opened
offices in Powell River, Sechelt and West Vancouver.
While Weston defers to the
Conservative Party platform, he’s also keen to make the election local and
discuss issues that are important to constituents.
The federal conservatives are
definitely taking an interest in the riding, a former Conservative stronghold
that they lost to Liberal Blair Wilson in the 2006 election by less than 1,000
votes. With Wilson’s ejection from the Liberal Party and recent decision to
join the Green Party, there is a good opportunity to win back the seat.
Weston’s first Whistler
appearance of the campaign is this Sunday, Sept. 21, at 11 a.m. at the home of
John and Catherine Fraser. This is an informal meeting, giving people a chance
to meet the candidate over coffee. Call Patrick McCurdy at 604-932-7782 to
RSVP, or drop by the event at 6427 Balsam Way.
Liberal
Party candidate Ian Sutherland, who was acclaimed on Sept. 6, is quickly
getting up to speed in the race. A constituency office was opened on Marine
Drive in West Vancouver this week, and the riding association is looking to
open offices in Squamish, Sechelt and Powell River.
While Sutherland is putting
his campaign team together, the Liberal Party released the first of three
agendas for B.C. this week with sitting MPs highlighting issues of concern to
B.C. voters. Issues in the first agenda, which focuses on social justice,
include renewing the Insite safe injection facility in Vancouver, creating new
daycare spots, an aboriginal policy that respects the Kelowna Accord, arts
funding, and a national gang task force.
Sutherland will complete his
second term as the mayor of Squamish in November. He and his wife Janet own a
company that distributes textbooks across Canada, and they have two children.
The new website is at
www.iansutherland.liberal.ca.
Blair Wilson is the sitting MP
for the riding, and had a rocky term. Last October he asked for an
investigation into his campaign spending from Elections Canada after stories
surfaced of improper spending. He was later exonerated of the charges but last
December the party announced plans to sever ties with Wilson saying he did not
fully answer questions during the party’s greenlighting process. Wilson denies
the charge, but was sitting as an independent for more than 10 months when he
joined the Green Party. He is the first Green MP, gave Green Party leader
Elizabeth May a boost in her bid to be included in the federal all-candidates
debate.
His campaign has been quiet so
far, but with the Green Party’s biggest ever war chest and his own supporters,
Wilson will be a presence in the campaign.
