Lac la Hache resident Gary Young has had a political opinion for most of his adult life and area folks, who are familiar with his letters to the editor, realize he likes the idea of democracy and dislikes the problems associated with toeing the party line.
Because he doesn’t like the B.C. Liberals at all, and dislikes the provincial NDP just about as much, he had been looking for somewhere to park his political allegiance.
“I just disagree of most of their principles.
“I believe the B.C. Liberals are a dictatorship from the top down; there have been cover-ups [BC Rail]; rates, fees and permits are going up, up, up and they’re all taxes [by another name]; and the HST was forced on us....”
As for the NDP, Young says he believes the party is showing gender bias because of its equity mandate favouring women in their party structure; they don’t have a track record for being able to handle an economy; and they have a close association with unions just like the B.C. Liberals have a close association with business.
Young says he was very active in Campbell River in numerous groups in Campbell River, including the United Way, chamber of commerce, tourist accommodation society, and being president of the minor hockey league. He also got involved in municipal politics and was the campaign manager for a successful mayoralty candidate.
Getting involved with provincial politics was a natural progression, Young says, adding he’s always believed that “if your are going to do something, do something big and tackle the big jobs.”
So, Young says he was looking for an alternative and he thought he found it a couple of years ago with the emergence of BC First. The fledgling party got off to a tremendous start, attracting many people who were tired of being told something during the election campaigns and getting something completely different from the people they elected, as they received their marching orders from party leaders. There were people who felt disenfranchised and wanted a fresh start.
The groundswell of support quickly lifted BC First into the position of a viable third party and it was gaining significant momentum, Young notes.
However, the party all but disappeared when it’s leaders Chris Delaney and founder Sal Vetro moved over to the Fight HST campaign, Young says.
On Jan. 14, Young travelled to the Lower Mainland and met with 16 people, including existing board members and others who wanted to attend, who are interested in resurrecting the all-but-defunct BC First Party.
After a couple of hours of mulling things over, Young says he was appointed the interim president of BC First, and he will guide the party until the annual general meeting and election of officers in mid-September.
“We had a discussion about the things we needed to do and why we had to change them,” he says, adding they realized the system was broken and they had to provide an alternative.
Young says they’re going to remove the word “party” from their organization and are looking at adding the word “alliance.”
Prior to the AGM, he says they will be fine-tuning the constitution, setting up a board that will include representatives for youth and development, look for representatives in every constituency in the province and redevelop the website.
Young says they are determined to be a viable alternative in provincial politics.
“If we get the vote from everyone who didn’t vote in the last election, we’d have a majority.”