XPost: bc.politics, van.general, vic.general   
   From: gershwin@shawpiano.ca   
      
   You are one of the 3 women in the NDP who've done the most to revive the NDP   
   party in BC   
   after almost total obliteration back in 2001.  The other two are Joy MacPhail   
   and Jenny Kwan.   
      
   But your decision today, to step down as NDP leader, even as your party has   
   risen in the   
   polls against the corrupt and deceitful BC 'liberals', is the right thing to   
   do.  They played   
   hardball.  You played shortstop.  They hid information.  Your party found it.    
   They brought   
   in more taxes - carbon tax and HST.  You opposed both.  They used tax dollars   
   to provide   
   legal counsel for their guilty provincial aides.  You made that a public   
   scandal.  You and   
   your party did well.  British Columbians began to understand what a mistake   
   they made in   
   re-electing the Campbell government for a third time.  And then the polls   
   shifted.   
      
   You did your job as well as you could.  But you were not able to do what many   
   thought you   
   should have done:  gone on the kind of OFFENSIVE that is the only way to knock   
   out such a   
   devious party as exists under the BC 'liberal' banner.  Today, you called some   
   within your   
   own party "bullies" for not allowing you to pull the party together and to   
   continue towards   
   the next election.  Maybe they are.  Maybe they did all of us a favour,   
   though.  We can't   
   take another month, nevermind another 3 years of the BC 'liberals'.  They're   
   breaking the   
   province financially and they're hurting the most vulnerable people even more   
   than they've   
   already been hurt.   
      
   BC has never done well under a right wing government.  It has something to do   
   with the mellow   
   personalities that are attracted to BC's gentle climate and ocean and green   
   environment.  We   
   expect our way of life to be protected, not destroyed.  And we've seen it   
   destroyed, one   
   program at a time, one tax at a time, one law at a time under the BC   
   'liberals'.  We don't   
   like it much - and now we don't like THEM at all.   
      
   We're ready for a fresh leader.  Someone who carries little baggage and who is   
   pragmatic, but   
   also someone who can show us that 'fire in the belly' that it takes to stop   
   the likes of the   
   BC 'liberals' and their leader.  We need someone who exacts respect and   
   obedience from   
   his/her party without having to demand it.  It seems our political attitudes   
   still do not   
   allow that kind of leader to be a female.  Good luck to Jenny Kwan if she   
   thinks she can   
   replace you as leader.  She cannot.   
      
   We know some of the potential candidates who've stepped forward to lead the BC   
   'liberals'.   
   They're not leadership material and they're part of the problem party.    
   British Columbians   
   have their work cut out for them now:  find a leader that we know and trust to   
   take BC back   
   up to the heights of economic resilience and personal pride through   
   employment.  We don't   
   expect, or want, the far-left policies of handouts and welfare.  We simply   
   expect our tax   
   dollars not to be misused and our leaders to be honest and caring of the   
   people of this   
   province.   
      
   Goodbye, Carole James.  You did the best job that any female leader could have   
   done in this   
   time and this place.  And you are leaving us at a time when we are now looking   
   forward to a   
   better life under a better government in this province.   
      
   A BC resident - and voter   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)