EDITORIAL – Nothing stays the same in the wonderful world of politics
Falcon and Rustad at news conference Wednesday.
An editorial by Mel Rothenburger.
POLITICS IS WONDERFUL. The worst of enemies can suddenly become the best of friends. Leopards can change their spots. North can become south.
So it is that two provincial parties will team up, in a manner of speaking, to defeat the dastardly New Democrats who are, apparently, destroying B.C.
It was only last week that BC United, formerly the BC Liberals, were characterizing BC Conservatives as tinfoil-hat people, and leader Kevin Falcon was saying the BC Conservatives “are at risk of becoming a conspiracy party, not a Conservative party.”
BC United MLAs routinely characterized the BC Conservatives as extremists. That is, until they started realizing how much trouble their party was in, and started defecting to the Conservatives in hopes of their own political survival.
When Falcon stood beside BC Conservative leader John Rustad today (Aug. 28, 2024) and announced the suspension of the BC United election campaign, it wasn’t for his own political survival. In fact, he sealed his own political demise — he won’t run in the October election.
No, he simply threw in the towel and passed the torch to Rustad and the Conservatives. There will be no coalition, no reconciliation of the two parties’ vastly different policies, no trading of ridings between to them.
Some BC United MLAs apparently will be offered chances to run for the Conservatives. One of them is rumoured to be Peter Milobar in Kamloops Centre. He would replace Dennis Giesbrecht, who has been nominated for the BC Conservatives.
Milobar recently posted a BC United meme on his Facebook page that asked, “Why is John Rustad wasting donors’ money trying to defeat free-enterprise MLAs and not the NDP?” and declared, “John only cares about his own ambitions.”
He also, by the way, has posted a number of times that “momentum is building” for BC United, a conclusion based on his door knocking.
Should he accept the opportunity to run for the BC Conservatives instead of BC United, he somehow must re-align his political beliefs in order to preserve his own ambitions.
But such is politics. Such realignments happen all the time when the choice is between an about-turn on a candidate’s political philosophies versus political ignominy. Just ask RFK Jr.
Politics is, indeed, a wondrous thing.
Mel Rothenburger is a former regular contributor to CFJC-TV and CBC radio, publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, and is a recipient of the Jack Webster Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award, and a Webster Foundation Commentator of the Year finalist. He has served as mayor of Kamloops, school board chair and TNRD director, and is a retired daily newspaper editor. He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.
ArmchairMayor.ca 
As a citizen we must ask: What is true? What is false? The truth is to do with how each MLA understands its role in society and how they choose to interpret it which is as we see with Falcons of the world colored by self-interest.
The majority of politicians, on the evidence available to us, are interested not in truth but in power and in the maintenance of that power. To maintain that power, it is essential that people remain in ignorance, that they live in ignorance of the truth.
What surrounds us therefore is a vast tapestry of lies, upon which we feed. So, what is it ladies and gentlemen in Victoria that you want to change (education, healthcare, outsourcing, crime homelessness,) that you did not do when you held power?
Citizens of all political persuasions feel that our elected representatives have lost the most important focus, their accountability to the electorate. They feel that there is a need for transparency and a sustained sense of direction to achieve the necessary social and economic changes that will lead to transformation of our community that people appreciate.
It’s time to reread Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Emperor’s New Clothes” https://andersen.sdu.dk/vaerk/hersholt/TheEmperorsNewClothes_e.html
“But he hasn’t got anything on!” the whole town cried out at last. The emperor shivered, for he suspected they were right. But he thought, “This procession has got to go on.” So, he walked more proudly than ever, as his noblemen held high the train that wasn’t there at all.”
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Local comparisons might be more appropriate than an American presidential election in which very few people in Kamloops will have an impact. There are plenty of people in City Hall who said one thing, then flipped within months after being elected.
Politics/civil “service” have become a vehicle for those who are ambitious when it comes to power and money, but can’t hack it in the tough world of private enterprise. There is a lack of consistency which can sometimes be attributed to a lack of knowledge but for those who are obviously knowledgeable that lack of consistency speaks to character.
A small minority of our politicians have character. Some of our politicians have character which has been eroded over time. An increasing number of them, however, never had character to begin with but are very skilled at manipulation and alarmingly this group is on the ascent at every level.
This is the third time now that MLA Todd Stone has been sideswiped by a party which he has supported his entire life. During a leadership race, then when the Great Faker Christy Clark abandoned her post over a loss, now an unconditional surrender which leaves him and others who demonstrated loyalty and good faith abandoned in the field.
Right now, Milobar is in the same boat as Stone although he has only been shipwrecked by others twice. No one could really blame him for taking an offered candidacy, but this would reflect very poorly on the Conservatives as they essentially abandon a candidate (Dennis Giesbrecht) who has been working hard and in good faith for the Conservatives in a tough constituency where the United Party really had its closest lock for a seat provincially in Stone who is rightly popular among his constituents.
The right thing for both Milobar and Stone at this point would be either to walk away from the election, or stand as Indepedents.
If neither are returned to the legislature, there are great opportunities for both locally where they can help clean up the messes being created by a council they helped elect (actions which one can hope they also did in good faith, being as blind to the failings of those candidates as they have been to the leaders of their own party).
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I applaud Kevin Falcon, putting the province ahead of himself. Rare in politics, no matter what side of the fence you are on.
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The gravity of what took place today can’t be overstated. We’re about to see MLAs shamelessly change their stripes and reveal that their personal aspirations are stronger than the shame of not standing on principles and words, the potential sending of a major BC political force into the dustbin of history, and the ejection of Conservative hopefuls for BC United incumbents.
I prefer Kevin Falcon as a leader, but what a remarkable turn of an unfriendly card for him, to capitulate so fully in front of the man he kicked out of his own caucus not too long ago.
Milobar replacing the Geez would raise eyebrows. There is exactly zero chance of an NDP win in this riding. Nothing will happen without approval from Rustad, so Milobar better be scrubbing his social media history to clean any anti-Conservative talk. And what of Mr. Stone? Imagine his shock of tuning into the news with the rest of us and wondering if he has a job tomorrow since the only rumors are naming Milobar, not Stone. To hitch their wagon to that sinking BC United ship will have consequences, but maybe that’s more honourable than changing your stripes like changing a football club jersey.
The dust will settle in short order, and the NDP will come face to face with the pendulum swing. Progressives are about to understand what happens when you turn a province into an open air drug market, organized crime playground and a street insane asylum. People simply can’t understand vending machines dispensing crack pipes and providing instructions on how to short coke. That is the embodiment of crazy progressive BS and is a powerful image. David Eby is again reacting to fallout from his own government’s outlandish policies. When the parents and grandparents heads are left spinning after watching the news, you have a serious political problem.
All this push to “reduce the stigma” has had the exact opposite effect, and will inevitably see the NDP defeated in the next election now that the vote split advantage is gone.
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You nailed it. Proponents for an upcoming supportive housing project in North Kamloops (where else) said they would not “discriminate” against drug and alcohol use. Would not discriminate……. I can’t believe it.
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I suspect Falcon didn’t want to be a footnote in history as the next Rita Johnson, this way his legacy won’t be completely tarnished.
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