Friday, October 8, 2010

The Three Independents

Since the last election we have had one independent, Vicki Huntingdon, and she has been joined this year by willingly by Blair Lekstrom and now unwillingly by Bob Simpson.  I have to say I was expecting a lot more from Vicki Huntingdon as an MLA, but she has been almost non-existent in the media.   She has obviously regularly spoken in the house, certainly more than many Liberal or NDP MLAs, but I have no sense of her political views on issues or what she has been doing.  

She is now calling for the three independents to work together:

Huntington calls for Independent MLAs to forge a new style of representation
DELTA B.C. - Independent MLA Vicki Huntington today called for MLAs Bob Simpson and Blair Lekstrom to use their status as Independents to forge a new style of representation.
“As Independents, Simpson and Lekstrom now have the freedom to speak on behalf of their communities,” Huntington said. “Independents are able support policies and programs that benefit the residents of our communities – whatever party or MLA is proposing them.”
Huntington said although they sit as Independents as a result of different actions, Simpson and Lekstrom share a common opportunity in that they no longer have top down big party politics interfering with their ability to truly represent their constituents.
“Government needs to listen to the people and provide a service to the community,” Huntington said.
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Contact: Vicki Huntington
Independent MLA, Delta South
604-940-7924
When it comes to Blair Lekstrom, I honestly have no idea what he has been doing since he left the government.

The first two independents have done very little to get media attention or made much effort to use social media.    Our media is no longer a couple of major papers, radio and TV stations, there is an ever expanding media out there looking for content, but I do not see them making use of it.  I can not find a website for Blair Lekstrom and the one for Vicki Huntingdon is boringly irrelevant.

Maybe they are doing it and I am not noticing, but I am one of the people that spends more time than 99% of the population in this province paying attention to politics, so I figure if I am not hearing about it their audience has to be tiny if they are doing anything.

Where am I leading with this?   I guess I have to wonder of Bob Simpson will be just be another space filler like the first two, or will he be channeling the spirit of someone like Corky Evans and make the world take notice of him?

I do not see there is much benefit in him working with the other two as they have not shown themselves to be very relevant in BC politics and would tarnish him.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

There is no requirements for four independent members to share a political philosophy to constitute a party. The can call themselves the non-partisan party and name appoint the MLAs to the position of leader, whip, caucus chair, and house leader. As long as they can maintain an amicable working relationship, they can then take the pay raises (pool them if they truly want to remain independent); divide up the budget for research staff; and most importantly, share question period time. (As a party, they should get at least one question per day, versus the one question per week offered to Huntington presently). They would also get one representative on the Legislature's management committee, giving them much more power than the average backbencher.

Since there already is an Official Opposition in place, the requirement for the party to form a credible alternative government is muted.

See:
http://www.llbc.leg.bc.ca/public/pubdocs/bcdocs/347245/speakers_statement.pdf