45 replies to this topic

[Sue Woods]

There's too much swearing going on anyway.

Bernard, you're confirming what I meant to say: there's usually an alternative to the standard oath to tell the truth, to the Queen, etc. I didn't see one used at City Hall for Lynn Hunter.

Perhaps she did not choose to inform the organizers beforehand.

As a former MP she would know better then most that an oath is always part of any government swearing-in ceremony, and given her position against that particular oath, surely by now she would know an alternative oath exists for the asking.

[Caramia]

I've moved the discussion about Representatives of the Crown to this thread: http://vibrantvictor...ted=1#post92024

[mat]

I've moved the discussion about Representatives of the Crown to this thread: http://vibrantvictor...ted=1#post92024

thank you!

[Ms. B. Havin]

JIM HUME - Talk Politics
For Lynn Hunter, a new watch; and likely a new lament

Jim Hume
Times - Colonist
Oct 12, 1995

IF TIMING IS EVERYTHING in politics, Lynn Hunter should get a new watch.

Having remained silent through the tumultuous weeks and months when Victoria Blencoe was braving incredible pressure from charges of sexual harassment made against her husband Robin, the caring former NDP member of Parliament Ms Hunter steered well clear of the Blencoes, unwilling to extend genuine sympathy lest it be mistaken for something else.

Then, just a few days ago, feeling the urge to get back into politics and with her eye firmly fixed on Blencoe's seat in Victoria-Beacon Hill, Ms Hunter opined that even as she considered seeking the nomination she felt a twinge of sorrow and pity for Mrs. Blencoe. Ah, such warmth in the milk of human kindness. Unfortunately for Hunter, fortunately for the rest of us, Victoria Blencoe is not the fading violet type. She is a woman of the '90s, a woman of some stature in the mental discipline sense, a woman of a quality Hunter may yet aspire to be. Her reaction to Hunter's sympathy was "where was she when I needed her?", a response tantamount to telling the former MP what to do with her less than credible pity for a completely innocent victim in a shoddy NDP soap opera.

Empty emotions spilling from the lips of politicians are not new. Politicians, like the chameleon, can change their colors to suit any occasion.

Some, like the intrepid but hardly believable Hunter, actually believe their easily adapted publicly displayed emotions fool the public. Who can forget the Hunter tears of 1993 when, to her utter amazement, the people of her Saanich-Gulf Islands constituency told her in no uncertain terms to get lost, that she had not been as impressive an MP as she thought she had. As the Times Colonist reported on the evening of that unsurprising day (for everybody except Hunter): "Trembling and on the brink of tears she (Hunter) said in a brief interview: 'I think the world is a nastier place tonight and I really fear for my country. I think my country has gone from the frying pan into the fire ... ' "

But Hunter's recovered now, feels belatedly, maybe even tearfully, more sorrow for Victoria Blencoe than Victoria feels for herself, and she's ready to offer herself again for public service. If she gets the nomination she seeks, she'll be running cheek-by-jowl with her close friend Gretchen Brewin who holds, for now, Victoria-Hillside. Robin Blencoe, for whom Ms Hunter expresses no sympathy at all despite his expulsion from the NDP caucus before any charge against him was (or has been) proven, could spoil what she hopes will be her home-coming.

Blencoe would still like to run as a New Democrat in the next election but knows he can't because Premier Mike Harcourt would never sign his nomination papers. Without that precious piece of paper, Blencoe's constituency executive finds itself in a bind.

It, too, thinks Blencoe could hold the seat. Not because the people have already absolved him from the allegations against him but rather because of the uneasy feeling that sentencing people before their trial is not the Canadian way. In the end it will do as it is told by those who run the premier and the party.

I do not share the view that Blencoe could win if he ran NDP. I think the MLA has been so tainted by the allegations and the harsh and improper response of the premier, that he will never recover in the Greater Victoria arena as a New Democrat or as an Independent - which he will have to become if he wishes to run at all.

Nor do I think Hunter, trying to find a soft berth after her federal rejection, could hold Victoria- Beacon Hill for the NDP; and with Blencoe running as an Independent Socialist (shades of Tom Uphill) her defeat would be beyond doubt.

So I suspect would be the defeat of next door neighbor Brewin as Blencoe support spilled into her backyard. All of which leads me to opine that I hope Hunter (a) decides not to run or (b) loses the nomination. I don't think I could stand another night of defeated tears and another verse in the lament that because of her rejection British Columbia would automatically become a nastier place to live.

Yikes, sounds like we have quite a cuckoo in the city council nest!

[Holden West]

It was interesting reading some of those articles on Hunter. She was a dedicated MP; spent long hours working on big issues like the environment and the constitution at a time when neither topic was popular.

Meanwhile, constituents back home were fuming about medicare and high taxes. Hunter barely had time to settle into Ottawa when the she was swept up in a wave of hatred against the status quo, which included the NDP and the Conservatives, both of whom languished at the bottom of the opinion polls.

For months, all the media could talk about was the coming Reform tidal wave and how it would wipe out the traditional political landscape in BC. Sure enough, when the election finally came practically the entire island went from NDP to Reform, a sea change that exists for the most part to this day. I remember my folks--long time NDP supporters--voting Reform and never looking back. It seems like no matter where you are on the political spectrum, no matter how socially conscious you are, there comes a time in your life when you look at your mortgage, your pension, your medical coverage and vote with your wallet.

So in a way, Hunter was a well-meaning victim of the same backlash that wiped out another well-meaning progressive politician in that same election; Kim Campbell, who took the Tories down with her.

[Phil McAvity]

^ I don't in any way blame the demise of the Tories on Kim Campbell. She was the scapegoat at the end of Brian Mulroney's term and I think you'll find it was he who played a much larger role in the Liberal avalanche of 1993. And I think about the only way Kim Campbell could be considered "progressive" (by today's meaning of "progressive") was by virtue of her biology. "I think the world is a nastier place tonight and I really fear for my country.

I think my country has gone from the frying pan into the fire ... ' " is hardly the sentiment of a "well-meaning victim". I can just imagine the vitriol Hunter would have spewed had the Reform party won a majority government. Hunter consistently demonstrates contempt for democracy. So what does the city of Victoria do? Elect her to City Council!

Unbelievable.

Your parents making the quixotic move from NDP to Reform was something I don't think you'd find a lot of other people did back then. It explains a lot about you too Holden.