Janice Harris: North Vancouver needs an MLA that puts community first
By Janice Harris
After 18 years as mayor and councillor in North Vancouver, I know the importance of listening to the community and staying in touch with the concerns of everyday people. Day in and day out, I exchanged e-mail, talked on the phone, and carefully listened to the concerns of people in our community about the issues that mattered to them.
For too long, the North Shore has had Liberal MLAs representing the views of Gordon Campbell rather than representing the needs and concerns of our community in the legislature in Victoria. For too long, the interests of the people of North Vancouver-Lonsdale have been ignored by a premier who doesn’t listen and doesn’t care about anything other than pet mega-projects and taking token actions on critical issues.
As a consequence, many of the best parts of our community have disappeared over the last eight years. We have seen high-quality, high-paying jobs disappear—at B.C. Rail, in our shipyards, and in our hospitals and health care facilities. We have seen schools close in the face of provincial funding formulas that have not kept pace with our new realities. Homelessness has tripled and B.C. now ranks as the worst province in the country when it comes to child poverty, but even still the premier refuses to fund new units of affordable housing or our North Shore Youth Safe House, all while Liberal MLAs keep their mouths shut on the issue.
My vision for the future of the North Shore is one where our local MLA not only listens, but also puts the concerns of everyday people and their families first.
As the MLA for North Vancouver-Lonsdale, I will use my office not to hide from the public and from public accountability, but to reach out to people and organizations that have for too long been cut out of the decision-making process. To me, this means using open houses and community meetings to connect with seniors, with parents of school-aged children, with our local government and school board, and with our local business community.
I also envision a North Vancouver that is made strong by a government that invests in our community again, including funding to help replace aging community facilities and using green bonds to help fund environmentally sound retrofittings right in our community—a program that will invest in new technology and that will not only help us meet our commitment to reduce greenhouse gases but will also create good-paying jobs in North Vancouver.
In our fully costed platform, the NDP has promised to re-invest in programs and services that have been underfunded by the Campbell Liberals. Our promise to create 2,400 new affordable housing units immediately and another 1,200 in each of the next four years will aid so many in our community who have seen their quality of life profoundly changed by an absence of housing choices.
The lives of seniors in North Vancouver will be improved by the creation of 3,000 publicly funded long-term care beds and through the creation of an independent seniors advocate.
Parents and students in a public school district that has seen nothing but cuts over the last eight years, including a $3-million shortfall this year, will see new investments in classroom supports and in a reduction in class sizes. And our government will invest $400 million in rebuilding recreation centres in B.C.
I believe that we can have a strong future in North Vancouver. But we need to ensure that we an elect an MLA who is North Vancouver’s voice in Victoria and not Victoria’s voice in North Vancouver. I will be that MLA.
Janice Harris is the B.C. NDP candidate in North Vancouver-Lonsdale.
Comments
1 Comments
Colleenc
Apr 28, 2009 at 7:25pm
That about sums it up as even if the Liberal candidate is worthy they would have little opportunity to share it as with the constituents as Campbell plays it his way. However I did forget there for a moment Campbell's likes to buy things for those neighborhoods that have his Ministers in them. And that is sad indeed because whats the point of electing a representative when no one is listening.
Its would be so beneficial to the province if we had a government in that encouraged its party members to play an active role in politics while encouraging a group identity. Rather than that of a single leader as it Campbell's Liberals along with his BC and his Hydro and his Trains... Its will be a downfall as to be effective all the party members need to be encouraged to speak out and be the vehicle for positive change.
And I don't think it matters what camp you come from as Liberal, Conservative and NDP candidates who want to make this province a better place for themselves and their neighbors should try to stay out of the Real Rich ones.
Just in case they decide to take up residence there and forget All the People they work for as in the Province. It happens, it happens all the time. They forget and I don't imagine its hard because who would want to remember if thats what you are up to making the poor the most desperate in the land along with their children as it takes their tole on their souls. And its not fiction its fact as BC year after year continues to beat down their poor despite acknowledgement that they are destitute and homeless but still more cuts. And I don't imagine if your the politician making those decisions you have to worry about your soul as rumor goes you don't have one to lose.