BC United Leader Kevin Falcon is quite evidently desperate to garner more support among British Columbians by any means possible as polls have shown that his party currently stands no chance whatsoever against the NDP led by Premier David Eby.
Just last May, Falcon told a Punjabi radio station in Surrey that if he were the Public Safety Minister he “would absolutely make a binding decision for sure” regarding continuing with the municipal policing transition in Surrey.
Falcon told the host: “If I was the mayor, based on the information I know, I’d take the $50 million every year and go with the Surrey Police Service.”
Earlier, he had told the Punjabi media in Surrey that he supported a Surrey municipal police force.
And that was for a very practical reason.
In the 2020 provincial election, Surrey voters delivered a slap in the face of the B.C. Liberals whose then-leader Andrew Wilkinson decided to oppose the police transition, believing that that would help him win extra seats in Surrey.
The tactic backfired badly as Surrey voters not only re-elected all six incumbent NDP MLAs – Jinny Sims (Surrey-Panorama), Rachna Singh (Surrey-Green Timbers), Jagrup Brar (Surrey-Fleetwood), Harry Bains (Surrey-Newton), Bruce Ralston (Surrey-Whalley) and Garry Begg (Surrey-Guildford) – but also booted out Marvin Hunt (Surrey-Cloverdale) and replaced him with the NDP’s Mike Starchuk.
Now, because Falcon mistakenly thinks that Surrey residents might be swayed by Surrey Mayor Brenda Locke’s allegations that the transition will be an unbearable financial burden on them even as her own delaying tactics are costing residents untold millions of dollars, he has decided to do exactly what his predecessor did: play dirty politics.
It is not about principles.
It is about opportunism.
On Tuesday, BC United announced that it will vote against the amendments to the Police Act that Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth announced on Monday – although the NDP has a solid majority in the House and do not need their party’s support.
But this is all a stunning and shameless political move by a desperate BC United leadership that knows their party is getting increasingly irrelevant in spite of their relentless barrage of attacks on every move the NDP government makes.
It is not about being constructive.
It is all about being as destructive as possible – just to try and win back some support from British Columbians.
BC United Critic for Public Safety Mike Morris said in a statement:
“This legislation represents a total failure of leadership from David Eby and the NDP, whose weak and indifferent approach from the beginning has plunged the situation into chaos.
“The NDP’s total lack of transparency has denied us the necessary information to assess whether transitioning from the RCMP to the SPS is a sound decision. It’s unreasonable to expect us, the Opposition, to validate the NDP’s ongoing mishandling of this issue when we lack the relevant facts, which is why we will be voting no to the legislation.
“This decision underscores the NDP’s consistent neglect of transparency and respect for taxpayers and is a brazen attempt to strip away local autonomy, which should be concerning to all local governments.
“The NDP’s chronic mismanagement has led to years of uncertainty, personal conflicts, top-down dictates from the province, and now retroactive legislation, which sets a terrible precedent for other municipalities.”
So, now the BC United is talking about the NDP’s “brazen attempt to strip away local autonomy” hoping that that might sway some voters.
Let’s see what the next poll shows!
Incidentally, Eby told the media on Tuesday that it’s important that Locke raised concerns about costs and the Province will be “a good partner” to handle that, according to a Canadian Press report. So the City has nothing to worry about.
Also, the Premier made it crystal-clear that the province was going ahead with a municipal force, adding that he looked forward to working with the mayor on that.
