THE NDP said on Tuesday that instead of living up to his words and taking action to end homophobia in his party, BC Liberal leader Andrew Wilkinson resorted to excuses for his candidate’s vote.

When asked by reporters about B.C. Liberal candidate for Langley East Margaret Kunst’s vote against a rainbow crosswalk in her community – a crosswalk that had been requested by the school district and the RCMP – Wilkinson dodged, saying “my understanding is that was a vote about procedure.”

It wasn’t. 

The NDP said the Langley Township Council had a clear vote on the following motion: “Be it resolved that permission be granted for the installation of a rainbow crosswalk on Township of Langley property, as necessary, at the requested location of the existing crosswalk at 222 Street between SD35 and the Langley RCMP Detachment, at no cost to the Township.” 

Kunst raised her hand for “opposed”. 

Immediately before defending this act of intolerance, Wilkinson repeated his apparently meaningless promise that “there is no room in British Columbia and certainly not in my party for any discrimination based on age or gender, sexual orientation, religion, race.” 

The NDP said that if Wilkinson truly means there’s no room for homophobia in his party, he must fire Kunst immediately.

BC NDP candidate Spencer Chandra Herbert said: “After Andrew Wilkinson’s hand-picked candidate tried to block a rainbow crosswalk, Wilkinson made excuses instead of taking action to end homophobia in his party. Rainbow crosswalks have been around BC for over 10 years. We have heard all the tired excuses to try and stop them, and I’m disappointed to hear them coming from the Leader of the BC Liberal Party. Wilkinson needs to stop making excuses for homophobia in his party.”

Full video of the September 21 council meeting can be found on the Township website: 

http://tol.ca.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=2&clip_id=788 [4:54:25]