BC CONSERVATIVE LEADER CONDEMNS CAMPBELL’S ARROGANCE IN CANCELLING FALL SESSION OF LEGISLATURE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

September 11, 2006

Cranbrook: BC Conservative Leader Wilf Hanni today called on Premier Campbell to reconsider his plan to cancel the fall session of the Legislature.

Hanni said, “There is really only one difference between a Parliamentary Democracy and a Dictatorship. A Dictatorship has a President or Premier and a Cabinet who are called upon to govern the people, just like a Parliamentary Democracy. The only difference is that the government, in a Parliamentary Democracy is accountable to the Legislative Assembly, which consists of Legislators elected by the people to hold the government accountable for their actions.”

Hanni went on to say that by unilaterally deciding that the Legislature will not sit this fall, Premier Campbell has crossed the line. He is, in effect, now the Dictator of British Columbia, because the democratically elected assembly is not being allowed to meet in order to hold Campbell and his Cabinet accountable to them, on behalf of the people, for his actions.

Hanni called on Premier Campbell to reconsider this move, which constitutes a serious threat to Democracy in British Columbia. He went on to claim that a BC Conservative Government would be even more democratic than anything British Columbians have ever seen because it would allow individual MLAs a free vote in the Legislature so that they could represent their constituents ahead of their party and would reform the existing Recall Legislation so that voters could fire any MLA that fails to represent them in the Legislature.

Hanni declared that, after this action by the Premier, any vote for the Liberals in any future election in British Columbia is a vote for a dictatorship, while any vote for the Conservatives is a vote for a far more democratic province than we have ever had.

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