Re: “Parting thoughts from Kootenay-Columbia’s outgoing MP,” Nov. 7
To Wayne Stetski, my thanks for his service, and a piece of advice: if the NDP are afraid to call themselves socialist, as their forerunners the CCF were not, then his party does not deserve to attract support from the Liberals. Fight for the “S word” and make it your own, not what your enemies say it is. Americans cannot comprehend nor tolerate the word, but we have a different tradition, and I am sorry Jack Layton let marketing experts tell him that socialism is a word that loses votes. Those votes are not worth having.
Also, an observation: to bracket “Elbowgate” (a meaningless non-event) with the SNC-Lavelin affair is outrageous. Stetski’s judgement on this must have been enfeebled by his personal loss. I wish he had won, but I am not upset by the NDP doing so poorly nationally. This ought to have been the election when we turned to the Green Party and endorsed its manifesto, “Mission Possible.”
Finally, Stetski lost by so many votes, even all local Green votes would not have given him the win, so I personally am “absolved” for not voting strategically. We will be back at the ballot box before four years is up, and I hope Stetski’s party discovers then how to climb back to the heights of 2011.
Charles Jeanes
Nelson