Tuesday, September 09, 2008

Video: Conservative MP running away from Harper and Clement

The Conservatives have recruited a candidate of some profile to carry their banner against Hedy Fry in Vancouver-Centre: Lorne Mayencourt, who resigned as the MLA for Vancouver-Burard and was nominated as the Conservative candidate last night.

As an MLA, Lorne Mayencourt was a member of a B.C. government that supported Insite. Lorne’s former boss (as in a few days ago), Premier Gordon Campbell, has been calling on Stephen Harper (Lorne’s new boss) to keep Insite open:

Premier Gordon Campbell urged the federal Conservative government Monday not to close Insite, the controversial supervised injection facility in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside.

"It's part of the solution," Campbell told reporters, when asked about speculation that the Harper government's new anti-drug strategy, to be unveiled this week, won't renew the federal exemption allowing the site to operate.

Harper, of course, and by Health Minister Tony Clement, has been extremely anti-Insite:
The World Health Organization has strongly endorsed safe injection sites like Vancouver's Insite as one of the “priority interventions” that countries should implement to slow the spread of HIV-AIDS, a view that was swiftly and firmly rejected by Canada's Health Minister.

“Allowing and/or encouraging people to inject heroin into their veins is not harm reduction, it is the opposite. … We believe it is a form of harm addition,” Tony Clement said Tuesday in Mexico City, where he is attending the XVII International AIDS Conference.

So, two polar extremes from Lorne’s old party and his new one. Where will Mr. Mayencourt come down on the issue? As you'll see from this video interview with Lorne and some Liberal youth recorded last night after his nomination meeting, no where at all...

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5 comments:

Karen said...

Well done!

Jeff said...

excellent. we need more of that.

Steve V said...

That's good!

penlan said...

Oh excellent! Need to see more like those in ridings all across the country.

How's BC Jeff? :)

susansmith said...

It appears there's not much difference between the BC liberals and the Harper Conservatives - as they seem to easily flow from one to another.

So easy to switch sides.

I don't think the new minted Harper Conservative who morphed as a provincial liberals thinks a rats butt about inSite. And nor does he appear to have a problem with the major most important issue facing this planet - climate change -.

It makes me quite a cynic when I see this easy walk.