By Don Urquhart, Times Chronicle
Donegal Wilson, the newly minted Member of the Legislative Assembly for the Boundary-Similkameen riding, says she is approaching her task in Victoria with a spirit of “cooperation and willingness to get things done.”
Wilson, a member of the Conservative Party of BC, was speaking before Oliver Town Council on Monday, Jan. 27 and was asked by Oliver Mayor Martin Johansen whether she felt she was getting adequate responses back and access to NDP ministers.
“Obviously being in the opposition is not ideal and not the place I wanted to end up,” Wilson said, adding that she hasn’t actually been to Victoria yet as MLAs have only been recalled for a Feb. 18 start of the next session.
She added that since the election she has had meetings with various ministers, saying she has been approaching them with a sense of “cooperation and willingness to get things done”. This has been “received well but once we get into question period and things get pointy I don’t know necessarily how far that cooperation goes.
“I believe, in my career and everything I’ve ever done, that you need to work together for common solutions and I’m hearing a willingness to do that at least with the ministries I’ve approached so far.”
Johansen noted that former NDP MLA Roly Russell had been very helpful in arranging meetings with ministers in Victoria something he found to be “very beneficial, even more useful than UBCM,” he said in reference to the annual Union of BC Municipalities conference which ministers attend.
“And [I] would like to have an opportunity to do that again,” he said highlighting his desire to meet with the Minister of Health and the Minister of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship (WLRS) about the airport and the town’s land grant.
Wilson said she would be happy to facilitate meetings with both ministers
Newly elected Powell River-Sunshine Coast MLA Randene Neill took on that particular cabinet post following the election.
Wilson noted that the WLRS is her shadow ministry and that she already has met with Neill on a couple of occasions and has a “good working relationship,” with the minister with whom she shares some common goals. “If we are working on shared goals I have no concern supporting.”
She added that the Conservative Party of BC has eschewed the traditional “party whip” model in which “whips’ ensure members toe the party line.
This means voting for riding first and party second, she said adding it “allows me the flexibility to work with ministers when I need to as long as it’s in support of what we need here in the Boundary-Similkameen.”
While useful for enabling party members to speak their minds and pursue the interests of constituents, political analysts have noted it could prove challenging to party leader John Rustad’s efforts to forge a clear party identity.
It’s also been suggested that such freedom could pop the lid on controversial viewpoints purportedly held by some in the BC Conservative Party based on previous statements such as those by Dallas Brodie, MLA for Vancouver-Quilchena, and Brent Chapman, MLA for Surrey South.
Meanwhile, Wilson noted her riding office will be located in Keremeos which she hopes will be open in “March-ish”. At this point, she doesn’t know if it will be open to the public, that will be “dependent on security from the legislature and their ability to do that.”
And due to the large geographic size of the riding, Wilson said she will rely on “pop-up” offices in order to meet constituents in their own communities.
