When politicians make contradictory statements to reporters, it can mean several things.
They may be confused. Perhaps they’re making it up as they go along. Or they may be trying to mislead the public and they get caught up in their own mistruths.
The recent fiasco of MLA Linda Larson’s “focus group” that was to review public submissions on a possible national park reserve in the South Okanagan is a clear case of contradictory information revealing a larger problem.
Thankfully Larson announced last week that she has disbanded this “focus group,” but the damage to her reputation was already done.
First of all, despite her attempts to call this secret committee a “focus group,” it never was one.
A focus group is normally randomly chosen by a pollster, marketing company or political party. Or it may be selected according to demographic criteria to reflect either the general public or a specific target market.
The group then offers its opinions on a proposed marketing campaign, a policy or a set of recommendations.
Although Larson in one interview claimed her committee was “a random selected group of people,” this was clearly not the case.
And once the Osoyoos Times revealed the names of four of the five committee members, it became clear that Larson’s statement that the group “equally represented” the different interests involved was nothing but a big nose stretcher.
I am certainly not casting aspersions of the members of the group or their commitment to their communities. I talked to all four members I was able to identify, and Larson is probably right that they are “upstanding citizens.”
But a group containing two anti-park advocates and no park supporters; with two people from Oliver and none from Osoyoos; and with no First Nations is certainly not reflective of the community. It is more reflective of Larson’s own biases.
Larson claimed she could not name the members of the group because they would be harassed. She was more specific in one interview, suggesting this harassment would come from park supporter Doreen Olson.
Olson, for the record, insists she would never “harass” these people.
A curious thing happened when I was able to identify four of the five members. None of them tried to hide from me. They all spoke openly about their backgrounds and why they agreed to serve on this committee.
Two of them even returned my calls after I left voice messages telling them what I was calling about.
So the fear of “harassment” was obviously something that came from Larson and not from the committee members themselves.
In hindsight, it is hard not to conclude the secrecy had nothing to do with “harassment” and had everything to do with Larson not wanting the public to know this group reviewing public input was not broadly representative after all.
Larson and Environment Minister Mary Polak also gave conflicting explanations about the role of the group, how it was chosen and whether or not the ministry “vetted” its members.
The suggestion that the group would simply summarize the feedback – something the ministry was already doing – made no sense. Why would a group representing certain interests in this issue be needed to produce a mere summary?
Clearly there are differences of opinion in the community about the merits of a national park reserve and there’s room for a constructive dialogue. But that’s not the issue here. The issue is transparency and honesty of our elected officials.
It’s also one of respect for opposing views. Larson, in media interviews, has characterized those supporting a national park as “crazy people” and people writing letters to newspapers as “extremists.” This is hardly a way to build consensus.
Larson is not a bad person. She spends many hours showing up at community events throughout her large riding and no doubt works very hard for the people of Boundary-Similkameen.
How could you not like a woman who spent more than a decade running a free muffin program for high school students in Oliver?
But on this particular issue, she can’t seem to keep her feet out of her mouth.
As former Osoyoos mayor Stu Wells, a park supporter, observed last week, at least the Christmas break will give Larson a pause to catch her breath and change feet.
Richard McGuire is a reporter/photographer with the Osoyoos Times.
