SECTION

,www.terracestandard.com

Debate sees contenders

swerve from left to centre

By SARAH A.
; ZIMMERMAN

NO CLEAR front runner
was evident as seven can-
didates. faced off at last
- week's NDP leadership
_ debate in Terrace.

-All. seven. candidates
came out swinging Sept.
24° against the Gordon
Campbell Liberals’ record
Since their landslide. vic-
tory in the 2001 provincial
_election, and the question
became ‘which: candidate
would: be best equipped to
take the premier on come
election time in 2005. °
“Just two of the candi-
dates: have experience in
the legislature.

‘Left-leaning, union ac-
tivist Steve Orcherton was
an MLA from 1996-2001
and: successfully passed a
_ private: member’s: bill to

create opportunities foral-

ternative medicines, which
was later thrown out by the
‘Liberals.

His message was clear ,

=. move’ away from the
“mushy middle” and retura
to the left-wing roots of the
NDP.

Helmut Giesbrecht

Former
MLA may
‘run in
2005

HELMUT GIESBRECHT
is not ruling out the idea of
running in the 2005 provin-
cial elections. =~

Giesbrecht, a two-term
provincial. MLA for the
Skeena region from’ 1991-
2001 was among 100
people gathered at the

NDP leadership. debate in -

Terrace Sept. 24.
“T would be proud to go
into any election with any
of them,” he said of the
seven candidates, .

But he added he hasn't -

decided yet if he will run
for. MLA.

“E think there are some
fairly good options,” Gies-
brecht said.

“They ‘all hive passion
and this kind of fire in the
“belly” — some are clearly:
better candidates than

others in terms of how they

would: deal with ‘Gordon
Campbell: in a debate.”

_. Those: front runners in-
clude Carole James, Leo-
nard Krog, Craig Keating
and Steve Orcherton, he
said. |

. Giesbrecht served In the
lepislature alongside Or-
cherton from
and Krog from 1991-1996,

Giesbrecht plans to go
-to the Noy, 21-23 leader-
ship convention in Van-
couver.

Any NDP member can
attend the convention but
only delegates can vote for
the eventual leader,

Delegates from Terrace
and Kitimat will be selec-
ted in early October.

1996-2001

“When you stand in the
middle of the road in polit-
ics ] guarantee you one
thing — you get hit by tral-
fic bath ways,” he said,

The message hit home
to Brad Carson, 18, one of

‘ just four people under 20

attending the debate.

Having just recently be-
come a member of the
NDP party he’s looking for
a feader. with more left-
leaning points of view and
felt many of the candi-
dates: were “borderline
Liberal.”

_ Leonard Krog, a lawyer
from Nanaimo, is the only
other candidate with ex-
perience in the legislature,
serving as MLA for Parks-
ville-Qualicum from 199]
to 1996.

He also ran for MLA in
the 2001 provincial elec-
tion.

Nils Jensen, a Crown
prosecutor, engineer and
city counsellor from Oak
Bay, Victoria stayed
closer to the middle than
Orcherton did and called
for a focus on value-added
products in the forest in-

Steve Orcherton

dustry.

Carole James, the only
woman running for leader,
has eleven years experi-
ence as.a school board
trustee and was president
of the B.C. school trustees
association for five.

. She spoke forcefully

against the Campbell gov-
ernment’s cuts to social
programs including wel-
fare.

“We don't kick people
off welfare with a two-year
rulé when they don’t have
jobs to go to,” she said.

TERRACE

TANDARD |

The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, October 1, 2003 - BI

Community - -

CAROLE JAMES addresses the roughly 100 people from Terrace and Kitimat who gathered to hear what
NDP leadership candidates had to say at a debale here Sept. 24. SARAH A. ZIMMERMAN PHOTO

She also advocated
strongly for the one-mem-
ber, one-vole  slrategy
which many NDP mem-
bers see as the future of
the party.

Currently only dele-
gates to leadership con-
ventions are eligible to
vote for leader.

Mehdi Najari, said he
chose to run after a couple

committed suicide after

sweeping cuts by the Lib-
eral government in 2001
lead them to believe they
wouldn’t be able to care
for their handicapped son
any longer,

“[ came from dictator-
ship in Middle East and I
didn’t come {to a country
ihat treats people in sucha
way,” he said brandishing
a newspaper clipping of
the story.

He also drew some re-
action for his assertion that
if “poor Ireland” can offer
free tuition to its post-sec-
ondary studenls, so can
“rich B.C”,

Peter Dimitrov, also a
lawyer, called for a move
towards regionalization
and decentralizaton of fis-
cal and political responsi-
bilities.

Craig Keating, a city

councillor in North Van-
couver and a 25-year
member of the NDP said
he doesn’t believe staying

-close to the so-called mid-

dle is such a bad thing.

He said it reinforces the
long-standing values of the
NDP and believes the par-
ty can be about both eco-
nomic prosperity and so-
cial justice.

Cont’d page B2

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