Dear Editor:
I regret that the leader of the B.C. Conservative Party has accepted the recent departure of a Liberal MLA to sit as a B.C. Conservative in the people's legislature. Something I dearly felt should not have been allowed.
The B.C. Conservative candidates, like myself, in the 2009 election spent plenty of time and resources running as candidates who differed from the sitting B.C. Liberal MLAs in many ways. I believed in free enterprise with a social and ethical conscience. I believed, and still do, in individual rights and freedoms as afforded to us under our Constitution.
I also believed that my principles and values were not for sale. As a BCCP candidate I spoke about the truth and the reality of Gordon Campbell's mockery of governing and hindering the democratic process. I was told by many voters, like minded, that I would split the vote. Well I stand today with my head up high knowing that my campaign for true change was real and honest. Unfortunately, voters chose to re-elect the same people to office who were having difficulty governing the province without a vision and real mandate.
So the B.C. Conservatives will become the new B.C. Liberals disguised in blue, but having again denied the people a true choice for change.
Leader John Cummins must turn to those candidates that stood up for the party values and worked hard to afford MLA John Van Dongen an opportunity to be an opportunist for himself, a defecting and self-interested human being.
I hope Mr. Cummins will no longer accept B.C. Liberals crossing the floor.
Eddie Petrossian, North Vancouver
