Wednesday, February 20, 2002 Mike Rimmer News Review Staff “When is the next election?” That is what Joy McPhail, one of two surviving NDP members of the BC Legislature says people are now asking her. “Now people are saying ‘when’s the next election?’ and it isn’t necessarily about New Democrats ... it isn’t that sup- port is necessarily coming home to the New Democrats,” said McPhail. She said people now realize that there needs to be a strong opposition for the checks and balances of our system of governing. McPhail was in Sidney to meet with more than 60 local party members at a fund raiser in St. Andrews Hall Satur- day evening. Earlier in the day, she had been in Duncan for a similar meeting. Prominent in the hall were posters ad- vertising the February 23 rally on the Legislative grounds to protest the Liberal government's slate of bills. In an interview with the News Revigw, McPhail talked about the difficult task she and Jenny Kwan, the other sur- viving NDP member, face “making sure these 100 or so bills - they are going to bring in, hurt the fewest amount of peo- ple.” “We are just learning our responsibility for the whole province,” said McPhail, “I mean, even though we don’t have official opposition status, the public doesn’t care, does- - n't listen to that. They want us to act as the opposition.” With a wry smile, McPhail said she has no life but poli- tics at the present time.. McPhail says for the next three and a half months, her Savings of... | + Open Wednesday — to Friday 9:30 toS5pm * Saturdays to 4 pm So, let US” "Cheer Y ‘You Up" with OUP... 2168 K eating X. Rd, Saanichton, 8 BC. 652-8847 MIKE RIMMER PHOTO Joy MacPhail spoke to party members Saturday. highest priority will be dealing with the legislation being “tabled by the Liberals, and to travel the province and “go to the communities which are being affected.” “This total agenda that the Liberals are putting in place _right now is really very anti-rural. The downtown folks in Vancouver will be less harmed than rural communities, so because Jenny and I are Vancouver MLAs, it’s really in- Sntertor Ken Ort Crore, Re ¢ widential ° Con evctal ers cumbent on us to get out to the rural communities.” McPhail said smaller communities are “very concerned about the downloading from the government.” She alleges that the Liberal government has a huge agenda of offload- ing responsibilities onto communities. They are calling it the community charter, she said, “but basically what the community charter is, is the provincial government getting out of the business of assisting municipalities.” All of the blame for raising taxes will fall to the munici- palities then, she said. As well,.she said, there has been a huge offloading onto school boards by not funding the col- lective agreement with teachers. McPhail did say the NDP is seeing a large increase in membership, particularly amongst young people. She said students as young as 14 are joining the party. “We are getting a huge influx of highschool students, and you know why? The whole issue around the teacher's strike has politicized our youngest children unbelievably.” McPhail said the NDP is also seeing a “resounding in- crease” in membership from the ethnic communities. “They have been shut out by the government,” she said, pointing out that there was not one Chinese Canadian in the legislative gallery during the throne speech. She said the NDP are experiencing membership gains amongst the Chi- nese and Indo-Canadian communities, as well as Latino and Philippino. As well, McPhail said the two NDP members are finding “volunteers, who are expert” in various areas are coming forward to help with the research chores need to mount an effective criticism of the Liberal government. De, 0 vgn . Oh Se sistance Custom: oa Furnishings » Fabrics » Window Coverings > Garden Art Salt | ‘ » Kitchens — » Tiles. 250 656-2691 __ PENINSULA NEWS REVIEW 23 > AreaRugs | | > Wallbeds || 10134 H MC DONAL dD PARK RD, SIDNE Y, R, C, val. 5X8