Kevin Falcon, leader of the B.C. Liberal Party and leader of the Opposition in the provincial legislature, accompanied by Kamloops-North Thompson MLA Peter Milobar were in Barriere on Friday, Sept. 30, to meet with area residents at the Senior’s Hall. It was a fairly short meeting, due to Falcon’s plane being late into Kamloops, but attendees had a good amount of time to meet with him before he and Milobar moved on up to Clearwater to participate in the Truth and Reconciliation Day event held at the Dutch Lake Community Centre.
Falcon also took the time to meet with this reporter and give an overview of why he has stepped back into politics in a major way.
“I was a minister of transportation for six years, and the great thing about being a minister of transportation in British Columbia is if you are there for a long time you really get to know the province because you go into every little community and you realize just how important the investment in the roads and all the rest of it really is,” said Falcon, “That was always the best education I ever had in government, and you get a real appreciation for small communities where a little money goes a long way. You get so much more from investing in small communities.”
Asked what he thought of the current condition of the Yellowhead Highway in the North Thompson, Falcon answered, “I would be appalled if I was still minister, I would be on the phone right away, especially about that Pigs Corner in the Darfield area.
“To be honest though I think there is a bigger issue. I think that it’s really about a government that’s very urban, the current government is very focused almost entirely on the Lower Mainland and the Island, everything east of Hope is almost an afterthought.
“It’s very different from the NDP governments of old, love them or hate them you couldn’t say that they didn’t have some roots into rural B.C., but that’s not today’s NDP. Today’s NDP is totally urban.”
The Province’s Health Minister Adrien Dix announced on Sept. 29, a list of 70 actions to be undertaken regarding health care in B.C., does Falcon see this announcement as a big step forward in improving the state of the health care system where it is today?
“I was just elected leader in February, but in the short time that I’ve been back, even when I was in the private sector observing government from afar, I’ve just become used to the fact that it’s not what they say, you have to wait for what they do. I really hope that the public gets past this government’s promises, because the promises are not being fulfilled. It might suck people in for a little while because it sounds good, “we’re going to do this, we’re going to do that”, but the plan Dix is talking about had 70 different points.
“First of all government can’t do 70 things. I can guarantee that. I’ve been a health minister – you give them 70 things to do they will be beavering away on that stuff for a decade. You can maybe get them focused on two or three big things, and then you really have to stay on top of them to make sure it gets done. But 70, forget it, that’s going to go absolutely nowhere. It’s going to go with all their other plans that they’ve come forward with over the last five years, such as the promise to build a cancer hospital in Kamloops.
“When I first got elected in 2001 the first commitment we made was to double the number of doctors being trained in the province, and we did, we went from 128 to 280, that helped but it takes seven years to train them. We also distributed the training around the province so that the University of Northern BC, University of Victoria and University of BC/Okanagan were training doctors, and that was to make sure that folks from smaller communities and outside the lower mainland had doctors trained there so they stayed in their communities. But since that time there has not been a single new training space for doctors added during the two term NDP government.”
Falcon said that one of the things he is really trying to educate the public on, “is to hold government, including our government (when we form government) to account for results, not for what we say but what we do, and for the results we get. That’s how we have to hold government accountable.”
“Under five years of NDP government in this province we have the highest housing prices in North America, the highest fuel prices in North America, and crime has become a huge problem in this province,” said Falcon.
He noted that having recently travelled to all corners of the province he is “shocked” at what he sees going on in regards to crime.
“We call it the NDP’s catch and release program, especially prolific offenders who are in and out the same day,” said Falcon, “There is no consequences for crime. This has to end. We have to have a health care system that works for people and law and order that holds people accountable for their behaviour.”
Asked why he had made the decision to step back in to the political ring after so many years, he answered, “It’s for the same reason that I retired - for my kids. When I announced my retirement in 2012 it was because my oldest daughter was about
two-and-a-half, and my wife was pregnant with our second daughter, which wasn’t public at the time.”
After spending 12 years in public life Falcon says he realized, “I going to have two little kids to look after with my wife Jessica, and I felt that I wanted to be a present dad as I knew what the job involved.
“Now, here I am a decade later, and I am coming back for my kids, not really them specifically, it’s more about that generation. I feel very concerned about the total lack of leadership at almost every level in this country.
“I have some skill sets that can be helpful in the public and private sectors, and I decided I’m going to do this for my kids and hope that I can get in there and change things and try to make them better. That’s really the reason, we’ll pay a price for it as a family, but both my wife and I agreed that this would be good role modelling for our girls. They’ll see that their dad is doing something not because it’s easy or going to be a lot of fun, but because it’s public service, it’s try, give back, and make a contribution. If I can imbue them a little bit with that, then I’ll be happy.”
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