Carole James has advice for first-time members of B.C.’s legislative assembly.
“Trust your gut. Trust your heart,” B.C.’s deputy premier and finance minister, and MLA for Victoria-Beacon Hill, said Saturday, at the end of her 30-year political career. “And listen and learn to begin with. The job is like drinking from a firehose. It can be so overwhelming.”
article continues below
Trending Stories
James said she has been so busy during the past month, she hadn’t really thought about her impending retirement until the day before the election.
“It kind of hit me last night when I was getting notes from people saying goodbye and saying thank you that this really was the end of a large portion of my life,” said James, 62. “I had someone remind me that I had been on the ballot in this community every election since 1990. I was on the school board from 1990 to 2000 and I’ve been on the ballot every provincial election.”
Leaving the political whirlwind will be a big adjustment. But James, who was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in January, knows it’s the right decision. She’s been warned by retired or “recovering” politicians that the first six months will be challenging because politics has filled up so much of her life.
“To go from that to not being as busy takes some time to adjust. So I’m preparing myself … I’m not planning to sit around and not do anything. My family would hate that the most, because I wouldn’t be happy. So I’ll be looking for something else. I have nothing planned.”
James is looking forward to spending more time up north with her husband, First Nations artist Albert Gerow, an elected chief of the Burns Lake First Nation. “We’ve spent a lot of time apart, so that will be nice.”
She’s also fortunate to have her grandchildren, Hayden and Charlie, in town and wants to spend more time with them.
Looking after her health is also a priority. Much to her children’s amusement, she plans to take boxing lessons to help alleviate the symptoms of Parkinson’s. “It’s one of the exercises that’s been proven to help with Parkinson’s,” she said. “It touches on brain-eye co-ordination. It touches on balance.”
Friends have given her one pair of pink and one pair of orange boxing gloves. “I think that will be something completely out of my comfort zone.”
Retirement will also include other things she had no time for in the past few years — reconnecting with people, having lunch, going for long walks with friends.
Looking back on her career, James believes the school board gave her the best grounding in governance. One of her best experiences was saving the school strings program in the 1990s, then going to her granddaughter’s Christmas concert in 2016 to hear her play viola and clarinet. “The joy of seeing something you were involved in benefiting so many children years later is extraordinary.”
As a member of the opposition, James said, she learned that you can’t make a big difference, but you can make a difference. “We ended the clawback of child support for women on income assistance when we were in opposition, because we were focused and determined.”
Her most rewarding accomplishment in government was getting free tuition for former youth in care, she said.
“That will always stand out for me, because that’s life-changing for generations,” said James. “We know what happens, generationally, if someone gets stuck in the cycle of poverty and how hard it is for the next generation to get out. That was a significant change.”
During the next four years, the government will have to focus on the issues of homelessness and mental health that the pandemic has brought into sharp relief, said James. “It will need attention and need a focus that was obvious to people who worked in the field, but wasn’t necessarily obvious to society, to communities, as it is now. The pandemic has really shown the stresses and the strains for people who are vulnerable and struggling.”
James has one more piece of advice for first-time MLAs: Don’t forget family and friends.
“Politics will come and go, but your friends and family are always going to be there and they will help you get through the tough times. And don’t spend so much time on social media,” said James with a laugh. “I’m looking forward to not checking Facebook and Twitter obsessively.”
OTTAWA – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the NDP is caving to political pressure from Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre when it comes to their stance on the consumer carbon price.
Trudeau says he believes Jagmeet Singh and the NDP care about the environment, but it’s “increasingly obvious” that they have “no idea” what to do about climate change.
On Thursday, Singh said the NDP is working on a plan that wouldn’t put the burden of fighting climate change on the backs of workers, but wouldn’t say if that plan would include a consumer carbon price.
Singh’s noncommittal position comes as the NDP tries to frame itself as a credible alternative to the Conservatives in the next federal election.
Poilievre responded to that by releasing a video, pointing out that the NDP has voted time and again in favour of the Liberals’ carbon price.
British Columbia Premier David Eby also changed his tune on Thursday, promising that a re-elected NDP government would scrap the long-standing carbon tax and shift the burden to “big polluters,” if the federal government dropped its requirements.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
Simon Jolin-Barrette, minister responsible for consumer protection, has tabled a bill to force merchants to calculate tips based on the price before tax.
That means on a restaurant bill of $100, suggested tips would be calculated based on $100, not on $114.98 after provincial and federal sales taxes are added.
The bill would also increase the rebate offered to consumers when the price of an item at the cash register is higher than the shelf price, to $15 from $10.
And it would force grocery stores offering a discounted price for several items to clearly list the unit price as well.
Businesses would also have to indicate whether taxes will be added to the price of food products.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
Quebec legislature member Youri Chassin has announced he’s leaving the Coalition Avenir Québec government to sit as an Independent.
He announced the decision shortly after writing an open letter criticizing Premier François Legault’s government for abandoning its principles of smaller government.
In the letter published in Le Journal de Montréal and Le Journal de Québec, Chassin accused the party of falling back on what he called the old formula of throwing money at problems instead of looking to do things differently.
Chassin says public services are more fragile than ever, despite rising spending that pushed the province to a record $11-billion deficit projected in the last budget.
He is the second CAQ member to leave the party in a little more than one week, after economy and energy minister Pierre Fitzgibbon announced Sept. 4 he would leave because he lost motivation to do his job.
Chassin says he has no intention of joining another party and will instead sit as an Independent until the end of his term.
He has represented the Saint-Jérôme riding since the CAQ rose to power in 2018, but has not served in cabinet.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
