Liberal MLA Geoff MacLellan announced Thursday that he will not reoffer in the next election, saying it’s time to spend quality time with his children who do not know him as a non-politician.
“Without a doubt, the number one reason are my two kids,” MacLellan said of Georgia, 9, and Daniel, 7.
“Those kids don’t know me as Geoff MacLellan, not the politician,” MacLellan, 42, said. “For me, it’s really important that they actually know their dad as a person because they don’t. They love me and I love them, we’ve done great things and we have a tremendous relationship. Even when I’m there, I’m not there all the way a lot of times. To take them to the beach and have a hot Saturday afternoon at the beach, all I’m thinking about is who I have to call on Monday and what meetings I have and what I’ve missed and who is going to be upset that I didn’t return an email and what speeches are coming up.”
MacLellan said “if you are locked into this job and it’s your focus,” it’s impossible to be present for loved ones.
“I want them to know their dad fully and to be able to commit 100 per cent, so when we are with each other, it’s me, not a version of me looking at my phone or trying to get a conference call in before I pick them up. It’s time and they deserve that and I really look forward to that.”
The MLA for Glace Bay has more than a decade of legislative experience and serves as the government House leader and business and trade minister.
“I want them to know their dad fully and to be able to commit 100 per cent, so when we are with each other, it’s me, not a version of me looking at my phone or trying to get a conference call in before I pick them up. It’s time and they deserve that and I really look forward to that.”
MLA Geoff MacLellan
First elected in June 2010 and re-elected in 2013 and 2017, MacLellan has served in several cabinet positions.
In the first term in office for the Stephen McNeil-led Liberals, MacLellan served as minister of transportation and infrastructure renewal.
MacLellan said Glace Bay is in a better place than when he entered politics.
“Glace Bay is a remarkable place to grow up,” he said. “As I got older, I realized that as far as value for teaching and understanding the way the world works, I just couldn’t picture growing up in a better place. You’ve gotta be tough, there are no two ways about it. You have experiences you just don’t get anywhere else. To have the privilege to represent them for almost 11 years is something that I cherish every day and I’ll cherish forever because that’s who I am.
“It’s a difficult riding to represent in the sense that there is no free lunch. You can’t just go through the motions, do some press releases and show up some fundraisers and that’s it. They want you there, and present, and making an impact, and that’s what I tried to do.”
MacLellan listed school, hospital and other infrastructure improvements made in the riding under his tenure as MLA, along with investments in education and social programs.
“We are not dying, we are going in the right direction,” MacLellan said of his riding and all of Cape Breton Island.
MacLellan, who said he will always call Glace Bay home, will stay involved in government until the next election and promises to take on whatever role is asked of him by the new Liberal party leader and premier to be elected by the party Saturday.
MacLellan said he is not leaving politics to move into a specific job or position, adding he needs a paycheque so he will have to figure it out pretty quickly.
MacLellan said he’s not ill, there is no scandal, no backstory, but “it’s absolutely time,” to leave.
MacLellan said he has “no regrets” about his political career before taking time to talk about the outgoing premier, Stephen McNeil.
“I don’t have the words to express what I think of him, what I see in him, what he’s meant to me over the years,” MacLellan, his voice catching with emotion, said of the premier.
“There were two silver linings for me of the COVID impact,” MacLellan said. “One was that I had every day for months to spend with my kids and the second was that people saw the Stephen McNeil that we see, the kind, strong leader that believes in people and puts everyone else in front of him, always.
“He’s always been there for me and I just wanted to make him proud every day I was here. We will be friends forever and I love him like he’s a member of my family.”
McNeil, speaking after his last cabinet meeting as premier, expressed similar sentiments about MacLellan.
“I love him for who he is, he’s a big part of my extended family, we will be friends and stay connected,” McNeil said.
“I think so highly of him and the work he has done.”
McNeil said he was happy for MacLellan but sad for Nova Scotians.
MacLellan is the seventh Liberal MLA to make it known recently that they are not reoffering. McNeil and cabinet members or former ministers Karen Casey, Leo Glavine, Gordon Wilson and Margaret Miller have announced retirement decisions along with backbencher Bill Horne.
Opinion: Brad West been one of the sharpest critics of decriminalization
Get the latest from Vaughn Palmer straight to your inbox
Published Apr 22, 2024 • Last updated 2 hours ago • 4 minute read
Article content
VICTORIA — Port Coquitlam Mayor Brad West fired off a letter to Premier David Eby last week about Allan Schoenborn, the child killer who changed his name in a bid for anonymity.
“It is completely beyond the pale that individuals like Schoenborn have the ability to legally change their name in an attempt to disassociate themselves from their horrific crimes and to evade the public,” wrote West.
Advertisement 2
THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY
Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada.
Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account.
Get exclusive access to the Vancouver Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on.
Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists.
Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists.
Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword.
SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES
Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada.
Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account.
Get exclusive access to the Vancouver Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on.
Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists.
Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists.
Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword.
REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES
Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.
Access articles from across Canada with one account.
Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments.
Enjoy additional articles per month.
Get email updates from your favourite authors.
Sign In or Create an Account
or
Article content
Article content
The Alberta government has legislated against dangerous, long-term and high risk offenders who seek to change their names to escape public scrutiny.
“I urge your government to pass similar legislation as a high priority to ensure the safety of British Columbians,” West wrote the premier.
The B.C. Review Board has granted Schoenborn overnight, unescorted leave for up to 28 days, and he spent some of that time in Port Coquitlam, according to West.
This despite the board being notified that “in the last two years there have been 15 reported incidents where Schoenborn demonstrated aggressive behaviour.”
“It is absolutely unacceptable that an individual who has committed such heinous crimes, and continues to demonstrate this type of behaviour, is able to roam the community unescorted.”
Understandably, those details alarmed PoCo residents.
But the letter is also an example of the outspoken mayor’s penchant for to-the-point pronouncements on provincewide concerns.
He’s been one of the sharpest critics of decriminalization.
His most recent blast followed the news that the New Democrats were appointing a task force to advise on ways to curb the use of illicit drugs and the spread of weapons in provincial hospitals.
Informed Opinion
A daily roundup of Opinion pieces from the Sun and beyond.
By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc.
Thanks for signing up!
A welcome email is on its way. If you don’t see it, please check your junk folder.
The next issue of Informed Opinion will soon be in your inbox.
We encountered an issue signing you up. Please try again
Article content
Advertisement 3
Article content
“Where the hell is the common sense here?” West told Mike Smyth on CKNW recently. “This has just gone way too far. And to have a task force to figure out what to do — it’s obvious what we need to do.
“In a hospital, there’s no weapons and you can’t smoke crack or fentanyl or any other drugs. There you go. Just saved God knows how much money and probably at least six months of dithering.”
He had a pithy comment on the government’s excessive reliance on outside consultants like MNP to process grants for clean energy and other programs.
“If ever there was a place to find savings that could be redirected to actually delivering core public services, it is government contracts to consultants like MNP,” wrote West.
He’s also broken with the Eby government on the carbon tax.
“The NDP once opposed the carbon tax because, by its very design, it is punishing to working people,” wrote West in a social media posting.
“The whole point of the tax is to make gas MORE expensive so people don’t use it. But instead of being honest about that, advocates rely on flimsy rebate BS. It is hard to find someone who thinks they are getting more dollars back in rebates than they are paying in carbon tax on gas, home heat, etc.”
Advertisement 4
Article content
West has a history with the NDP. He was a political staffer and campaign worker with Mike Farnworth, the longtime NDP MLA for Port Coquitlam and now minister of public safety.
When West showed up at the legislature recently, Farnworth introduced him to the house as “the best mayor in Canada” and endorsed him as his successor: “I hope at some time he follows in my footsteps and takes over when I decide to retire — which is not just yet,” added Farnworth who is running this year for what would be his eighth term.
Other political players have their eye on West as a future prospect as well.
Several parties have invited him to run in the next federal election. He turned them all down.
Lately there has also been an effort to recruit him to lead a unified Opposition party against Premier David Eby in this year’s provincial election.
I gather the advocates have some opinion polling to back them up and a scenario that would see B.C. United and the Conservatives make way (!) for a party to be named later.
Such flights of fancy are commonplace in B.C. when the NDP is poised to win against a divided Opposition.
Advertisement 5
Article content
By going after West, the advocates pay a compliment to his record as mayor (low property taxes and a fix-every-pothole work ethic) and his populist stands on public safety, carbon taxation and other provincial issues.
The outreach to a small city mayor who has never run provincially also says something about the perceived weaknesses of the alternatives to Eby.
“It is humbling,” West said Monday when I asked his reaction to the overtures.
But he is a young father with two boys, aged three and seven. The mayor was 10 when he lost his own dad and he believes that if he sought provincial political leadership now, “I would not be the type of dad I want to be.”
When West ran for re-election — unopposed — in 2022, he promised to serve out the full four years as mayor.
He is poised to keep his word, confident that if the overtures to run provincially are serious, they will still be there when his term is up.
LIVE Q&A WITH B.C. PREMIER DAVID EBY: Join us April 23 at 3:30 p.m. when we will sit down with B.C. Premier David Eby for a special edition of Conversations Live. The premier will answer our questions — and yours — about a range of topics, including housing, drug decriminalization, transportation, the economy, crime and carbon taxes. Click HERE to get a link to the livestream emailed to your inbox.
New York Times reporter and CNN senior political analyst Maggie Haberman explains the significance of David Pecker, the ex-publisher of the National Enquirer, taking the stand in the hush money case against former President Donald Trump.
Comments