Jennifer Rice must apologize then resign.
For the MLA-elect to suggest I am infatuated with her, as she penned in a letter to the editor last week, is asinine, juvenile and libelous.
The only hope is Ms. Rice doesn't own a dictionary and her choice of the word was a mistake.
For a politician who has publicly stated she wants a critic portfolio in the next legislature, she certainly appears unable to accept criticism.
She can dish it out but can't take it.
Instead of answering serious questions on LNG terminals in Prince Rupert or the obvious conflict of interest of remaining a city councillor, who continues to collect thousands of Prince Rupert taxpayer dollars and cheats voters out of their right to cast a ballot to reinstate the full representation they deserve on city council, she chose to obfuscate and play the sex card.
We may appear to have Prince Rupert's answer to Mayor Rob Ford of Toronto. When pressed on an issue, instead of standing up and giving a direct answer, Ms. Rice, like Mr. Ford, deflects attention away from the issue and "attacks" the messenger — please note, I refrained from the gun reference normally associated with that phrase.
Ms. Rice needs to understand while she is charged with representing the North Coast riding, not everyone in the riding agrees with her.
Even members of her own party have openly disagreed with her. Something that isn't surprising and also something that ultimately led to the demise of the NDP in the last provincial election.
The union movement, which is the foundation of the NDP, is beginning to understand that their party has been hijacked by the far-left environmental movement. They are beginning to understand that the environmental policies advocated by the likes of Ms. Rice are endangering union jobs.
That understanding cost the NDP the election.
Don't believe me?
How about Nathan Cullen?
"I think how the Kinder Morgan decision [the twinning of an oil pipeline to Vancouver] was made ... played a role in the results," Cullen said.
Just as her role in Victoria will be to hold the government accountable and present dissenting opinion, the same holds true for newspaper columnists.
To suggest that doing one's job and duty to hold their MLA-elect accountable is infatuation is plain ignorant.
Jennifer Rice must apologize for the statement.
Jennifer Rice must resign.