Dear editor,

Kathryn Askew’s comments quoted in the Record last Wednesday (‘Recall campaign ready’) display her misconceptions about how politics should work.

According to the article, the recall initiative’s leader says that her campaign is ‘a way for us to remind governments everywhere that the people direct government, not the other way around.’

This way of thinking creates a false dichotomy.

In treating the people and the government as two separate entities, the speaker forgets that, in British Columbia, the people do not direct the government. They are the government.

Kathryn Askew seems to want us to defend ourselves against an oppressive regime when in reality she is setting one section of the people against another by attacking those leading the government.

The recall campaign is supposedly intended for voters ‘to express their frustration with the current government over a range of issues – not just HST.’

Voters have already made their frustration known, and pulling Mr. McRae out of office, opening the way for a New Democrat to be elected in his place, is not just voicing anger. It is an attempt to undermine provincial politics.

As Mr. Wilds wrote in Friday’s paper, ‘There is nothing democratic about’ that. Democracy would permit our MLA to continue working for us, allowing for occasional mistakes, and evaluating at the end of his term whether to re-elect him or not.

I call upon my fellow residents of the Comox Valley to show their appreciation for democracy by refusing to support this unprincipled assault on our political institutions.

Brendon Johnson,

Courtenay