Dear editor,

I believe that all the local candidates in the provincial election support an open, clear and transparent campaign.

A campaign that provides the voters with the information and knowledge to make a sound and informed decision of who should represent our community for the next four years in the B.C. Legislature.

A key part of that understanding is knowledge of the candidates鈥� background and track record related to their political, volunteer and professional careers.

Our community is well aware that Ms. Leonard served as a councillor for the City of Courtenay from 2005 to 2014 and therefore was directly involved in one of our most dramatic and emotional community issues, the misguided and unfair Maple Pool lawsuit.

As councillor, she was tasked with decisions concerning the future of some 54 fragile and vulnerable residents living there. Was the lawsuit vigorously pursued to create a crisis and put these 54 people on the streets without a place to call home? And to pressure the provincial and local governments to spend millions of dollars to remedy the problem?

We simply don鈥檛 know.

We do know that those 54 marginalized people spent over five years living with uncertainty and the fear of suddenly becoming homeless.

Almost all of the proceedings, with regards to the lawsuit, of that city council, of which Ms. Leonard was a member, were carried out 鈥榠n camera.鈥� Believing that transparency should prevail, Mayor Jangula requested a legal opinion which advised all of council that they were free to publicly declare how they individually voted on this matter in camera. Shortly thereafter, the mayor made public his voting record concerning the Maple Pool lawsuit.

It鈥檚 now an appropriate time for Ronna-Rae Leonard to publicly declare whether she was 鈥淲orking For Them.鈥� It鈥檚 time for her to make public her Maple Pool voting record with Valley voters. She has a legal right to do so, and a moral and ethical obligation to all of us. Our future is too important not to know. Only if she steps up and lets us know where she stood on Maple Pool will we know if she is truly 鈥淲orking For You.鈥�

Dick Clancy

Courtenay