VANCOUVER – Hundreds of British Columbians don’t want to see former premier Gordon Campbell receive one of the province’s highest honours and now they’re taking their protests online.
Since Friday’s announcement that Campbell will be one of 14 people who will receive the Order of British Columbia on Oct. 4, hundreds have signed an online petition or commented on Facebook and Twitter pages.
Campbell was chosen by an advisory council whose members include seven high-profile individuals, including the province’s chief justice, the legislature’s speaker and the president of the Union of British Columbia Municipalities.
Norman Ruff, professor emeritus of political science at the University of Victoria, said while Campbell introduced several green-policy and electoral innovations over the long term, he may be known in the short term for the way he introduced the harmonized sales tax.
“I don’t begrudge him the award,” said Ruff. “I think that there was, perhaps, some undue haste in giving him the award while he remains such a controversial figure.”
Within hours of Friday’s announcement, the online protest had begun.
Ingrid Voigt, leader of the BC Refederation Party and a resident of Creston, B.C., said she launched a Facebook page protesting the announcement Friday evening.
By Sunday afternoon, more than 780 people had commented.
“I’m opposed to Mr. Campbell receiving this award because there are many more people that do good things for the province other than Mr. Campbell,” she said.
Voigt said the page is an attack on the political system, not a personal attack on Campbell, and it’s receiving support from across the political spectrum.
Voigt said she helped gather 1,000 signatures during the recent anti-harmonized-sales-tax campaign.
“If he receives it, it’s going to upset a lot of people,” said Cheryl Baron, a resident of Maple Ridge, B.C. and New Democrat party member, who started an online petition Sunday morning.
Baron said she believes Campbell is not eligible to receive the award because under the rules an Order of British Columbia nominee must not be an elected person with the federal, provincial or municipal governments.
She said nominations closed March 10 but Campbell did not resign his seat in the legislature until a few days later.
Baron said by early afternoon more than 200 people had signed her petition.
The government should rescind the award, and the person who nominated Campbell should reapply next year, said Baron.
Nobody from the Order of B.C. Advisory Council, the body that recommends who should receive the award, was available for comment Sunday.
However, Ron Cantelon, Liberal MLA for Parksville-Qualicum, said he agreed with the decision because of Campbell’s service to Vancouver as mayor and B.C. as premier.
“Basically, he gave up a very successful and promising career in business to commit himself to public service, and it certainly wasn’t the best thing for him to do financially,” said Cantelon.
Last December, Campbell announced he was quitting politics after more than a year of controversy over the HST.
A news release announcing the award commends Campbell for his years of “exemplary” public service, crediting him with making Vancouver more livable and, as premier, bringing the 2010 Winter Olympics to the city.
It also describes Campbell as a visionary who led an exemplary life in the worlds of politics, business and education.
Campbell was recently named Canada’s top diplomat in the United Kingdom.
Local news from metronews.ca/vancouver
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