Filed my candidate papers

The thought of running in the provincial election did not cross my mind until this spring, when out of nowhere the NDP introduced and rammed through the Legal Professions Act, a horrible piece of legislation that will abolish the law society and confiscate $40,000,00 in assets including Vancouver law society building where the law society runs its legal training programs. While my local MLAs were generous enough to meet with me, it was clear that they had their marching orders and could do nothing to stop or even slow the process down. The NDP has taken similar to steps to override professional independence in the health professions field.

As a lawyer, the law society is basically my Union and fraternity. Not only does it trains lawyers and punishes lawyers who don't follow the ethical rules, it also serves as the protector of my professional independence. This is important as if a lawyer needs to defend a client from prosecution or sue the government or even act for an unfavourable cause, it is the law society and not an administrative panel or government body that vets complaints and ensures that frivolous or politically driven complaints don't end up in a lawyers suspension. The legislation also stripped lawyers rights to have referendum's on rule changes, vote at AGMS, or have regional representation to ensure small town lawyers had a say.

In short, I could not support the NDP or vote for the NDP even if I'm generally supportive of some of their moves to update land use flexibility and supported my local MLA's work when he was a school trustee. Nor, are the Conservatives an option even if paying less tax would help me pay of the remainder of my student loans from law school.

The local Conservative was part of a vocal minority of school trustees who constantly tried to bring the culture wars into our schools by opposing anti-bullying content and turned school board meetings into a circus rather than focusing on the real health, safety, and capacity needs of our schools. Similarly, John Rustad, the Conservative Leader is not fit to govern due to his blatant disregard for establishes science and for his own platform which involves muzzling teachers who provide age-appropriate information to students or who are trying to assist vulnerable students from unstable or abusive homes. I trust my children's teachers (who have always kept me informed of anything to do with my kids) to know how to teach far more than I do John Rustad or other politicians. While I understand some people wish that kids could grow up in a bubble, we live in a society where nearly ever student has access to the internet or "Tik Tok" and we need to equip teachers and parents to work in this environment. The other scary part is that some of the Conservative proposals likely violate freedom of speech and equality rights, and it looks like they would need to follow Saskatchewan's horrible example to use the notwithstanding clause to exempt their legislation from the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Simply - how can anyone vote for someone who can't write legislations that at least attempts to reasonably balance individual versus collective rights.

Throughout the summer I had mulled it over. I love my career as a lawyer and I have great clients and staff I work with, so I really hoped another local option would emerge with more time to run a campaign. With the collapse of the United Party, it soon became apparent that if I wanted to be able to vote my conscious in the next election, I may need to put my name on the ballot. I know that without the giant marketing budget that the parties have, I will have an uphill challenge as an independent. However, I feel I am not alone in wanting to see an independent minded politician who is socially progressive but prefers fiscally responsible government.

So on labour day, I went door to door in my neighborhood and got my 75 signatures, and filed my papers on Friday (and put myself as my own official agent since I won't be getting any party transfers) and paid my $250.00 deposit and got myself a Fongo phone line for the campaign.

Now, on to slapping up a quick website, putting together my campaign ideas (let's face it, I can't promise any billion dollar handouts or tax cuts being an independent not would I want to), and creating a campaign on a limited budget.