Politics Not Invited to 2000 Health Care Rally

Tuesday, June 15, 2010 03:45 AM

I take exception to the notion that the Health Care rally held nearly ten years ago was a deliberate attempt to go after the government in power, the NDP.

Mr. Justice Glen Parrett certainly didn’t have any political interest; he can’t, because of his position, become directly involved.

If you look at the list of those who took part in the breakfast meetings to shape the rally, you will see a whole lot of people from union leaders and union shops, they may have been and still are NDP supporters but on that day they looked for a change in health care.

When Gord Leighton and I sat down to divvy up the list of people we would contact to try and raise a crowd, Leighton got the nod for the business community because of his many business connections as the former GM of CKPG.I got the union heads and the blue collar workers.

When I asked Frank Everitt to lend a hand, I said to him that I understood the heat that would come with his support, but we really needed it in the interest of health care in this area. Ann Krauseneck was the head of the labour council and she offered her support for the rally. I have always said both, I am sure, faced some criticism for their participation, but they have never been accused of being political. I would be proud to stand alongside of them in any cause they may have, they earned my deepest respect along with all of the other union people who pitched in to make the Rally work.

We picked Rev Lance Morgan for a reason. When I called him and said we were appointing him as Chairman, he said "I don’t know anything about health care" to which I replied "that’s great because we do not want anyone with any political ideas". He did what we asked of him and did it well.

All of the MLA's and M-P's were invited to attend the rally, but were told up font this wasn't about politics so they would not be invited to speak, regardless of political stripes.

The only "politics" of the night came when former Quesnel Mayor Steve Wallace, looking over the thousands sitting in the stands, decided to beak off about the NDP. Both Gord Leighton and I agreed we had made a bad choice in letting him on the podium, but short of the hook , we were stuck with him.

Now I’m not suggesting that there may not have been anyone there with some political aspirations from both sides of the political fence. Anyone that knows me, knows I have no favourites, they all get treated the same.

Now to the man who played the most crucial part in the putting together of this rally, Gord Leighton.

This community lost a great individual when he left town. I have always felt that when Leighton left CKPG, the soul of the station was lost and has never been regained. He was never afraid to put the interest of the community first, even at the risk of losing some advertising money and the results are there for anyone to take the time to examine. I don’t believe that we would have the courthouse that we have today had it not been for him. He wore this city on his sleeve and we in Prince George not only lost a very good man, I lost a very good friend, who you could always call on for support.

Mr. Justice Glen Parrett is another PG man, this isn’t his home town, but he has earned squatting rights over the years and don’t ever say anything bad about PG to him.

No, anyone who would even suggest that the rally was political motivated is wrong, wrong, wrong. It was done with the interest of the people in this region.

Has it helped? Well we have more doctors than ever before, yes we are losing graduates to other small communities in BC, but gradually we are building up a war chest of good young doc’s and that process takes time.

Would there be a medical teaching facility on the hill had it not been for that rally? I doubt it, Paul Ramsey sitting in the crowd that night could not help but be impressed with the number of people that were in attendance and no matter who the reigning party was at the time 7,000 people talking about the plight of health care would get your attention.

I’m Meisner and that’s one man’s opinion.

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