Cunningham speaks her mind

Juliette Cunningham believes the B.C. election on May 17 is touch and-go for the ruling B.C. Liberal party, and her party -- the NDP, have a distinct chance of aqcuiring at least 30 seats in the next Legislature.
And there's a reason for such optimism on her part and that's because of the anger towards the policies of Gordon Campbell's B.C. Liberals and even a carry over to Okanagan-Vernon MLA and Education Minister Tom Christensen.
Even in Cunningham's literature, it says "after four years of broken promises from Gordon Campbell's Liberals, ordinary people in the Interior have been paying more in taxes and fees and getting less in public services like health care and education."
Cunningham, originally from North Battleford, Saskatchewan, is a small-business owner of a ladies clothing assignment store in downtown Vernon, but she has gained a voice in the community after serving eight years as a school trustee.
That "outspoken" voice came after actually working as a teacher's aide in French immersion and then she went back to university -- Simon Fraser -- in 1984.
Her areas of concern have been social justice and equity issues and she has learned to speak out on them and values her terms as a school trustee. In 2002, she was the one with the megaphone, protesting Christensen's office because of all the government cuts that "were so devastating for the social agencies and centres."
"So I was asked to speak out as 'a poster child' on those issues. I had never been politically overt like that before, but I felt I had to try it because I had a bit of a profile in the community."
Cunningham as a school trustee has seen the "impact of those cuts" over the past four years.
Taking a solid swing at the B.C. Liberals she said: "The Liberals talk about what they have done for education, but really the bottom line is since the Liberals came in they froze the education budget." What that meant for a school trustee such as Cunningham was the boards had to cut the support staff such as custodians and maintenance workers. "For the first year it didn't look bad, but into the second and third year the cuts were felt in the classroom." Some 113 schools have felt the seriousness of the B.C. Liberals' stinginess.
On May 17, Cunningham will be running against the incumbent Christensen, of whom she had few words of praise, plus the B.C. Conservatives' Colin Black, Erin Nelson (Green Party), Michael Toponce (Marijuana Party), Tibor Tusnady (B.C. Patriot Party) and independent Gordon Campbell.
Cunnningham is solidly behind her leader, Carole James, and the New Democrat plan of:
* End corporate and union donations to political parties.
* Honour contracts with business and labour, restore free collective bargaining, and foster collaboration and balance between workers and employers.
* Show respect for local governments by repealing Bill 75 -- the Significant Projects Streamlining Act.
* Support the work of the Auditor General; make sure taxpayers have the information they need to know their money is being spent wisely by supporting the work of the Auditor General.
* Will not accept any new applications for gambling expansion; will shut down the secretly launched Internet gambling program; will improve programs that address gambling addiction.
* Extend the mandate of the B.C. Progress Board to include environment and communities as well as the economy; require the Progress Board to report to the Legislature, not the Premier.
* Establish a public inquiry into the sale of BC Rail.
* Restore and strengthen a BC Human Rights Commission to promote equality for all British Columbians.
* Focus new resources on community-based immigration and settlement services.
* Stop the flow of personal medical information to private U.S. corporations subject to the USA Patriot Act.
When the hour-long conversation began, Cunningham said she believed that the NDP had received negative publicity because "big corporations are controlling the media,." adding, "when I look at the general articles of the newspapers are quite bias sometimes. In the last NDP budget in 2001, which was actually a surplus it was criticized, but the Liberal government brings in the same kind and it was praised for being the greatest budget."
Juliette Cunningham is unafraid to speak her mind.