Readin', Writin' and Runnin'

Tom Christensen has a mind of his own.
And he quickly learned that the B.C. premier and Liberal leader, Gordon Campbell, is not a control freak as some opponents have suggested in the past few days.
"That's something I learned very early," said Christensen in a wide-ranging interview with the Daily Courier.
In his first four-year term as the Liberal MLA for Okanagan-Vernon, it was obvious that Christensen was learning the ropes, however, from intrepid lawyer to Education Minister was a giant leap and his roles became more comfortable knowing that his boss was solidly behind him and the rest of the Liberal team.
Christiansen turned a little red-faced concerning the development of the first Community Salvage Logging License in British Columbia, which gave the local communities, in this case, Lumby and Cherryville, more control over salvage logging. It might have appeared as a minor issue, but Christensen went against government policy in giving more local control to the harvesting of small bug-infested timber stands and less to the ministry of forestry.
Even Christiansen was apprehensive at the time, but Campbell has insisted his team members have a voice.
With a weak opposition, scattered voices believe the Liberal government could become complacent, but Christensen, with the backing of his party, has some specific areas he is pushing for, if he's returned in the May 17th election. His opponents in the Okanagan-Vernon riding include Juliette Cunningham (NDP), Colin Black (PC), Erin Nelson (Green Party), Michael Toponce (Marijuana Party), Tibor Tusnady (B.C. Patriot Party) and independent Gordon Campbell (not the B.C. Premier).
Christensen, as the chief education honcho, pointed out some specifics that his department had already reached.
One area he is most proud of comes under the heading: "Connecting Communities." In that area, Christensen wants the public to know that his government has "acted to bridge the digital divide" by connecting every community in B.C. to high-speed Internet access by 2006.
He pointed out that only a year ago, families in 171 communities did not have access to broadband Internet. "They were shut out of education opportunities in the new knowledge economy and functionally disconnected from new benefits in digital communication. Now all of those communities will be connected to high-speed Internet access.
In literature scattered throughout Christensen's downtown Vernon offices, there appeared to be a central theme of "real progress" in the area of education, not only looking at the future, but an emphasis on past achievements such as: High school completion rate has increased to 79% since 2001 -- the highest ever; Aboriginal completion rates are up 5% over 2001; B.C. students won more scholarships in 2003 than ever before; B.C. students are getting the best marks ever in reading, writing and numeracy; B.C. students outperformed their counterparts in almost every province and most countries around the world in the most recent International Student Assessment of reading, math and science tests.
With Christensen's leadership, there is a plan to improve education over the next four years.
Some of those items include:
* Nearly triple the funding for combined early childhood development (ECD) and autism intervention programs since 2001.
* Eliminate textbook shortages in schools with $150 million more this year for B.C.'s schools and $10 million in one-time funding in 2004 for schools to buy over 285,000 textbooks.
* Provide $12 million over three years in new funding to strengthen B.C.'s libraries.
* Work with Literacy Now, a new $5 million community-based program, to improve literacy in concert with non-profit and volunteer-based organizations across the province.
* Increase funding for K-12 education by $253 million over the next three years.
* Complete all required seismic (earthquake) upgrading in B.C.'s schools within 15 years.
* Institure "zero tolerance" of bullying in B.C.'s schools.
* Eliminate junk food in all public schools within the next four years.
While the Liberals and Christensen outlined education incentives for the next four years, they also took some potshots at the NDP's plan to eliminate education as an essential service, which according to Campbell's government, would allow strikes and lockouts to shut B.C. children out of class and deny them their right to an education during labour disputes.
In addition, the Liberals oppose the NDP's proposal to remove class size limits and protections under the law which would return to the old model where they were used as political bargaining chips in labour negotiations.
When this reporter checked back to ask more questions of the Education Minister, Christensen was already out of the office campaigning and contemplating whether to enter a "marathon."
After all, Tom Christensen is a running man.