By Nadine Moedt (The Cascade) – Email
Print Edition: November 14, 2012
UFV criminologist Darryl Plecas has announced his decision to run in Abbotsford South as a BC Liberal MLA candidate in the 2013 provincial election. Plecas, who has taught at UFV for 33 years and currently holds the RCMP research chair, cites economic factors as a large part of his decision to run.
“Most governments in the world are in pretty serious financial trouble,” Plecas says. “If they’re not in economic disaster they’re on the brink of disaster. I worry about that happening in BC.”
While BC has managed to keep its head above water, Plecas says he doesn’t trust the NDP to maintain success in that area.
They’ve done “absolutely catastrophically economically,” he says. “They drove us into the financial gutter.”
It is not simply our flagging economy that motivated Plecas to run. Without a stable economic foundation, he says, there’s no money for education, social services and public safety.
“We do not provide enough care for people with mental health issues, we do not provide enough social services, we do not do what we need to be doing for the homeless,” Plecas says. “Why don’t we? Because we don’t have the money.”
Plecas’s solution? Resource development and strong economic policies.
BC is an “extremely resource-rich province,” Plecas states. Resources that are “no use to us are sitting in the ground.”
Plecas looks at projects like the proposed pipelines as a question of how to help the economy grow or stabilize, or work in a different way to appease protesters.
Another issue Plecas says he would like to see addressed as MLA is public safety. While crime has been reduced in BC, he believes there is still more to be done and points to our clogged court system as a perfect example.
“Our criminal justice system is under enormous strain,” he says, and offers the solution of establishing of a “night court.” If every other part of the justice system works 24 hours a day, Plecas asks, why shouldn’t the courts?
Our clogged court system is “an inconvenience for citizens and an inconvenience for offenders,” Plecas says. “Dozens of things like that need to be changed.”
Plecas’s decision to run as a Liberal stems from his belief that the NDP and Conservative parties are “inherently less inclusive then Liberals.” As a Liberal, he feels he can be someone who is interested in everyone’s opinion and not polarized by views that are “too extreme.”
As Liberal candidate, Plecas’s competition includes small business-owner Lakhvinder Jhaj, who will be running for NDP, and John van Dongen, who won the riding—as a Liberal—in 2009 with 59 per cent. Van Dongen has since defected, joined the Conservatives, and then left that party to run as an independent. He is a strong candidate, and likely to be Plecas’s major opponent.
Plecas respects van Dongen, but doesn’t agree with his decision to run as independent.
“It’s just not speaking to being a team player, [and] not speaking to being inclusive,” Plecas says. “I don’t believe you can serve a community well by being an independent.”
An edge Plecas has over his opponents is his work as a prison judge and his long history of successfully resolving the disputes related to some of the most violent offenders in the country.
So although he has no experience in politics, he’s not too worried.
“I hope I never ever sound like a politician,” he says, laughing, “and anyone who hears me talking like one should tell me to shut up because I’m going into this being who I am and hopefully people will like that.”
Plecas says that while he might not have the experience, he has the passion.
“I’m so sick of apathy, bureaucracy, things not happening. I want to see action,” he concludes. “Let’s get the friggin’ job done.”
