Steady as she goes, voters say
Vancouver Island News Group -- Campbell River Mirror
May 15, 2009
Opinion

Congratulations to MLA Claire Trevena on her re-election. Her margin of victory was significant, proving her experience in the job appealed to North Island voters as did her party affiliations - this being traditional NDP territory, along with the rest of Vancouver Island, it appears.

Trevena's victory follows the theme of Tuesday's provincial election in that voters were not in a mood to change things up much. Premier Gordon Campbell's Liberals and Opposition Leader Carole James' NDP both retain approximately the same amount of seats given that there were a few more seats created for this election. To be fair, the economic times dictate the need for caution. B.C. is being battered by the recession and radical changes at this stage to the province's economic management would be risky indeed. Frankly, the NDP posed a risk - that doesn't mean they aren't good financial managers, it means significant numbers of voters questioned their ability to manage the economy and, therefore, weren't willing to risk changing the government at this stage….

Meanwhile, Trevena is our representative in Victoria again and will be expected to work, as part of the opposition, towards securing economic stability in the North Island. We wish her luck.