Candidate Interview with Carole James
byContinuing my election coverage I have requested interviews with several of the candidates for Premier and they have all been gracious enough to supply answers to my questions (in email or video form). The following are the responses from Carole James of the BC NDP (some of the questions are similar to those I have asked other candidates as well).
Question from Miss604: The social media community in Vancouver organized “Mental Health Camp†this past weekend and with this in mind – on top of the pressing topic of homelessness, are there any plans to support the untreated living in the Downtown Eastside (and across the province)?
Video response from Carole James:
Question from Miss604: Although Vancouver is the hub of activity in B.C., what are your main concerns or areas of focus throughout the rest of B.C.?
Video response from Carole James:
Question from my Twitter contacts: What has the highest priority in your books, economy or environment?
Video response from Carole James:
Question from my Twitter contacts: What role should the provincial government have in developing affordable housing?
Video response from Carole James:
Question from Miss604: You’ve been using Twitter, Facebook etc. — How has social media affected your campaign so far and do you enjoy being part of the online community?
Video response from Carole James:
You can read more about Carole James on her website or through her Twitter account. You can also read my other candidate write-ups from Jane Sterk and Gordon Campbell along with my in-person interviews with Spencer Herbert, Haida Lane, and Drina Read.
Advance polls are now open so please be sure to cast your vote for the individual and/or party you would like representing your riding in the legislature.
15 Comments — Comments Are Closed
Hmm. Nice idea, but to offer a constructive criticism this comes across as a campaign message not an interview. There are no hard hitting questions and nothing that gets beyond the staid party-line responses. I’m not sure if that’s because of the format or just because James played it safe, but I think for such interviews to be more effective in the future, they should delve deeper into the issues – particularly the controversial points – and offer less soundbytes.
@ Shea Given the timeframe and the fact that all of the candidates were very busy, I was only able to email a handful of questions and get the responses in whichever form they chose.
I was able to meet and sit down with Haida Lane, Spencer Herbert, and Drina Read so you’ll find those posts to be very different. I am not a political blogger and I never offer political commentary on my site except these types of posts during election season. I’m grateful for the responses I did receive, however you’re right – I wish I could have offered up a bit more (and in turn received a bit more from the candidates).
If you would like something more in-depth or “hard-hitting” I would definitely recommend The Tyee because they’re my top pick for online news, updates, interviews, and commentary.
Personally I liked what Carole had to say. I don’t think you’ll ever find a politician come out & state the specifics of their plan. But at least with her comments you know what issues are important to their party.
the video responses are a nice idea – they come off as a lot more personal than the other responses (especially the cut and paste ones). only downside to that is that some people don’t like to sit there and listen and prefer to read. might have been more prudent for Carole James to respond with a video and then include the text response in the actual info section of the youtube video.
I quite like the interviews provided by Miss604…they strike me as a bit more personal and while I do get my in-depth or more hard-hitting reporting from The Tyee and others, I specifically read Miss604 BECAUSE it is personal and direct…a real “person on the street” perspective about so many things which most mainstream media lacks.
I liked these video responses, if for no other reason than it changes things up a bit and we know for sure that she actually replied to Miss604 😉
The Greens get a big social media fail in my books for doing the copy/pate thing – I get that they’re busy (I’m volunteering on a campaign myself so I know just how busy the candidates are) but that is no excuse. They did not have to commit to participating in answering the blog questions. Even if @JaneSterk chooses to submit real answers to the questions now I, as a reader of this blog (and voter!), still feel like we got a good old fashioned brush off from her.
Gordon Campbell had time to answer properly too. Although, I think that all 3 of the party leaders basically just towed the party line so no new information came out.
We are in the penultimate moments of British Columbia’s most important election in history. The welfare of our children, of our parents, and of ourselves is at risk, unless we choose a leader who will carry us towards a brighter tomorrow. As the economic tsunami grows, more and more people are getting dragged under by the riptide by Gordon Campbell’s policies and practices, and clearly shows that the only choice next Tuesday is Carole James. Ask yourself this simple question: how has your life improved under the leadership of Gordon Campbell. If you can’t answer that question, then you know the only answer is Carole James.
Thanks for posting these, the video responses are great! I don’t normally seek out these types of things, but it is election time after all. I think Carole James comes off as genuine and interested in the issues, and at least she answered the questions and didn’t cut and paste from her platform a la Green Party!
This will be my first election ever participating (I was away for the previous one) and I think I’m leaning NDP. I like their support of students (like me!) and longer SkyTrain hours.
Thanks Miss604 for these! (And as a bonus we finally get to see the inside of the bus!!)
“The welfare of our children, of our parents, and of ourselves is at risk”
Scare tactics insult people’s intelligence James, step off the soap box please.
BC suffered tremendously under the NDP and I for one would not want to go back in time to the dark ages. There is a reason that the NDP is running so many attack Ad’s, they don’t have a real plan, and if they were more specific, everybody would see that they are not realistic.
Is it just me, or does it seem that the NDP is always talking down to everybody? I find James to be very condescending.
Just in case the NDP wins, I’m keeping an eye on Alberta real-estate.
LOL, dark days under the NDP in BC?
There are 11,000+ more homeless people in BC since the BC Liberals came into power because of their stripping away of guaranteed annual income. 200,000+ people have lost their jobs, tuition has sky rocketed, minimum wage has stayed @8.00 bucks while cost of living has gone up 20%, young people have to work 2-3 jobs in order to survive, while other provinces have 9-10/hr min wages.
BCNDP’s harm reduction model for addictions has been eroded, Seniors are suffering, BC assets have been sold off, meaning the future of BC youth has been sold off to millionaires and billionaires, public affordable health care has been attacked, schools closed causing classroom overcrowding and eroding our childrens right to learn, our environment is being destroyed by fish farms,oil and gas exploration, and the destruction of strong NDP environmental regulations, rivers and lakes are going to be privatized with no access to the public of BC who actually own them, and the list goes on.
The BC NDP have a comprehensive plan, as anyone can see by looking at their platform and part of that plan is to stop the sellout of our children’s future. BC belongs to them NOT corporations and ultra rich indiividuals.
oh for those dark days back again…lol
Thanks for providing this medium Miss604, you are doing a wonderful service to get youth involved in politics and their future.
I think it’s cool that you can get responses to all the questions. I think in general, I just don’t like the overall feel of all of those campaign messages. A lot of the coverage of Obama were questions the media made of him while he was walking around an in a hurry. As a result, you got to hear him say things without preparation and from the heart.
Are there are public debates amongst the candidates?
@ Duane there have been several public debates for the candidates for premier and each riding (I’m pretty sure) has had “all candidates” debates at local community centres, libraries etc.
I really liked what Carole had to say about the homelessness crisis on the downtown eastside. We all know this is an issue that needs to be addressed and I believe Carole and the NDP party are ready to make some necessary changes.
Good luck!
I like that Carole listens and cares about people. Her priority is people so her plan will help all of us during tough times.
It’s appalling that BC is #1 in poverty for children and families for the past five years.
By the way, unfortunately Liberal candidates didn’t show up to a lot of the all candidate forums.
Campbell is very patronizing. I can still hear him from the debate when he said he had a “big job” that Carole didn’t understand. That is real condescending behaviour and not what I consider good leadership.
As Carole stated, the NDP are not perfect, we have experienced a couple of fiascos under other premiers in the past, but now, the New Democrats are a force in action. Carole James comes across as a woman who WILL make changes for the better in British Columbia. This province was built by our grandfathers and great grandfathers, and Gordo want to sell it off to the highest bidder. SHAME! It really depresses me to thing there might be a chance of another four years of Gordon Campbell.
Don’t forget to VOTE!