More than 200 Coast residents rallied in protest at the Sechelt constituency office of member of Parliament John Weston last Saturday against Bill C-38.
The Sunshine Coast Senior Citizens (COSCO-BC) in conjunction with Leadnow.ca organized the rally, one of 75 similar actions held across the country at Conservative MP offices, protesting "the Blackmark Budget."
Lead organizer Jef Keighley, chair of COSCO-BC, said the rally on the Sunshine Coast was one of the biggest, if not the largest across the country.
Keighley said the intent was to help draw attention to the Harper government's attempt to bull through their 450-page omnibus budget Bill C-38 without sufficient time or debate, so that MPs and Canadians won't know the real impacts of the legislation until after it is law.
"Bill C-38 changes and/or eliminates some 70 pieces of federal legislation, the majority of which have nothing whatsoever to do with the budget - measures that will roll back our environmental protections to measures that will weaken our social safety net and hurt our manufacturing base," Keighley said.
Keighley said the rally had three purposes: to make sure Canadians are aware that the bill contains a sweeping agenda to remake Canadian society, to rally Canadians to stand against Bill C-38, and to find 13 Conservative MPs who will represent their constituents and stop the bill, split it apart and start over by inviting Canadians to help them make laws that work better for all of us.
"It will take 13 Conservative MPs to make it impossible to pass the bill without changes, and we will keep turning up the pressure on those MPs," he said. "A lot of us take issue with the content of the bill, but that's not what this is about. This is about the process that is being put forth. We don't always have the greatest political system in the world, but it's pretty effective when it works correctly.
"This bill runs completely roughshod over the whole political process," Keighley said.
Weston, MP for West Vancouver - Sunshine Coast - Sea to Sky Country, was not on hand for the rally as he was launching national health and fitness day in Whistler. On Friday, June 1, Weston sent Keighley and media outlets a prepared statement.
"Thank you for the advance notice of your group's plans for this coming Saturday afternoon to gather at my Sunshine Coast Constituency office. It is, of course, your democratic right to voice [your] opposition and it is my responsibility to listen to constituent voices throughout the riding," Weston said.
"However, I feel it only fair to inform you that I will be with constituents from Whistler to West Vancouver on June 2 and will not be available to meet with you. I invite you to make an appointment for representatives of the group to meet with me in the near future and we can better discuss your concerns."
Keighley said no one took any issue with the fact Weston was not on hand for the event.
"We think our MP should take a stand and be one of those 13 MPs to say this is not right," Keighley said. "I'm encouraging everyone to write to Mr. Weston and ask him to vote for dividing Bill C-38 into appropriate components for reasoned discussion and debate within the appropriate parliamentary committee structures prior to third reading."
