Rice should resign

After reading the Rice wins nomination thread.
Read this…

thenorthernview.com/opinion/190903231.html

Weird that you quote Lee Brain’s post here on HTMF, as “on the internet” without even saying where on the internet.

Here’s the post in question, in case anyone’s interested in reading the original.

Excellent article…I 100% agree!

Just for the record, I never claimed to be Jennifer Rice’s campaign manager. I said I ‘assisted’ on her campaign. To be even more clear, as now I am seeing why clarity is an important thing here, I am just a general supporter who helped on her campaign (as did many others). I.e. “assisted” - the opinions I express here are my own opinions, I completely speak for myself as an independent person with my own independent views in the world.

I do not ‘officially’ represent Jennifer Rice in any capacity other than a friend and general supporter.

Quoting me as claiming to be campaign manager is misleading and a false statement. To be honest, I find it amusing that I am quoted in the newspaper from hackingthemainframe - and incorrectly so.

A quick look at Jennifer’s website will reveal to you who coordinated her campaign:

votejenrice.com/contact-jennifer

I guess research is too much to ask from a General Manager of a newspaper.

Listen, Jennifer Rice literally just won the nomination. She will speak for herself on a variety of issues when the time is right. At the moment, she is fully upholding her duties as a council representative, attends regular meetings, and as well as fulfills her other duties which includes sitting on the Ferries Advisory Committee, the NW Regional Hospital District Board, and as Alternate Director for the Skeena Queen Charlotte Regional District. She is doing her job, and will continue to do her job in the foreseeable future with the interests of the residents of Prince Rupert in mind.

I am sure once ‘campaign time’ comes, all will see her views on the topics they wish answered - including what will happen with her seat on council.

Take care,

Lee

Yes, she should resign. All the other counsellors have quit their other jobs, and wouldn’t dream of applying for a new job.

Well Mr.“leebrain” sounds like typical NDP bs to me…resign now!A city councilor for 10 minutes and now she wants to jump ship,bigger fish to fry.

I suspect that the other council members would be quite surprised to hear that they have “quit their other jobs”; a little like reading one’s obituary. Those are part-time positions paying about $14K a year honouraria; they’re not full-time “jobs”. I doubt that any of them have given up any employment or business interests or that anyone expects them to.

The Elections Act and the Community Charter do not require that a municipal politician resign their office in order to run for another elected office. In theory, if elected they can hold both offices, although in practice that is unlikely to be feasible.

It’s councillors, by the way. “Counsellors” are who you should talk to about any alcohol or drug problems or other difficulties.

I don’t think that Jennifer Rice is the strongest candidate that the NDP has ever put on a ballot, and hopefully she will soon explain her and/or her party’s position on LNG and other topics. There are way more important issues than whether she attends about four hours of council meetings every two weeks.

I was being sarcastic.

Why should Jennifer be the only one who has to resign if she gets another job?

Joanna could always take Jennifer’s spot on City Council, no?

[quote=“Super Hans”]I was being sarcastic.

Why should Jennifer be the only one who has to resign if she gets another job?[/quote]

Rather droll. It will be interesting to see whether there is a call for her political opponents - whoever they may be - to resign from their “jobs”.

[quote=“BTravenn”]

[quote=“Super Hans”]I was being sarcastic.

Why should Jennifer be the only one who has to resign if she gets another job?[/quote]

Rather droll. It will be interesting to see whether there is a call for her political opponents - whoever they may be - to resign from their “jobs”.[/quote]

Indeed. She has won the right to be the NDP candidate in our riding. She is not our MLA yet. I find the notion that Jennifer should resign her job to be absurd.

I stopped taking this article seriously after the second sentence.

It appears the Northern View’s new publisher, Todd Hamilton, is resorting to tabloid journalism. What a waste!!!

[quote=“Dex”]I stopped taking this article seriously after the second sentence.

It appears the Northern View’s new publisher, Todd Hamilton, is resorting to tabloid journalism. What a waste!!![/quote]

I agree, Dex. People can debate the issue all they want, but I found that comment unworthy of a journalist who wants to be taken seriously.

Every one in our office also felt this statement was rude, crude, juvenile and makes Hamilton an embarrassment to The View. Maybe he should get to know someone before making such comments.

Y’all should read this guy’s reaction when I posted that link to Lee’s post: http://forum.hackingthemainframe.com/t/finao-insults-thread-resurrected-from-the-wasteland/15585/1

Holy…that’s quite an article he wrote.
As red necked and assholish as I am…faces and parties aside I don’t think it a requiem for a resignation.
If some one “applies” for a job with the “competition” then so be it. The nice thing about both employers is the electorate does the hiring and firing at the end of the day.

I think it a little too “big city” for a shit town shit publication calling for the head of a councillour and trying to discredit an electorate. We will decide at the end of the day the fate of Jennifer rices political future.

Maybe an independent should run.

I kinda found his editorial comical…I agree with almost all of his comments in this regard.

While I don’t think Rice should step down before the election…I think if she wins she should. Does she have to? Absolutely not and there are no bylaws stating she has too…but I think for the good of the city she needs to really consider giving up her seat to someone else who can dedicate all of their time to the city’s needs, while she can concentrate on the ridings needs in Victoria.

She can resign later. There’s no rush. She can still effectively represent on Council at this point. If (when) she gets elected as MLA she can make a firmer decision on her future.

I found The article to be quite arrogant and aggressive. Not the type of journalism that we’ve come to appreciate in our small community. His comment about being brave in anonymity was somewhat ironic. Many of us choose to remain anonymous so that if we say something politically incorrect or just plain ignorant that it won’t come back and bite us in the ass. My choice. He can live and die by his sword if he chooses.

As has been pointed out, nearly everybody on council has a job - their main job - that they continue to work at while on council and will continue to work at long after their time on council is over. Nobody expects anybody to resign from a job when they get elected to city council.

The MLA position is different as the people in those positions now have a full time responsibility to their constituents and end up traveling a great deal and in every case except those from Victoria live away from their place of employment for much of the year. Gary Coons for example took a leave from teaching while MLA.

The question is whether Jennifer should resign her council position now that she is the candidate in the May election. Interesting question. I did a google search and found this article. Not sure if it is the best but it popped up first so I am sharing it.

rothenbergpoliticalreport.com/ne … ouse-field

Not that we should necessarily use American politics as the best example, but nobody expected John McCain or Barack Obama to resign their senate seats while running for president. And I am not even sure if I knew this at the time (faulty memory for sure) but Al Gore’s running mate, Joe Leiberman, actually ran for reelection of his senate seat at the same time that he was running for VP. He won the senate seat while losing as the VP candidate.

There have also been plenty of examples of city councillors, mayors etc running for MLA while retaining their position. Don Scott sought the nomination of the Liberals in 2001 while mayor and Pete Lester ran in the 1969 election.

At some point Jennifer will have to decide what she will do. My guess, and it is purely a guess, is that she will resign from council if she wins in May. However, for those of you who are demanding her immediate resignation, there will be the cost of a bi-election unless council decides to continue with a smaller group for a year or so. Not sure if that changes the debate or whether or not that wrinkle is worth the debate.

[quote=“mcsash”]Holy…that’s quite an article he wrote.
As red necked and assholish as I am…faces and parties aside …

I think it a little too “big city” for a shit town shit publication calling for the head of a councillour and trying to discredit an electorate. We will decide at the end of the day the fate of Jennifer rices political future. [/quote]

Good comment.

Northern View’s editorial approach, which does indeed seem more reminiscent of what one expects from a tabloid than from our only remaining “newspaper of record” (a once proud moniker) is the subject of some editorial comment at the obscure local blog North Coast Review.

The tone of the article is more in keeping with what at least some or probably most of us, and possibly everyone except Mr Hamilton, expects in the way of editorial comment from a serious news source. northcoastreview.blogspot.ca/201 … he-go.html

The opinion piece points out that there will be an opportunity for Councillor/Candidate Rice to share her views (in either or both capacities) about LNG and related matters at an open house hosted by Nathen Cullen MP this weekend to discuss the economic future of this “shit town”. That topic probably should be bumped up a bit higher on the journalistic priority list of our local “shit publication”, assuming of course that they still actually strive to do serious journalism there, which increasingly seems to be in doubt.

An interesting detail mentioned in the NCR piece is that our City council has obviously received a few questions from concerned citizens wondering about the proprieties of Ms Rice holding one elected office while seeking another.

The City commissioned a full legal analysis no less, advising that a council member can indeed hold office while running for MLA, can hold both offices if elected to the other, and then sets out various scenarios as to how the council might go about calling a byelection should she resign at some point. A helpful link is provided to the council agenda; click “page 20” on the second page for the full details.

It seems to me that a newspaper would be researching some of those kinds of questions and providing some information to educate and inform its readers, which has historically been the main point of having newspapers other than of course for checking out ads, classifieds and obituaries.