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Blame me, I'm still NDP, says Victoria writer

To the Editor,

Believe it or not, politics in our region can be backward-thinking. No, really.

I find that many of the younger folks who left B.C., like my children, did so not because of poor opportunities but rather bad political policies that foster the negative outlook that most of the old-guard new democrats of the region have toward just about everything.

You see, when we leave to work and live in other areas, we come to see that every area has faults. We learn to have realistic expectations about what we can and cannot provide to the people.

With this new perspective, many of us return here and we have the good fortune of being able to live quite comfortably as artists, business developers and entrepreneurs. We find quality jobs in areas such as education, technology and health care.

I blame myself. As a second generation NDPer, whose mother was a member of the CCP, I preached to my kids that the NDP way was the only way. At that time, all we had was the Social Credit and the differences couldn’t be more obvious.

As my children have now taught me, we can change that negative mindset, and that tipping point of a more positive way of thinking is happening now. It will continue to provide the seeds for change and opportunity, but in a more balanced way.

William Perry,

Victoria