With 2017 being an election year, British Columbian’s will soon be thrown into a debate regarding which party will rule the province after May 9, 2017. The Liberals have been in office since 2001, first under Gordon Campbell, and, since 2011, with Christy Clark holding BC’s top elected position.

Saturday at Medici’s Café – Boundary-Similkameen MLA Linda Larson held a BC Liberals Women’s Network gathering. The event was billed as ‘Women Leading the Way’ – and was kicked off by Pamela Martin. The former and popular TV anchor now works as the BC Liberal Party Director of Engagement.

After being introduced, Larson had these words for the group of 20 or so women, and men in attendance. “Exposing ourselves and our families to the public is extremely difficult – more so for women than certainly for men. But we are generally experts at time management, and multitasking, and bringing the human side to most issues in a way that men cannot. We’re still mothers, daughters, grandmothers, sisters, and aunts, and we carry the burden of guilt on our shoulders if we are not delegating 100 per cent of our time to our families. I’m fortunate because I have an incredibly supportive husband and three daughters who are proud of what I do,” said Larson during her five minute speech.

After speaking to the group, then enjoying lunch, Larson offered reasons why it’s important to educate and encourage women to get involved in politics during a one-on-one interview. “It’s to encourage women to participate in government and help to develop policy that gets recommended to government – policy that relates more to issues women might have than standard policy,” offered Larson, who was elected MLA for Boundary-Similkameen on May 14, 2013. You can sign up online to be part of the network. It doesn’t cost anything. You would receive bulletins on upcoming legislation, and you can have your say online for input on issues. “We don’t actually put together Women’s Network meetings specifically other than to do this type of an event, where it’s just more to remind people that it exists, and if you want to have input but you don’t want to be the front person, here’s a good way to have input,” added Larson. “Women in politics have made some progress without a doubt. In BC, 35 per cent of the legislature are women. But government policy needs women to add the social component that is often missed by men. That’s what women bring to the table. Where possible, women need to take a front seat. We’re mostly optimists, and not comfortable with negativity, and we bring out-of-the-box solutions to the table.”

Linda Larson is the Parliamentary Secretary for Rural Education, and a member of the Cabinet Committee on Secure Tomorrow. She is also a member of the Select Standing Committees on Health and Legislative Initiatives.
All that means she’s one very busy wife, mother, and grandmother.
But Larson is no stranger to the political arena. She sat on Oliver Council and served as Mayor from 1997 to 2005. While Larson knew there would be tough times, she acknowledges it’s not easy being in her shoes. Especially when it comes to some of the mainstream media she deals with.
“I often feel, and it’s probably more personal than otherwise, the media is not interested in the good things that I’ve done, they’re more interested in where there might be a bit of a scandal to talk about, or I might have said something that was taken the wrong way. Very rarely do I ever see a good news story in the media related to the good work that I do. That’s the disappointing side of it,” she lamented. “On the other side of it, I really don’t care, because what I do makes the people that I’ve helped extremely happy. Whether it is in Hedley or Grand Forks, or in Big White or wherever it might be, those people are happy with me. That’s the most important thing. It makes you feel good when you finally get to the end of a project – and some you can do in three months and some take three years – but nonetheless, it’s getting those things done and helping people. That’s really is the reward.”

You can find out more information by checking out the website: www.bcliberals.com/team/womens-network, or calling 1-800-567-2257.

-Dale Cory