NEW DEMOCRATS NAME CANDIDATE

Forst Takes Over The Banner In West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast-Sea To Sky

A new candidate has been named to run for the New Democratic Party
(NDP) in West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast-Sea to Sky Country riding.

Bill Forst, a 35-year resident of Gibsons and a recently retired
school counsellor, was nominated on Friday night, September 19.

Forst quickly filled the vacancy left when Dana Larsen resigned on
September 17 after questions about his involvement with a seed
company that sold coca plants arose, followed by videos surfacing of
him taking LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide) and smoking marijuana
while driving a vehicle. Another NDP candidate, Kirk Tousaw, a civil
libertarian lawyer, dropped out in Vancouver-Quadra citing his past
work on drug policy reform.

Forst, who also ran as the NDP candidate for Sunshine Coast-Powell
River in the 1996 provincial election, told the Peak the resignations
have not hurt the party or his campaign in the riding. "The issues
that have been the big, public media stuff are 10-year-old issues,"
he said. "People realize that the people involved in that were
nominated 10 years after those issues and they're different people."

People have already indicated great support for his candidacy, Forst
added. "I've been overwhelmed by emails and phone calls from people
who are pleased to have me as a candidate and will be supporting and
working for us," he said.

Forst is the former president of the Sunshine Coast Teachers'
Association and the BC School Counsellors Association. He is the past
president of the Sunshine Coast Music Society and current president
of the Driftwood Players Amateur Theatre Company.

The main issue on the federal level is leadership, Forst said.
"Polling shows that Jack Layton is the most popular opposition
leader," he said. "I think that's the case for our riding as well."

For him personally, the key issues are the environment and climate
change, Forst said, adding he supports the NDP's policy of a cap and
trade on emissions, as opposed to a carbon tax. "Definitely it has to
be the big polluters who pay," he said. "I'm really concerned about
the fact that we all have to contribute to conservation and reduction
of greenhouse gases. I don't believe the carbon tax is the fair way
to go; it's regressive. It makes the average family pay the bigger
shot, whereas the cap and trade system places it back on the
corporations who make the decisions."

Larsen said he resigned because he didn't want his involvement with
advocating for the legalization of marijuana to become a distraction
for Layton. "The one thing I do regret of all the videos that came
out, the only thing I kind of step back from is when I say I'm going
to smoke a joint before I drive home," he said. "I don't advocate
driving impaired. That's pretty much it. I don't regret taking LSD. I
don't regret helping make coca plants available to people. Those are
all things that I do, that are part of me, like millions of other
Canadians out there who have taken psychedelics or who smoke
marijuana. I don't think that should cut us out from political
discourse or make us ineligible for office."

However, the time for having a nuanced debate about the issue wasn't
right, Larsen added.