HIGH TIME

The sudden resignation of NDP candidate Dana Larsen from the election
race should shake the NDP to its core. Not because one of its players
turns out to have had an embarrassing past, but because that past was
so obvious.

The video clips depicting Larsen smoking a mouthful of joints, taking
psychedelic drugs and driving while apparently high have been in the
public domain for years, and would not have been difficult to uncover.

Given that the candidate, a co-founder of the B.C. Marijuana party,
was a longtime advocate for marijuana legalization, a little digging
for evidence of drug use might have been in order.

The fact that that digging was apparently not done suggests a lack of
organization on the part of the NDP. That, or a lack of caring.

The party has known since the last election that the government was
unlikely to last for a full term. It has known for weeks that the
moment of reckoning would likely come this fall. It had ample time to
complete a careful and thorough selection process. But, it seems, it
did not.

The object of the nomination process -- even in unwinnable territory
- -- is to ensure the party's values are well represented in every
corner of the country. In that objective, the NDP has failed. And now
it's suffering embarrassment at the national level.

If the New Democrats want to be considered a viable option to lead
Parliament, they have to start behaving like a party worthy of office.