Editorial -

CAMPBELL NO DRUG FLUNKY

B.C. Education Minister Christy Clark is making drug and alcohol training a
mandatory part of the high school curriculum for B.C.'s Grade 10 students -
if they flunk the course, they don't graduate.

The move was motivated, in part, as a response to a number of recent and
highly publicized accidents involving teens.

Those same accidents have stirred Solicitor General Rich Coleman to toughen
restrictions on new drivers.

The loss of young lives is unquestionably tragic and heartbreaking, but any
thinking person has to wonder if the new government measures are the answer.

Drug and alcohol education can't hurt anyone, but requiring a passing grade
for graduation is unacceptable.

Our youth might be better served by a government that leads by example,
rather than by dictate.

Premier Gordon Campbell is a convicted drunk driver who passed off his
Hawaiian misadventure as a mere lapse in judgment.

Campbell did not step down.

He did not do what he would have demanded of any opposition politician
caught in the same kind of situation - resign.

Campbell essentially chose to represent himself not as the premier, but as
a private citizen who made "a terrible mistake" and begged the forgiveness
of his constituents.

Campbell and his caucus basically toughed it out, waited for the storm to
die down and got on with business as usual.

And the people of this province let it happen.

Campbell was forgiven and paid no political penalty for a decision that
could have made the front pages with far more serious and tragic
consequences than actually occurred.

What sort of mixed message is being sent to B.C. students by this government?

We're not suggesting that action doesn't need to be taken, we only question
the pious attitude that seems to be displayed through governments zealous
implementation.