鈥淢alcolmson wins decisively as NDP holds on to Nanaimo,鈥� Jan. 31.
This weekend, the Chinese community will celebrate the beginning of the Year of the Pig. It seems to have escaped the notice of Jack Knox that this calendar new year was also accompanied by a local epidemic of H1N1 flu commonly known as swine flu.
We should not therefore be surprised that, contrary to one pre-election poll, New Democrat Sheila Malcolmson was elected in the Nanaimo byelection. There seems little doubt that her victory was greatly assisted, as the newspaper informed us, by no fewer than 32 NDP MLAs canvassing in the area on her behalf.
We have no information on how this most unusual mass visitation was funded, but it sure sounds like old-fashioned 鈥減ork barrel鈥� politics to me.
William Davis
Victoria
