File Photo (Image Credit: CFJC Today / Adam Donnelly)

By James Peters

Two & Out

PETERS: We have to assume Peter Fassbender’s dismissal was just another partisan game

Dec 29, 2023 | 12:45 PM

PETER FASSBENDER’S DISMISSAL as the municipal adviser to Kamloops mayor and council seemed to catch everyone by surprise, including Fassbender himself.

There’s only one plausible reason Fassbender was relieved of his duties last week.

It very likely played out like this.

Step 1 — the Ministry of Municipal Affairs appoints Fassbender to work with Kamloops, drawing on his experience in both municipal and provincial government.

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Step 2 — Fassbender’s appointment is publicized and catches the attention of some NDP political operatives.

Step 3 — Said NDP operatives remember Fassbender is a former B.C. Liberal MLA and cabinet minister and lean hard on the ministry to fire him.

Politics is a zero sum game, and the NDP can’t have the perception out there that anyone associated with the former B.C. Liberal party is at all competent or trustworthy.

2024 is an election year, after all.

The prospect that crass partisanship would have played a role in the ministry’s operational decision is both sickening and disheartening.

It leaves Kamloops with the impression that our real-life problems are just collateral damage in the war games being played in Victoria.

Maybe that’s why our promised cancer centre has taken so long to materialize. It was supposed to be approved by the end of the year, if you remember.

Maybe that’s why the government appears to be so slow to act on turning the property at Sixth and Columbia into something useful.

Maybe that’s why a list of local issues seem to have been shuffled to the bottom of the pile on some assistant deputy minister’s desk in Victoria.

The provincial powers that be have been entrenched in the NDP-vs-B.C. Liberal cold war for so long, nothing else matters.

If that’s the case, the B.C. Liberal rebrand, the rise of the B.C. Green Party and, more recently, the resurrection of the B.C. Conservatives might serve the province well by shaking up that duality.

The NDP look ready to cruise to another majority government next year, but if their partisan attentions are split between too many fronts, maybe their political operatives can keep their noses out of the process of governing.

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Editor’s Note: This opinion piece reflects the views of its author, and does not necessarily represent the views of CFJC Today or Pattison Media.