Recently, a Campbell Liberal spokesperson indicated that this government is taking 'real action' and 'yielding real results for seniors' care.'
I have to say that this kind of blind optimism in no way matches the real stories that I hear from seniors in this area.
Those stories tell me that this government has in fact failed seniors; that the last eight years of Premier Campbell's rule has been a very difficult time for seniors in this province.
I believe strongly that when seniors say, for instance, that the level of care received by residents in our seniors' care facilities is not high enough, we should respond.
We should respond by increasing the number of hours that staff can spend caring for our seniors.
For example, we should ensure that our seniors get more than one bath a week.
We need to be willing to talk openly of our short-comings so that we can begin immediately to address them.
During the last election I knocked on almost every door in the constituency and the single biggest issue that was raised was seniors' care.
The residents of this constituency do not accept a sub-standard level of care for our seniors.
We believe that seniors deserve our respect and the way we show that respect is to be certain that the care they receive is of the highest quality.
It concerns me when I hear the Campbell Liberals saying that everything is perfectly fine with our seniors' care system because that just doesn't match up with what people are telling me.
I believe that an MLA should not simply be an apologist for government, telling us just how great everything is.
The Columbia Valley deserves an MLA who will stand up and fight for seniors.