Dear Rob Fleming

Willem,
On Tuesday I joined 900 parents in a crowded Osoyoos school gym to demand that Christy Clark keep their town’s schools open.
They’re not alone. In towns all across BC, people are standing up to stop school closures.
But they need our help.
Sign the petition to stop these school closures.
The move to close schools doesn’t make sense with enrolment rising.
Right now more than thirty schools are at risk of being closed as a result of cuts and underfunding by the Christy Clark’s government.
This week I’m visiting communities across our province that are facing these school closures. I need your help to build this campaign and stop these school closures.
Please sign the petition to stop these school closures right now:
http://www.fightforkidsbc.ca
Thanks,
Rob
Rob Fleming
Spokesperson for Education
BC's New Democrats

Dear Rob,
As a retired public school teacher who watched colleagues lose their jobs and schools close as a result of Christy's most spectacular education budget slash, I'm sympathetic to this campaign.
Really, I am.
But that first slash was in 2002 and 2003 when she was merely the Education Minister and her animosity towards public education could possibly have been misinterpreted as something else.
However, now she's the Premier, has won two elections, and there's no longer any excuse. Anyone who couldn't see this coming has been willfully ignorant.
While I'm sympathetic, I note that Boundary-Similkameen elected BCLiberal MLA Linda Larson by a considerable margin (7%) and that Osoyoos is the constituency's most populous community.
So here's my message to the voters of Boundary-Similkameen:
Votes (and absentions!) have consequences, people: if you don't want what's on offer, me signing a petition isn't going to help.
Only you can do something about it.
Best of luck.
--Justus