Former B.C. NDP candidate Dayleen Van Ryswyk posted a video to YouTube in 2011 to promote her candidacy for Kelowna city council.
One day after she was forced to resign over controversial comments posted online, former B.C. NDP candidate Dayleen Van Ryswyk has announced she will run as an independent.
"What I said was taken out of context," she tweeted Wednesday evening. "Read what I actually said before you judge. Check the opinion polls I'm @ 65-80 per cent 4 independent."
And a few minutes later: "Yes, running as Independent after incredible support. People want a true #Independent voice."
The B.C. Liberals publicized the Kelowna-Mission candidate's comments in a press release issued Tuesday morning, mere hours after the official start of the election campaign.
The released material included several entries, dating back to 2009, that referred to native and language issues and had been posted on a community news site.
In an exchange headed "strip them of the Status Card," Ms. Van Ryswyk wrote: "I'm not given a free ride, I work very hard for everything I have and 40 per cent of it goes to taxes.
"This native handout isn't from the government … it's from the overworked callused hand of every single TAX paying person in this country," the post continued. "The government is nothing more than a big black hole that feeds off the working man."
In another post, she complained about French in the Olympic Games. "I'm getting so sick of having French stuffed down my throat. This isn't Quebec, it's western Canada. We speak English here, so does the majority of Canada. I'm offended that the French is spoken first."
In a short statement issued Tuesday, NDP leader Adrian Dix called the comments "unacceptable" and said he had accepted her resignation.
Tish Lakes, an executive director of a non-profit legal society, is the new B.C. NDP candidate in Kelowna-Mission.
Andrea Woo