Kevin Falcon - Politics

Politics

Falcon's first step into the public arena was as a lead organizer of the "Total Recall" effort to recall a number of BC New Democratic Party MLA's in 1999.

He was first elected in 2001 as a BC Liberal to represent the riding of Surrey-Cloverdale, and re-elected in the 2005, and 2009 elections.

Once Falcon was promoted to Minister of Health, he proposed changes to the health regulations regarding sales of contact lenses and eyeglasses which removed the requirement of a physical inspection of a prescription allowing their sale over the internet. The proposed changes came into effect May 1, 2010 and were criticized by many optometry professional associations.

Professional health care associations objected on two grounds; that allowing opticians to perform sight tests would result in patients receiving less frequent comprehensive eye exams, and that allowing retailers to dispense eyeglasses and contact lenses without verifying a prescription may result in improperly fitted prescriptions or harmful health effects. The Canadian National Institute for the Blind released a statement in support of the first objection. The American Optometric Association released a statement supporting both objections, and the University of Waterloo released a statement expressing concern over the health regulation changes and presented academic literature indicating that these changes will significantly increase the prevalence of undetected eye diseases ultimately leading to vision loss.

The opposition argued that Falcon changed the rules in 2010 after Clearly Contacts donated more than ten-thousand dollars to the BC Liberal Party. Also, an email from Clearly Contacts was sent out to eligible voters urging them to join the BC Liberal Party and vote for Falcon as leader. The NDP opposition noted the donation and email was a conflict of interest. Falcon said, "The decision we made was on the side of more competition and lower prices for consumers." Falcon admitted he did not run the decision past the conflict of interest commissioner.