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.
Read more about this topic: Kevin Falcon
Famous quotes containing the word politics:
“Hardly a man in the world has an opinion upon morals, politics or religion which he got otherwise than through his associations and sympathies. Broadly speaking, there are none but corn-pone opinions. And broadly speaking, Corn-Pone stands for Self- Approval. Self-approval is acquired mainly from the approval of other people. The result is Conformity.”
—Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)
“Our democracy, our culture, our whole way of life is a spectacular triumph of the blah. Why not have a political convention without politics to nominate a leader who’s out in front of nobody?... Maybe our national mindlessness is the very thing that keeps us from turning into one of those smelly European countries full of pseudo-reds and crypto-fascists and greens who dress like forest elves.”
—P.J. (Patrick Jake)
“One might imagine that a movement which is so preoccupied with the fulfillment of human potential would have a measure of respect for those who nourish its source. But politics make strange bedfellows, and liberated women have elected to become part of a long tradition of hostility to mothers.”
—Elaine Heffner (20th century)