Melanie Mark says at times the legislature has “felt like a torture chamber.”
B.C.’s first female First Nations cabinet minister announced her resignation Wednesday as NDP MLA for Vancouver-Mount Pleasant, saying the B.C. Legislative Assembly has at times “felt like a torture chamber.”
Prior to that, she had backed a controversial proposal to replace the Royal B.C. Museum that was later reversed by then-premier John Horgan after a public backlash that Mark said cast a shadow over her achievements.“If anything, I’m standing up for myself for the first time in my life,” she said. “I’m exercising my self-determination as a single mother to put myself and my daughters first.”
“I wanted to disrupt the status quo,” said Mark. “I wanted big system change. In many ways, I have done what I came here to do, but it’s also a fact that institutions fundamentally resist change. Eby later told reporters that Mark’s experience should serve as a challenge to everyone in the building “to do better … because her voice is needed here.”
“We thank you for the important work that you did. We thank you for your service to this chamber in this province and we certainly wish you all of the best.” Green Party Leader Sonia Furstenau, in a media briefing on Wednesday, said too many women are prematurely leaving work they love, particularly women in high office, which, she said, sends a worrying signal to young women.
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