From Jennifer Hastie in support of Rose Henry

I know that Barry Hobbis, Marianne Alto and Steve Filipovic are going gung ho in the campaign and you can see them around, so I thought I would post something in relation to Rose Henry - though I am voting for Susan Woods

MY BELIEF IN ROSE HENRY

October 26, 2010

I have known Rose Henry since we first came to Victoria in 2001 through

the alternate newspaper, “Streetnewz.” Rose is one of our vendors.

I am really pleased to see that Rose is running for a position on City

Council in the byelection on November 20, 2010. Rose has run for a Council

seat in previous elections. In the last election, she drew over 3,370 votes.

Why vote for Rose? Because Rose truly represents the disadvantaged

people in our community. Rose has been homeless; she is a Native Indian from

the Powell River area; she is female. What other candidates would know more

than she does about these minority groups?

Rose is not full of academic rhetoric. She is not speaking out of both sides

of her mouth, as many candidates do—saying that they care but then never

putting their support behind anything that will change the situation in our society

for the oppressed. Rose cares; she lives and she breathes poverty. More than

any other candidate, she knows what needs to be done to improve social

conditions.

The final point that makes me believe in Rose is that she has the ability to

handle conflict in a respectful way. She is able to disagree without hostility,

name-calling or abusive language. I consider this quality valuable for any

problem-solving.

Do turn out to vote for Rose Henry in this byelection. Let’s see some

change in attitude toward helping the homeless get housed and getting help for

any mental health or addiction problems that they may be facing.

Respectfully submitted,

Jennifer Hastie, retired social worker, living in James Bay.