VRD Thursday, February 23, 2023

Summary

In the news, NDP MLA for Vancouver-Mount Pleasant and a two-time cabinet minister Melanie Mark (who many in the media are calling the first female Indigenous cabinet minister *VRD notes former Finance Minister/Deputy Premier Carole James identifies as Metis and is married to former T’sil Kaz Koh Chief Albert Gerow*) is stepping down. Mark is leaving the Legislature saying at times it “felt like a torture chamber.” Mark says she’s exercising her self determination as a single mother to put herself and her daughter first. She also commented that while she wanted to disrupt the status quo, colonial institutions, like the legislative assembly and government at large, fundamentally resist change.