UBC offering summer school for politicians

VANCOUVER – The University of B.C. is offering potential politicians summer school  – including media training – for the skills necessary to lead as legislators.

A new summer program was announced Monday, just days after the B.C. Conservatives said they would re-vet all candidates following some major social media gaffes.

UBC’s Summer Institute for Future Legislators will also provide political hopefuls with mentoring and professional development on lawmaking, budgets, ethics, protocols and balancing political and personal life.

“We trust politicians with some of the biggest decisions in our lives, but offer and require surprisingly little training to prepare them for government,” political science professor Maxwell Cameron, the director of UBC’s Centre for the Study of Democratic Institutions, said in a statement.

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Former politicians slated to provide their wisdom include such household names as former Reform Party leader Preston Manning, former B.C. premier Mike Harcourt, former cabinet ministers Chuck Strahl and Anne McLellan.

Journalists will also provide some insight on how to deal with media requests.

The summer institute runs during June and July, with a model parliament set for August at UBC’s centre for democratic study.

The training could have come in handy for three Conservative candidates who were fired over the last week for making offensive public comments.

In the most recent incident, Ron Herbert, the candidate for Vancouver-West End, was fired for using a misogynistic and derogatory term on his personal Facebook and Twitter accounts to describe Premier Christy Clark and Beverley McLachlin, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada.

Mischa Popoff (Boundary-Similkameen) and Ian Tootill (Vancouver-False Creek) were ousted last week for making questionable statements on Twitter and in newspapers. (A fourth candidate, Jeff Sprague in North Vancouver-Lonsdale, stepped down last week in the midst of a drunk driving investigation.)