Coleridge signs nomination papers, decides not to run
Former councillor James Coleridge decided not to run in White Rock's byelection Sept. 12.
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Updated: August 07, 2009 3:27 PM
With his nomination papers signed and ready to be filed, the only thing blocking ousted-councillor James Coleridge's re-entry into White Rock politics was one decision.
The day before nomination deadline day – Friday at 4 p.m. – Coleridge made his choice while visiting with friends on the west coast of Vancouver Island.
"I was out on the surfboard yesterday, and every five minutes I checked in to see what my answer was. Would I run? Wouldn't I run? I just added it all up... and not running won," Coleridge said in an emotion-filled phone call to Peace Arch News Friday morning.
Coleridge called from Tofino to announce his decision for the Sept. 12 byelection, made necessary after a B.C. Supreme Court judge sided with petitioner Matt Todd and ruled Coleridge's re-election last fall invalid for repeatedly denying knowledge of the source of a political e-mail that he researched and his wife sent.
While Coleridge admitted he lied, he said he did so to protect his family.
"At the end of the day, yes, I lied to the media about the source of an e-mail. That's what I did. Plain and simple," Coleridge said. "I didn't lie to the people about the causes or the election issues. I lied to the media about the source of an e-mail protecting my wife and an unborn child."
Asked whether he acknowledges lying to residents, Coleridge said only that he lied to reporters.
"This whole case was about me lying about the source," he said. "I lied to whoever asked the question. The public never asked me the question. The media asked me the question."
Coleridge also maintained Justice Laura Gerow made the wrong decision that he lied for personal gain.
"Yeah, well I don't agree with her," Coleridge said. "Two different lawyers and a different judge would have gotten a totally different result.
"Personal gain? I've won nine elections before that. The election issue was about highrises and Bosa. The vote was all about that. I finished third. I had 2,202 votes. She's allowed to her opinion and that's her right. I can't argue with that. I would have loved to have had a chance to debate that. But I've made a decision not to run."
Coleridge paused when asked if he had a message to residents of White Rock.
"Well, I've spent half my life serving them. So it's a tough decision. It's been a pretty rough go. That happens in life, serving the people. It's been a pretty nasty time of it. It's probably been more difficult on my family – my wife and my mom – than me."
Coleridge said he had the support of his wife, Anna, to run again, but that the deciding factor was how mean-spirited politics has become.
"It was how personal, how nasty... you just try to help people," he said.
"When people get so personal and nasty, it's not a healthy environment to put your family in.... The whole legal case got very personal and very nasty, and dragged my family into it."
"When it gets to the level of dragging your parents in and dragging your wife in..."
Asked how his family were dragged into it, Coleridge said: "Everybody got hurt because it was all said about me. They're all protective of me."
Coleridge said he chose prior to the judgment in May to let his testimony speak for him, while others went to the media.
"Everybody else was on TV and radio and newspaper and letters (to the editor). It was just constantly bash James. Everybody had a field day, making me a piñata.
"When everybody else sees me getting beaten up, it's hard on them. It's really hard on your wife and your mother and that, when people are saying all these things about you, after you've spent 25 years or half your life serving people as a politician for the good of a cause, then all of a sudden it gets to this."
Asked whether he would consider returning to politics in the future, Coleridge replied:
"Right now I have to deal with my world."
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