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His former colleagues in the Liberal caucus were quick to savage Van Dongen as self-serving, nasty and self-aggrandizing.

His tenure with the Conservatives lasted only a few months and he soon lost his seat altogether while running as an independent.

Postmedia could not reach Van Dongen for this story, but the person who was elected in his former riding in 2017, Darryl Plecas, has high praise for the man.

“He was so trying to do the right thing. And he just got beaten up by the system,” Plecas said. “I had so much respect for John.”

2017: Darryl Plecas

Photo by Mike Bell / PNG

Plecas is the most modern example of a maverick B.C. politician. Elected as a Liberal in Abbotsford South, he was booted from the party after taking the speaker’s job, which effectively allowed the NDP and Greens to form government and relegated the Liberals to opposition.

Plecas defended the move as “the right thing to do.”

He has gone on to ruffle more Liberal feathers, releasing a bombshell report in January that alleges massive misuse of taxpayer dollars by the legislature’s two top officials, mainly while the Liberals were in power.

Plecas, who does not think he will run again in the next election, said he knew when he took the speaker’s job he would be “pummelled” by his Liberal colleagues, but was guided by his “moral compass” — as he believes Wilson-Raybould is.

“I say three cheers for her. However difficult it might have been doing what I was doing, it’s a thousand times more difficult for her. She would have known all along that you do not do that without a consequence. That is the way the system works. You will be punished. But I’m sure for her there must be an enormous sense of peace,” he said.

“To see her have the courage to stand up and do what she did, I think let her be a lesson for all Canadians.”

lculbert@postmedia.com

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