No one is perfect

In the recent years, past indiscretions have come to haunt some Canadian-would-be politicians who've been forced to bow out when the past has come back to haunt them like a chain-rattling Jacob Marley.
The latest victim is Raymond Lam, an NDP candidate in B.C.'s current provincial election, who was forced to step down after his Liberal opponent tore into him for having a picture on his Facebook site of him groping the breast of a fully-clad female.
There's another one of him in his gitch.
The first thing that is laughable is some media referring to the pics as "racy." Stupid? Yes. Juvenile? Check. Racy? Uhh, only if you've never been on the Internet before.
Lam quickly committed political hara-kiri by resigning from the race. But it's apparent the B.C. NDP didn't try to stop him from bailing out.
By not counselling Lam to just apologize and move on but instead allowing him to quit, the NDP has probably torched a real chance at winning another riding, Vancouver-False Creek.
This new riding is winnable for the official Opposition NDP, considering that a large chunk is in the old Vancouver Burrard riding which the NDP lost by 11 votes in 2005. Most of the rest of the new riding was in the old Vancouver-Fairview constituency, which the Liberals won by just 1,100 votes. So this is definitely a winnable riding for the NDP. Now, the chance of winning is pretty much out the window.
This is not the first time in the last year a New Democratic Party has said goodbye to a candidate due to a past transgression, or a perceived one.
Federally, the NDP parted company with two B.C. candidates last year.
Julian West was forced to quit during the campaign after it became public that he had been investigated by police (and not charged) in 1996 for dropping his trousers in front of some young teens and going skinny dipping.
There was also the case of Dana Larsen who bowed out as a federal candidate for the NDP last year.
Larsen's connections to the marijuana community were certainly no secret when he became an NDP candidate. Heck, he had been a candidate for the Marijuana Party in the past. But, because he runs the Vancouver Seed Bank, a store that sells seeds for medicinal marijuana, there were allegations that he was selling coca seedlings (which are used in making cocaine). Video was also found of him driving under the influence of certain drugs.
There was no innocent until proven guilty on the coca accusations. As soon as it came out, he bowed out with the blessing of the party.
All of these cases are transgressions the candidates could have apologized for and moved on. Would it have hurt their candidacies, maybe a little, especially Larsen - but not by a large amount.
In Lam's case, while some people will be offended by the breast grabbing pic, most people will look at the pictures and think they were juvenile and it was stupid of him to put it on the Internet but ultimately, they were just photographs.
The NDP should lighten up and stand up for its candidates more. The damage would not be a lot and it would be no worse than scrambling at the last second to find a candidate.
In some cases, candidates coming clean and owning up to their mistakes can help their candidacy.
In 2002, I was covering the Yukon territorial election when rumours were flying around that the third party leader, Dennis Fentie, had spent time in jail, from which he had been pardoned.
Midway through the campaign, Fentie admitted he spent penitentiary time for dealing narcotics and in the end his party won a sweeping majority. I think being honest about his past helped him.
Maybe the NDP should take a page from the Conservative party's notebook.
Sharon Smith, the mayor of Houston, B.C., made the mistake of leaving a certain photo of herself on her computer. It is believed that someone at a party put on by one of her children found the pic and before long it was winging its way around the globe.
The photo showed the mayor seated and wearing her chain of office - and nothing else but a smile.
While this caused a big hubbub when the story was made public in 2003, the Conservative Party of Canada - not exactly known as a bastion of pro-nudists - had no qualms with Smith running as a candidate against an NDP incumbent in northern B.C. Although she lost, Smith's transgression was never an issue for the Tories.

Jason Small can be reached at 691-1255.