Read this article by Charlie Smith in the Georgia Straight on one key difference between BC Conservative Party Leader John Cummins and his new MLA and BC Liberal defector Jon Van Dongen. (March 27, 2012)

B.C. Conservative Leader John Cummins and his party’s new MLA, John van Dongen, were very chummy yesterday in front of the media.

And why not? Van Dongen, a former B.C. Liberal cabinet minister, had crossed the floor to the B.C. Conservatives just in time for crucial April 29 by-elections in Chilliwack-Hope and Port Moody–Coquitlam.

As I watched the televised news coverage last night, I was left with a question: how will these two fast friends get along when it comes to fish farming?

In 2003 as a member of the Commons fisheries committee, Cummins wrote a dissenting report attacking the federal role in aquaculture…

…As B.C.’s minister of agriculture, food and fisheries, van Dongen was the cabinet minister who lifted the provincial moratorium on fish farms in 2002.

In a widely distributed opinion editorial, van Dongen contradicted some of the points made by Cummins in his later report.

Read article: http://straight.com/article-645381/vancouver/can-john-cummins-and-bc-conservative-mla-john-van-dongen-agree-fish-farming