Kelowna News

After 13 years in the legislature, Kelowna-Mission MLA Sindi Hawkins, on the advice of her doctors, will not run for re-election when B.C. voters go to the polls in May.

Hawkins made the announcement, which has been widely speculated for months, Monday at the Hotel Eldorado.

She was joined by Premier Gordon Campbell, along with MLA's Al Horning, Rick Thorpe, Bill Barisoff and Health Minister, George Abbott.

Hawkins is in the midst of her second battle with leukemia.

She went through a first bone marrow transplant in 2004 and a second transplant on Christmas Eve, 2007.

On November 1, 2007, it was announced that Hawkins had been diagnosed with a recurrence of acute myeloid leukemia.

Hawkins says it's that disease that has caused her to step away from politics.

"I have the utmost respect for my constituents. I have always tried to work hard and strive to do the best I can to serve each and every one who sought my assistance," says Hawkins.

"But because of my health and the challenges I continue to face, I am not able to do all that this position demands and on the advice of my doctors, I will not seek re-election in May 2009."

Hawkins says it was a tough decision, but one that had to be made for her health.

"As one of my doctors put it quite bluntly, no job is worth dying over and I think I have to agree."

She says she has no plans to do anything else at the moment, other than look after her health and continue raising money through the BC Cancer Foundation.

"We have a cancer centre here that supports a lot of patients that need care. It was fabulous the Premier was Honourary Chair with me to bring Lance Armstrong to Kelowna last year. We'll be doing an event here again next summer with somebody I'm sure you will all recognize."

Hawkins has not attended many functions as she battles the disease and regains her health, leading many constituents to question her ability to serve her riding.

In answering questions about her absenteeism, Hawkins thanked her constituency office and fellow MLA's for stepping up, adding she didn't get any complaints from constituents who didn't receive timely help from her office.

As the media continued to question Hawkins about work plans and commitments, the Premier stepped in to defend his colleague.

"The most difficult thing for Sindi when we were trying to encourage her to think of herself first and take care of her health first was that she was always at work," says Campbell.

"The biggest challenge for her will be to actually take some time for herself to get healthy. She is going to be back doing something somewhere for bunches of people I'm sure."

Meantime, Maxine DeHart, who has been widely rumoured as a possible successor for Hawkins, was non-committal about her political aspirations Monday.

"I have not made any decisions. This is nobody's day but her day," says DeHart.

"She's been a friend of mine for 12 years and I'm here to support her. I'm going to go over and give her a big hug and dry my eyes."