Tourism, Culture and Arts Minister Bill Bennett has described a tourism operator in his riding as having "bigoted" and "ignorant" opinions - accusing Steve Kuijt of writing a "vicious and mean-spirited" e-mail, which "may well be libelous."
But, in an interview, Bennett defended his words, saying, "I'm a street fighter, I'm a pretty emotional guy. I put myself out there. It's my personal style to put things in writing - to say what I think, to say what I stand for." At issue is an e-mail, exclusively obtained by 24 hours dated Jan. 16, where Kuijt, the operations manager for Island Lake Lodge Group, stated he was "disappointed to hear" Bennett, during a recent speech to the Fernie Chamber of Commerce, spent most of his time talking about coal-bed methane development rather than tourism.
And when he did talk about tourism, "the vast majority of that was on the Olympics, not anything in our area."
Writing to fellow chamber directors, Kuijt stated he was "severely disappointed" by Bennett's "total support" for coal-bed methane extraction in Fernie, "without any consultation with the tourism industry."
According to Kuijt, Bennett "has little interest in supporting tourism in Fernie and gets his direction from Vitoria [sic] and the resource sector - both priorities from his time spent as Minister of Mines and nothing to do with Tourism in our area. Why is he the Minister of Tourism?"
In response, Bennett wrote, "having sent a few emails in my day I wish I hadn't, I ... do not have any intention of making Mr. Kuijt pay for his indiscrete e-mail, as I paid for mine" - a reference to a heated message he sent to the president of the Fernie Rod and Gun Club in November 2006 which resulted in his resignation as minister of state for mining.
Nevertheless, Bennett, in a lengthy email to the chamber's president Evelyn Cutts, wrote Kuijt's writing was "quite revealing" of his "intellectual level. I cannot even begin to understand his reasoning that as MLA for Kootenay East I must only be allowed to talk about tourism and no other issue." Bennett also stated Kuijt had a "short sighted and ignorant" view of the 2010 Winter Olympics, accusing him of authoring a "partisan attack" on behalf of Wildsight - an environmental group opposed to coal-bed methane development which counts Kuijt as a past member.
