B.C. NDP leader's days numbered: fired MLA

The B.C. MLA who's been kicked out of the NDP caucus says party leader Carole James doesn't have much time to answer her critics.

Former New Democrat MLA Bob Simpson was turfed late Wednesday for publicly questioning James's leadership in his blog.

James was still talking tough Thursday in the wake of Simpson's firing.

"When you make it clear you don't agree with the direction of our caucus, the direction of our party and the direction of our team, you can't be a part of that team," she said.

'It's kind of like the little kid saying actually the emperor is walking around in his underwear.' —Former B.C. NDP cabinet minister Corky Evans

But Simpson had considerable public support on the internet, on radio phone-in shows, and from one prominent former NDP MLA.

One-time New Democrat cabinet minister Corky Evans, now retired from office, said he can't understand why Simpson was kicked out of the caucus.

"Sometime people say things that everybody knows and you feel a vast sense of relief because somebody has finally said it out loud," Evans told CBC News from his home in the Slocan Valley.

"It's kind of like the little kid saying, 'actually the emperor is walking around in his underwear,' and everybody goes, 'oh, gee, that's what I thought, I just didn't want to say it.'"

Evans said if people can be disciplined simply for speaking their minds, they won't even want to enter politics.

Warned James

Simpson — now sitting as an independent MLA for the riding of Cariboo North — said he's overwhelmed by the support he has received.

"My inbox is full, my voice mail is full," he said.

Simpson said he warned James his ouster would unleash "a world full of individuals frustrated with her leadership."

But James still has time to start acting like a premier in waiting, he said.

Otherwise, he said, there should be a B.C. NDP leadership convention in 2011.

"It would re-energize the party, restore the membership [and] deal with some of the funding issues."

Simpson said he believed the next few weeks would be critical for James's leadership, as she faces the caucus at a policy retreat next week and then the party's provincial council in November.