By Gurmukh Singh,IANS,
Toronto : Imagine even a junior minister in India driving his own vehicle and being booked by cops. But the home minister of Canada’s British Columbia province resigned Monday after he was caught and fined for over-speeding.
John van Dongen stepped down as British Columbia’s solicitor general (equal to home minister in an Indian state) Monday, saying his driving record meant he should no longer serve as the province’s top cop, according to the Vancouver Sun newspaper.
The solicitor general, who has been challaned nine times for over-speeding over the last five years, had his driving licence suspended by his own traffic cops last week.
He was also fined $368 for his last offence. “I believe that the office of the solicitor general demands the highest level of public confidence, and I can’t provide that given my driving record,” said the solicitor general while submitting his resignation. John van Dongen, who has been an MLA for 14 years, said his ‘history of speeding’ was due to his ‘hard work’ over the years as people’s representative.
“None of that is an excuse for the fact that speeding is illegal, and I want to make sure that people understand that there is no excuse for my driving pattern,” he was quoted as saying by the newspaper.