Is BC the shining example of how to do politics? For now...

In a strange topsy-turvey, through the looking glass kind of week, political events in Ottawa have been even crazier than in BC ­ and we are no strangers to nutty politics here in Lotus Land.

After all, we are the province that churned through six premiers in ten years ­ and that doesn’t include interim folks like Dan Miller. As we’ve all heard, Gordon Campbell is the first premier to achieve a second term in over twenty years.

Clearly, we appreciate a little scandal and malfeasance with our politics.

We see it as one of our defining characteristics as British Columbians: coffee, yoga, walks on the seawall and governments lurching from disgrace to disgrace (often accompanied by brown paper envelopes filled with cash or new decks constructed with murky provenance).

Which is why, for many, the last provincial election campaign was so boring and what has happened in Ottawa in the last week has been so fascinating.

The BC campaign was marked by articulate, respectful, balanced dialogue. We might as well have been in Toronto. Where were the fireworks, the personal foibles, the people in the streets screaming for blood?

I’ll tell you where they were: in Ottawa.

In the past short seven days, we’ve had betrayal, scandal, personal lives torn asunder, and terminally ill politicians braving the spectre of death to vote in Parliament. We’ve had beautiful blondes, beautiful brunettes, and some pretty ugly old men grabbing headlines with back-stabbing and secret tapes.

We’ve seen a heart-broken young buck back on the farm with his dog and the doll-smashing Carolyn Parrish welcomed back into Federal Liberals with open arms. To top it all, I have to wonder if Alice felt so strange as Canadians did seeing uber-Reformer, Chuck Cadman, who has pushed this government for 12 years for a tougher justice system, supporting Liberals in the non-confidence motion.

And all this while the Queen shook hands with farmers in Saskatchewan in the midst of a torrential downpour.

If a young novelist had written a political thriller based on these events, the publishers would have rejected it as unbelievable (though, frankly, the relationship of Stronach and McKay was a pretty shaky premise to start with).

We just need a body to show up on the steps of the Peace Tower and Canadians would have their own mini-series ready for HBO. We could call it “Desperate Politicians”.

So, with the sun shining here in BC and our uneventful election campaign over, let’s take a moment and be uncharacteristically smug. We have a maturity in our political system that the Federal government would do well to emulate. For once, we are the model on how a government should be run and a campaign should unfold.

I wonder how long we can keep in up?

Will the Martin Liberal Government fall today? This is the billion dollar question that keen political observers have been mulling over for the last couple of weeks.

Belinda’s overnight conversion to Martin Liberalism, while shocking, may not actually have that much of an impact on the vote, scheduled to be held this afternoon in Ottawa. Over the last week, odds-makers have been leaning more in favour of the vote not passing. Unfortunately.

Actually, there are a few votes that will be taking place.

The first is a vote on the original budget, as agreed to by all parties earlier in the year. The Conservatives have suggested they will vote in support of this budget, in move calculated to derail the misguided attempts of the NDP to hijack Parliament’s agenda with their old-fashioned and out of touch taxation policies.

The second vote will be a vote on the amended and unholy NDP-Liberal budget, which strays from the so-called fiscal prudence that Martin has been spouting for the last 12 years.

The final vote will be on a formal non-confidence motion that the Liberals, in their classic undemocratic fashion, managed to put off by undemocratically delaying the “opposition days” in Parliament.

If any of these votes fail, Martin will be cast out from the cozy 24 Sussex Drive and into the fray of an election campaign – a campaign where his government’s record of blatant pay-offs to friends and insiders will be the main issue.

In British Columbia we are in a unique situation, having just come off of a provincial election campaign. We are, frankly, a little tired of all the politicking and really just want to open up the cottage, or crack a beer while sitting on the sand watching the beach volleyball players. The thought of more phone calls, election signs and radio shows with rabid callers isn’t exactly enthralling.

That being said, tonight’s votes are really important and, if the Federal Liberal government does fail, we owe it to democracy to take a deep breath and be just as active and engaged in the Federal campaign as we were in the Provincial. A record number of voters cast ballots on Tuesday night – that means something.

It means we care about our province.

And although we may not really want an election, we do want to get rid of the Federal Liberals, who have taken trough-feeding and brown envelopes filled with campaign cash (in this case our tax-dollars) to a whole new level.

Politicians need to hear from us that this kind of government is not acceptable in Canada. Period. Full Stop.

Why Vote BC Liberal?

In 2001, the BC Liberals promised to bring our province back from the brink of destruction. They have turned the economy around, are investing more in health care and education and have the highest job creation numbers in over twenty years.

Here are the top three reasons to stay the course and keep the BC Liberals in government.


Reason #1: Trust
Just like no person is perfect, no government is perfect. But the hard decisions that the BC Liberals had to make – while sometimes very unpopular – put us back on the right track.

Carole James’s NDP doesn’t seem willing to take any responsibility for those ten years of economic decline and, to add insult to injury, she actually believes that government has no control over the economy.

A full third of her candidates are former union bosses and another big chunk were directly involved in the last NDP trainwreck. But she wants us to trust her that an NDP government would be different this time. Sorry, Carole, we’ve come too far to take a chance on a neophyte socialist.


Reason #2: Strong Social Programs
When the NDP leader was in school, she obviously missed a pretty important class: Economics 101. While not the most glamourous subject, having a basic understanding of what makes our economy tick is critical if you want to help people.

So what does the economy have to do with our important social framework? Great question. These programs are paid for by us. If the government drives business and investment out of BC, people like you and me lose our jobs. It is a terrible cycle, which ends with the government levying higher taxes, to make up for the smaller tax base, which drives more investment away, resulting in even fewer jobs.

In 2001, the BC Liberals started at step one – how do we build a vibrant economy so that we can invest in these programs for the long-haul? Because of this, we’re spending $1 billion more on health care and more per child on primary education ever.


Reason #3: A Future for our Province
Finally, the third reason to vote BC Liberal has everything to do with our future. We have a great opportunity to build a lasting future for our province - so that our children don’t leave our province, like they did in the 90s. So our seniors get into long term care in 30 days, instead of the year under the NDP. So that we can maintain the lowest tax rates for those making less than $30,000 a year in the country.

This government is not perfect, but we cannot afford the human cost of going backward with the NDP instead of forward with the BC Liberals.

Net Interprovincial Migration - BC

Source: BC Stats


The Alberta government has got to be wondering what’s going on across the Rockies in BC these days.

By the end of the 1990s, Albertan employers had gotten pretty used to a steady supply of young, skilled workers fleeing this province for the fertile job market and low taxes of Alberta. By 2001, fully 1/3 of those leaving BC for Alberta were just 15 to 29 years of age – forced out of their home province by the fear of not being to build a future for themselves and their families.

If you’ve spoken to parents of those who left in those dark days about the pain of not being to help their grandchildren grow up, you know that the loss of BCers to other provinces is much more than simply a huge economic problem. By the end of the 1990s, growing numbers of families were separated. And those parents were pretty sure that once their children left our province, they might very well never return, especially if they put down roots and began having children in other places.

As we all well know, it is tough enough to build a village to raise a child without the added challenge posed when grandparents and other family support systems live 1500 kilometres away.

By losing young people just starting out in their careers, as well as those in their peak earning years, BC was exporting its future at a rapidly increasing rate during the 1990s.

From 1996 to 2001, we pushed away over 175,000 people with our high taxes, mis-informed economic policies and crippling regulation for small business – businesses that today have the highest optimism in the country.

That optimism is sure reflected in the net migration numbers now. The most recent BC Stats report shows the net inter-provincial migration rate is back up out of the negative numbers – in fact, it is now the highest since 1996.

Surprising to many, perhaps, are the stats showing that the low taxes and the growing economy here at home have even provided a net gain of migrants from that economic Mecca - Alberta.

Everyone who reads a newspaper or watches the news knows that our economy has finally turned around. But it is by speaking to families around BC that one realizes that something fundamental has shifted.

Parents no longer fear that their children will leave the province to find work elsewhere, and only return for Christmas holidays and summer road trips.

Some of our young people who already left might come back home, and build their futures right here.

And, most importantly, these changes mean that those lonely grandparents may finally get to be a real and important influence in the lives of their beautiful grandchildren.

James’ Pre-Debate Campaign
With all the opinion polls leading up to the May provincial election showing that the public had no clue who Carole James was, the NDP strategy should have been obvious – show her off.

But being shackled pyscologicaly to their disasterous past government must have had an impact on their campaign planning because they decided to hold off until the very last moment to launch their platform.

In an unexpected twist, Carole James decided to make the campaign about trust. Given the fear that lingers in BC voter’s minds about the last NDP government, it seemed an odd choice. In order to achieve a win, Carole James needed to demonstrate that her NDP had repudiated their past – difficult to achieve when candidates from the Glen Clark era and overt ties to organized labour were dragging her down.

Did the Debate Have an Impact?
The debate was not the breakthrough moment that her flagging campaign needed. Yes, her three day break leading up to the evening did allow her to be well-prepared, but her lagging in the polls meant she needed to shake it up in a major Gordon Wilson sort of way and she just doesn’t have the experience to make that happen.

On TV, Adrienne Carr offered fire and passion, qualities that Carole James lacked. Gordon Campbell was statesman-like – he knew going in that he was going to be attacked and he rightly kept his focus on the vision of hope and prosperity for our province under his government.

What became clear, though, was that Carole James, while great at attacking the BC Liberals, was definitely not great at articulating a compelling vision for our future. It was clear that she had given up campaigning for government and was just hoping for a reasonable opposition showing.

Now What?
In classic losing campaign fashion, some NDP candidates like BCTF union hack David Chudnovsky are stepping away from the ill-advised trust message that Carole James is peddling. While Carole James may be able to secure the NDP a level of seats more in line with traditional numbers, she is not going to be able to provide the breakthrough that her NDP followers had hoped for.

Polling has consistently revealed that BC voters believe the best choice for Premier is Gordon Campbell – and nothing Carole James has done has changed their minds.