Politics of self-destruction BC’s day of retribution

It was over before it began, as one former cabinet minister learned when he went door-knocking on behalf of the New Democratic Party (NDP) during the recent election campaign in British Columbia. “People say, not only do I dislike your policies, but I hate you and wish you were in hell,” the party stalwart confessed to a Vancouver Sun columnist.

Most candidates put on a braver face, even after being defeated almost en masse (76-3) at the polls. A few suggested that eight out of 10 voters had been duped into rejecting their party by a “media conspiracy.” Others blamed the Green Party for splitting left-wing votes and handing the election to Liberal leader Gordon Campbell, just as Ralph Nader had done for George W. Bush in the United States.

Another NDP candidate abandoned the campaign for a socialist convention in Cuba. Afer touring plantations and factories in the Potemkin Village paradise, the young candidate e-mailed his campaign office to let staffers know that he had been “sitting five feet away from Fidel Castro!” NDP leader Ujjal Dosanjh took it all in stride. The riding hadn’t voted NDP for a long time anyway, and the young man was merely demonstrating “a commitment to social justice and equality.”

Dosanjh failed to win his own seat and resigned as premier and party leader, making him strike three (you’re out!) of the NDP’s almost decade-long effort to stay in the game. The party’s first leader, Michael Harcourt, was brought down by a bingo scandal, which led to the derisive comment that the party couldn’t run a bingo hall properly, let alone a province. Using various holding companies, NDP riding associations raised funds from community bingo games that were supposed to go to charities. Some did, but millions were siphoned off (through kickbacks and other means) and used to support the party financially, to make interest-free loans to insiders, and even to underwrite an exclusive club for the party elite.

Harcourt wasn’t directly involved, but resigned in a vain attempt to contain the scandal. The public was glad to the see the last of “Premier Bonehead” (so-named because of his bumbling on the federal stage) and his incessant pandering to environmentalists who wanted to turn most of the province into parkland. Among the casualties was the Windy Craggy copper deposit (now part of a park) and thousands of jobs in the province’s once-vibrant resource sector.

Next up at bat was populist Glen Clark, whose rise to power gave hope to the alienated labour wing of the NDP. Clark began his term by promising everyone the moon and the stars. B.C. would have three aluminum smelters, a fast-ferry industry that would be the envy of the world, 40,000 new jobs in the forest industry, balanced budgets, an expanded transportation system, and settled land-claims.

By the time Clark resigned in disgrace (for allegedly accepting benefits from a friend whom he had allegedly helped obtain a casino licence), the stars and moon were hiding in shame. The budget had been fudged, there were no new aluminum smelters, the costly ferries weren’t fast, usable or salable, and more jobs had been lost than gained in the forestry industry. The few settled land-claims were expensive, divisive and unpopular.

Dosanjh took over the reigns, only to squander his credibility by making an “unofficial” visit to his homeland in India’s Punjab province, surrounded by an entourage of fundraisers and businessmen from the Indo-Canadian community. The visiting premier of B.C. was treated like royalty, but the “ego tour” didn’t sit well with the unemployed folks back home.

By the time the election was called, the split in the party between the labour and green camps was wider than the Grand Canyon. Dosanjh seemed unaware of the divide. He tried to drum up votes on Vancouver Island by boasting about his government’s efforts to “protect the environment through land-use plans.” At one stop, he was surrounded by workers fuming about the imminent closure of their sawmill. At another, he was peppered with questions about the 2,000 lost forestry jobs in the Alberni Valley.

The Greens, meanwhile, were elated by polls that showed their support running even with the NDP. Leader Adriane Carr even believed that her party might form the official opposition. But at the end of the day, even with thousands of protest votes coming its way, the Green Party failed to elect a single candidate. It was a crushing defeat, particularly for the high-profile candidates, who had long claimed to be “the environmental voice” of B.C. on the international stage.

At the end of the day, the NDP and the Green Party were sent into political oblivion for needlessly sacrificing their province’s economy in the name of environmental protection. In their zeal to protect as much land as possible from development, they forgot about the thousands of lost jobs, the hundreds of devastated communities, and the exodus of the province’s brightest and best. They forgot about people, and that people always have the last word. And the last word in this election is that even had every Green vote gone to the NDP, the party would have won no more than eight seats.

As for the Greens, what can be said of a party whose health-care policies embrace euthanasia and question the wisdom of keeping people alive who might be “better off” dead? Such policies don’t apply to trees, judging by near-manic efforts to prevent the felling of one ancient but rotting tree that is a safety hazard in a Vancouver Island community.

Go figure.