CKNW Editorial
for May 7, 1999

I don't know about you but I get the tummy feeling that Vancouver Police Chief, Bruce Chambers is getting the shaft. He was hired two years ago to remake the police force and make it more visible and user friendly. He has done this but in doing so has tromped on a lot of toes. He is the subject of a near revolt within the force itself and the buzz on the street has it that the rank and file are out to get him.He no doubt has made mistakes. The timing of some of the changes may have been a mistake. And he was embarrassed by being stopped in a roadblock with liquor on his breath.But still, if he was hired by the Police Board to do a job ... and if he has done that job ... how can the Police Board refuse to extend his contract?

I suspect that much of the chief's difficulty is because he was not promoted from within the department but was hired from Thunder Bay. Which raises this issue - if the Police Board, Mayor Philip Owen chair, decides this July not to rehire Chief Chambers doesn't this mean that the Police Board is saying "we're not really the boss here, the rank and file policemen are?" And if they do now promote from within, no matter how good the appointment is,won't he or she always look like a win for that rank and file and won't that make discipline pretty tough?

I interviewed Bruce Chambers and I thought it was a pretty tough interview.I came away from the interview feeling that the knocks on him were as much sour grapes as anything else.

I frankly admit that I don't know the issues that well. I am not a police reporter. My thoughts come straight from the tummy which tells me that there is something not quite fair about this whole issue.

On another matter, Mike Harris is going to win big in Ontario. I watched the opening statements of the three leaders yesterday and I can tell you that barring a disaster of major proportions, Dalton McGuinty hasn't a prayer.We are in the age of political imagery, like it or not. Harris has charisma and presence. You feel you are listening to a man who can lead. McGuinty reminds me a lot of Bob Skelly when he headed the local NDP ... he is stiff, unhumourous and about as charismatic as a telephone pole. I don't say I want Harris to win - I couldn't care less who wins. I only say that in this day and age of media politics it's a total mismatch and that Harris will increase his majority.

Finally, it's interesting to hear Premier Clark, on one of his announcement-a-day kicks he employed so successfully in the 1996 election, says that the NDP still have chance in the next election. And of course they do. But to have that chance the economy must pick up dramatically and the premier must be outta here. I carry no brief for Gordon Wilson but it's clear that he's the only one who can truthfully deny responsibility for much of the mess - though he's up to his eyeballs in Nisga'a - and can personalize the contest in a more favourable way. The modern election tends to be fought amongst leaders so the individual strengths are more important than the party platforms. That's not probably how it should be but it's how it is. Glen Clark, man to man, is toast. His credibility is non existent.

Those who knock Wilson are right. He's a shameless opportunist who has lots of baggage. But what the NDP must look for first is the return of their traditional supporters plus a reasonable crack at the "in-betweens" who make or break an election. If you were a NDP insider, given the material at hand, who would you pick who could do these things?

Glen Clark will resign and probably before H.A.D. Oliver hands down the "conflict of interest" decision which, given that the Premier apparently accepted a large benefit from an applicant for a gaming license, ought to be a no-brainer.

The NDP, led by the backroom boys, will then go with the person who gives them the best chance to make a respectable showing in the next election - Gordon Wilson. Bet on it.