CKNW Editorial
for July 20, 1999

Dear Premier Clark,

Everyone seems to be sending you letters these days so I thought I might as well send you one myself.

First a little background. You and I have always got along on a personal level. We’ve talked together publicly and we’ve talked together privately, doing the province’s business and I have always found you to be a decent sort and I think that view is reciprocated.

I know how your people are bent on tabbing media types like me as having a right wing agenda but you and I – and most of the people who know us both – know that’s not true. That certainly wasn’t my record when in government as any fair review of it, and the things said about me by the opposition of the day, will attest.

I certainly don’t agree with the NDP – though by no means always – and I’ve never made any bones about that. By the same token I’m sure as hell no fan of the Liberals also though for reasons I’ll express in a moment I think anyone would be an improvement over what you have given us.

Premier, you have done many things for which your party will, ultimately, be judged. It is not my purpose in this letter to review them. You have expressed pride in your support of the Nisga’a deal – there we differ. You seem happy with the Fastcat ferries – again we disagree. But if these two things, plus perhaps the Skytrain decision are the plinths upon which you would build your political monument, so be it. In due course the people will tell us what they think.

You have done many things, which are not policies so much as political decisions. You have run up an enormous debt for the province and, again, it will be the people who will judge whether or not you were right to do so. You and your ministers were economical with the truth in May of 1996 about the state of the province’s finances – again judgment will come in due course.

The problem is, Mr Premier, that you personally have lost the confidence of the citizens of the province and the party you serve.

I don’t think that’s because of any one thing but if it is, it’s the fact that you clearly accepted a substantial benefit from a man seeking a gaming license from your government. I don’t think anyone – least of all I – thinks that you are a crook. No, Premier, from a political point of view it’s perhaps worse than that – they think you’re a damned fool. And this is where the assessment of you by both the public and your province – and probably your cabinet and caucus - has got you in trouble. Ordinary ministers do damned fool things but Premiers do not.

But my real purpose of writing this letter is not to be critical – today I speak as one truly concerned about the future of my province. If you look back at the record you will see that I said what I’m about to say to you, to the Socreds in 1991and Mike Harcourt in 1995. This province – indeed any jurisdiction with our form of government – can only do reasonably well if the main bodies of public opinion are represented in the Legislature. People in this province have traditionally fallen on one side or the other of the center line with each of the parties occupying their turf and fighting for the center. In 1991 I warned that if the Socreds were wiped out it would be a very bad thing for the province – and it was. I said in 1995 that if the NDP were wiped out – as it looked like they might be – that would be a bad thing. Many listeners will hate to hear me say this again but I will - it is necessary for good government in this province we all love so much that there be a strong NDP. I think they should be in opposition but I can tell you this – if the Liberals win 60-70 seats in the next election it will be very bad indeed for the province. Governments under our system wield altogether too much power as it is without there being a wipeout of the opposition.

Glen – you’re in denial. You can’t possibly understand how bad it is. And no matter what happens to the economy between now and the next election it isn’t going to get any better with you at the helm. You’re looking at a wipeout. You haven’t got more than three or four safe seats in the entire province and even they aren’t all that safe any more.

The object for the party you lead is to avoid political extinction. Of course it’s possible for the NDP to win again but its very unlikely and a 1000-1 shot –perhaps worse than that - with you at the helm.

The party you lead is more important than anyone who leads it. This was the hard learned lesson of the Socreds who only learned it after they were decimated.

Those who want you beaten so badly they can taste it won’t be thanking me for this letter to you. They would be delighted to see the NDP wiped out for a couple of political generations. But I don’t happen to think that serves British Columbia well.

Glen – it can only get worse. You must be smoking something illegal if you think that the Conflicts Commissioner is going to find that accepting free labour from Mr Pilarinos is not a conflict. When he finds against you, you will then suffer the fate of Bill Vander Zalm and be forced from office.

You are able to say at this point that politics is a strange and changing business … that it is clear to you that it’s in the best interests of your party and this province that a new leader be found … you can then do as Mike Harcourt and Bill Bennett did, set a day for a leadership convention and retire with a measure of dignity left for you and your family. Glen, you should say these things, take a long holiday with Dale and the kids, then find other work. Take it from a guy who has seen it all happen before - the alternative is far, far worse – not just for you but for your party and indeed, all of us.

Sincerely,

 Rafe Mair