CKNW Editorial
for February 9, 2000

The New Democratic Party in British Columbia has a hell of a lot to answer for as a government. Their economic policies have been disastrous. They have failed badly where they promised to deliver so much … in the social services. Indeed, their ministry, Children and Families which started so promisingly has, under the utter incompetence of its minister Lois Boone, become a tragic failure. If one needs a phrase to characterize their bankruptcy of policy one need only mention Fastcat ferries.

But there is another facet of the past nine years plus which has placed this government first of Mike Harcourt, then of Glen Clark and now of Dan Miller in permanent disgrace. In such disgrace that they ought to spend at least a decade or more in political purgatory.

It goes back to the years of Premier W.A.C. Bennett who was, unquestionably, one of the greatest of all Canadian premiers. But Bennett was an autocrat who used his parliamentary majority to tyrannize all opposition both inside and outside the legislature. Moreover, though always free from the taint of scandal himself. Bennett's governments ranged from seedy to disgraceful and included the moral meanderings of Phil Gaglardi and the criminal activity of Robert Sommers.

During its time in opposition under Harold Winch, Robert Strachan, Tom Berger and Dave Barrett the NDP made it clear that it would bring democracy to the legislature and morality to government. And in 1972 Premier Dave Barrett seemed to deliver. Though there were minor scandals during the Barrett administration nothing mounted to much - little were we to know that the biggest scandal, by far, in BC history was brewing in Nanaimo under Agriculture Minister and later Finance Minister Dave Stupich.

Barrett, and long overdue it was, brought Hansard to the BC legislature. He also did something else that's come back to haunt his successors - he gave the chairmanship of the potentially powerful Public Accounts Committee to an opposition member. This had the important consequence of allowing the opposition to set the agenda of the look-see into government accounting. This did not, of course, take away the government's majority on that committee but it did mean that the government could not hide its finances behind the welcome skirts of its own chairman.

The NDP, throughout their years in opposition, were absolutely brilliant in exposing the sins major, minor and non existent of the Bill Bennett governments. Nowhere in parliamentary records the world over will you find more brilliant speeches on the obligation of ministers of the Crown to resign when their integrity is called into question. Whether it was a Minister who held shares in his RRSP portfolio which might be seen as a conflict, a minister whose accountant neglected to change the share register of a company in which he was interested which was dealing with the government, an Attorney-general who in a private conversation taped by a journalist had unkind things to say about a lawyer in private practice, the NDP were right in there like Jack the Bear to call for and obtain resignations. They even succeeded in getting the resignation of one minister because his deputy had fiddled some expenses. The NDP were able to demand these things because, of course, they had a self proclaimed monopoly on virtue.

What a change came with power. There was nothing a minister did which could ever be seen as reason for resignation. An Attorney-general could swear a false affidavit - under circumstances where he knew it had to be false - and not miss a day in office. A senior minister could have a judge in a case involving his ministry telephoned - a classic case for resignation in the federal government - and not resign. A Premier, knowing he was under a criminal investigation, could stall off resignation for five months … and the Attorney-general who shielded him not only did not resign but is now running for leader of the party and thus the premier's chair and has taken the mantle of the ethical candidate.

But back to the Public Accounts Committee. This, during the Barrett days in opposition, was the litmus test of parliamentary supremacy. Barrett maintained - and he was dead right - that if the elected members were to have any control whatever over the cabinet it would be through this committee and he courageously took the step of making its Chairman an opposition member.

Now comes the acid test. The Public Accounts Committee is examining the disastrous half billion dollar catastrophe of the Ferry system - which is bound to be very embarrassing to the NDP government - and the government terminates the committee's work in mid stream. Just how Dave Barrett can still support this government under these circumstances is bewildering to me and clearly indicates an hypocrisy that even his worst enemies would not have hitherto suggested. This party cares not a fig for parliamentary supremacy and is corrupt from one end to the other. This denial of democracy and political depravity won't even be addressed by the candidates for leadership.

The party of Woodsworth, McInnis, Douglas, Knowles and Couldwell has become a party of cheap, hypocritical politicians without moral scruple who are incompetent to boot. Even the most devout left-winger surely must be anxious to see this lot sent into opposition for long enough to ponder and confess its sins and demonstrate both sufficient contrition and reform to be given even the responsibilities of opposition much less government.