CKNW Editorial
for February 10, 2000

There are two stories in the news today which are related though they may not seem to be so at first blush.

The first story is about the Vancouver Sun and Gary Nixon who successfully challenged the NDP's gag law which would restrict the amount to be spent by what is called, euphemistically, third party advertising. The NDP, you see, doesn't like people with single issues to mess up their election strategy.

If, suppose, you are opposed to abortion they don't want you raising that in an election against their pro-abortion candidates so they would limit the amount of money you could, as a private citizen spend in that election. In fact in the case just decided, Gary Nixon spent the money opposing the gag law itself. The government was not content to interfere with just the citizen's right to make individual protests at election time but would have placed severe restrictions on the right of the news media to publish polls without providing all manner of scientific evidence backing up the scientific nature of the poll taken. The judge tossed this little bit of democracy socialism into the ashcan as well.

In short, the New Democratic Party's non democratic notions got second prize and once more the public was protected by the courts from the NDP's notions of what democracy is all about. But contempt for democracy by the NDP is, at least, consistent. They don't like it at their own party elections.

First off, they reject the notion of one person, one vote. All sorts of people including NDP federal MPs have a special vote. Isn't it comforting to note that Alexa McDonough has a voice in the selection of our next Premier? In all, up to a quarter of the delegates at the next convention to select the next premier will not be elected by the party members themselves but get there because of their position in the party. It's sort of like the House of Lords - power because of privilege not democratic selection.

Then of the selected delegates it now seems clear that the hue and cry raised by my double colleague, here and at the Province, Mike Smyth, was bang on the money. You see the NDP does not give the same number of delegates to each constituency but rewards constituencies that have higher memberships. In golf parlance it's medal play, not match. The more members your constituency has, the more delegates you get. Naturally this spawns a special flurry of activity by some leadership candidates in populous constituencies. Not to put too fine a point on it, this creates a natural turf for constituencies with large ethnic minorities and this has been exploited to a fare-thee-well by three Indo Canadian MLAs, Moe Sihota, Harry Lali and Ujjal Dosanjh.

  There is nothing wrong with seeking memberships from as many people as one can. But what has clearly happened here is that Indo Canadians have been rallied by the aforementioned MLAs not because they are socialists or sympathizers of the NDP but because they have a chance to get one of their own in as leader. Again, there is nothing unlawful about that but it does call into question the morality of those seeking this concentrated support.

Imagine, for example, if Willy Whiteface, seeking the leadership, were to go into a community and make a special call upon white citizens to promote one of their own as leader. That too would be legal but one need have little imagination to correctly predict the uproar Mr Whiteface's campaign would have.

But there is now evidence of illegality as well from an audit done by the NDP executive of new members signed by Messrs Lali, Sihota and Dosanjh. Many new members didn't even know they were new members thinking, presumably, they were simply supporting one of their own for the all-star game. Many were in fact members of other political parties again, one might safely assume, simply now NDP cardholders to show solidarity with their community The NDP executive call this fraud of at least 1500 phony members a marginal matter - that's because they only add up to a handful of extra delegates to each constituency. But that's disingenuous at best. For while one delegate extra is awarded to each constituency for each 30 extra members they sign, the fact remains that those constituencies still become loaded with the new members who vote for those delegates. It's so bad in reality that Len Warden, one of the candidates, is calling for the postponement of the convention.

So there we have the definition of "Democratic" in the name New Democratic Party. Refuse full election participation to any who choose to participate unless they do it through a registered political party ... for that's the pith and substance of the case won by Gary Nixon and the Sun. Democracy is that which suits the NDP and none other. Then, when practicing democracy within your own party make sure that it's loaded with pre-selected delegates from the establishment. Having done that, pull out all the stops and sign up any and all who wish to turn the leadership contest into one which while not necessarily racial, is nevertheless the result of a race based membership drive.

There's your governing party, folks - the one which will give you your next premier ... undemocratic as certified by the courts, undemocratic by a constitution that gives a quarter or more of its delegates to party hacks, and undemocratic in practice where membership lists contain those whose commitment is not to party principles but to a particular community in our midst. And oh yes - by the way - the principal beneficiary of all this is the man who, while he sustained a disgraced premier in power for five months, had forces beating the Indo Canadian bushes for anyone who could make a cross beside his name.

To be the province to have the first Indo Canadian Premier in history would be a great thing for BC and would mark us as the tolerant society we are - but not this way, folks ... not this way.