CKNW Editorial
for February 21, 2000

Well, as the poet says, the tumult and the shouting dies, the Captains and the Kings depart … and so be it with the NDP leadership convention.

For the community at large there was a great success story. No matter what your political beliefs it must be a source of great satisfaction to us that a member of a visible minority can be selected to the top job in the province. There were some ugly things associated with the victory – the bulk signing of members from the Indo Canadian community being the ugliest but when all’s said and done, the victory belonged fairly to Ujjal Dosanjh and we must all take pride in the fact that we have been part of a first for Canada.

Now the fun begins. And the first order of the day for Mr Dosanjh will be to build a new government and in this task it will be interesting to see who is in and who is not. During the heat of the battle I predicted that Moe Sihota would be out – especially after his considerably overplayed introduction and nominating of Gordon Wilson. Now I’m not so sure and it may well have been Mike Harcourt who saved Moe’s job for him. As you will know, Mr Harcourt accused Mr Sihota of having started the bulk signing fiasco and at the end of what was obviously, to say the least, a frank exchange of views, Mr Harcourt got Mr Sihota to pledge his complete support of the winner. This Mr Sihota did after the votes were cast but before the winner had been announced. There are other reasons what Mr Sihota may stay. Every seat is going to be important in the next election including Mr Sihota’s. And as Lyndon Johnson responded when asked why he kept J. Edgar Hoover on as FBI chief, "I’d rather have him inside the tent peeing out than outside peeing in." Except he didn’t exactly say peeing.

A place will surely have to be found for Joy McPhail and one wonders if it will not be back at Finance. And a new Attorney-General will have to be found and one would assume it would be Andrew Petter whose absence from the recent contest as part of the transition committee kept him away from the mud. And I wouldn’t be all that surprised to see Dan Miller stay in cabinet as a Minister without portfolio. Usually departed premiers go to the backbench but Mr Miller leaves office without any taint of scandal and would be a useful adviser to Mr Dosanjh. On the other hand I suppose a new Premier doesn’t relish a former premier looking over his shoulder.

Mr Dosanjh will have a short honeymoon – that seems to be traditional but ere long he will have to start putting his stamp on public affairs. Though voter memories are short, I somehow doubt that he can put the sins of the Clark government behind him. Indeed he will no doubt be painted by the Liberals as the man who shielded Glen Clark for six months after that famous police raid last March.

Mr Dosanjh’s first priority – as he will see it as a politician – is survival of his party. To ensure that, he must rally around him the core of the New Democratic Party. And apart from the obvious fact that it produced the first Premier of colour, the hallmark of the convention was the call to the old party to come back. And it may be this that is Mr Dosanjh’s biggest ally and biggest enemy at the same time. For to please the traditional rank and file that so many spoke about at the convention Mr Dosanjh will have to alienate others who, under different circumstances, could give him the support he needs to win an election.

Mr Dosanjh is no fool. He knows that it’s one step at a time and that without the first step, namely the bringing the faithful back into the fold, he can’t win anything and that a time in opposition is almost a certainty … that being the case, best he have a firm opposition base upon which to build for the future.

For he has to be very good to get the party behind him and the traditional support base with him and very good plus lucky as hell to win the next election. He’ll not likely roll the dice for re-election unless and until he’s done everything he can to make sure that the core 30% that support the NDP are back in the tent and doing the things necessary to do that may make it very tough to take a real shot at the next election which, I think, will be Thursday October 26^th next and, failing that, right after the Throne Speech and Budget of the Spring of 2001.