CKNW Editorial
for March 13, 2000

The Liberals are fingering their worry beads again and so they should be. For it looks eerily like "here we go again" … as the NDP improve their position in the polls and Ujjal Dosanjh shows up as more popular than Gordon Campbell.

Now before going further I should note that Mr Campbell has done a great deal for the Liberal caucus. From one badly divided over the Gordon Wilson fiasco he has created a caucus that is united. Though it has taken over six years there were some, including me, who thought it would never happen. I was sure that they would split over the Calgary Declaration – so were the NDP and the Federal Liberals – but they did not. I was sure – so were the Federal Liberals and the NDP – that they would fall apart over Nisga’a but they did not. A united caucus is a great strength to have when an election approaches.

Mr Campbell has also encouraged rising stars like Geoff Plant, Mike DeJong and Christy Clark … not all leaders do that.

Mr Campbell is, for all that, in the unhappy position that voters just don’t take to him. Bill Vander Zalm was right if a touch excessive when he said nobody likes Gordon Campbell and nobody knows why. I’m certainly an exception to that statement – I like him fine and think he would make a good Premier … but alas for Mr Campbell, the polls support the other view.

And one more thing should be said. From 1975-83 the polls showed Dave Barrett much more popular than Bill Bennett who won all three elections held in that period.

But the Liberals have this problem. More and more the electorate, so removed as they are from the levers of power, tend to look at the leader as much as the party. And I’m here to tell you that Ujjal Dosanjh is on his way to becoming a very popular premier. He is cool and he has presence – something that no premier has had since Bill Bennett. Vander Zalm had presence in spades, but no cool. Bennett’s presence was not one that exuded love but competence instead … and man was he cool.

What should the Liberals do about it?

The truth is they can’t do very much. If they were to hold a leadership convention Mr Dosanjh would not only show that he’s cool but he’d show he’s learned a thing or two about politics and he’d call an election.

If the Liberals were to want to change two things would have to happen. First Mr Campbell would have to leave voluntarily saying something like this … "when I took over this party is was splintered into three or four groups that intensely disliked one another. I’ve rid caucus of the sore points and now we have a well disciplined party ready to get this province back on its feet. I’ve thought a lot about my family and I’ve put them through enough this past 7 years and it’s time for someone else to be at the helm for the final push." At the same time these words were expressed the Caucus would have to announce that this is a most regretful thing to have happen but they have selected Geoff Plant as leader until the next leadership convention which, with the wholehearted agreement of the Liberal executive, will be held in June of 2001. After, of course, the next election.

Why Geoff Plant? Because of the very good alternatives, Dejong, Clark and one or two others, he is clearly the best match for Premier Dosanjh.

I don’t think this is going to happen. Mr Campbell has too much pride as do most political leaders although the masses of voters who want to see the backs of the NDP quite rightly will day to hell with pride, we want the Liberals to put their best foot forward. And the mechanics I have mentioned are tough to orchestrate and indeed impossible to orchestrate unless Mr Campbell is in fact the Orchestra leader.

But there is this gnawing feeling that the NDP might just have struck oil with Mr Dosanjh. It’s true enough that one can look at his record in government and find more holes than in ten liters of Swiss cheese. But for all that he looks to all the world as if he’s going to grow in office and weather the many storms ahead.

I don’t think this editorial will do any more than get a few Liberal tongues a-wagging but it will certainly do that. For with all his many virtues, the pall of May 1996 hangs heavy over the political persona of Gordon Campbell.