CKNW Editorial
for May 11, 2000

I was going to comment the day before yesterday upon the appearance on my show of Tom Long but got otherwise occupied with the Trott case.

I thought his performance was excellent - and that's what worries me. He was very prepared - his people had clearly obtained copies of editorials done and he was ready to respond.

He appealed directly to the right wing when he said if you like Ralph Klein and Mike Harris, you'll love me and was prepared for my question on his inexperience with the observation that Bill Bennett hadn't had any either when he became premier. In that he wasn't accurate - Bennett had nearly three years experience as leader of the opposition as well as being, for 20 years, the son of a premier.

Mr Long was very strong on economic matters and frequently cited the dismal performance of BC as compared to Ontario. A caller rightly pointed out that this was in many ways an apples and oranges comparison. While clearly the government in British Columbia has hurt the economy, Ontario, the province benefiting the most from free trade, has experienced a boom in the industrial sector where British Columbia, a resource based province, has been hit by the "Asian 'flu".

What I was most troubled by was the lack of familiarity with and solutions for the political crisis this country finds itself in. When you listen to British Columbians talk you won't always hear them say that the problems in the country are a disconnection with their MP and the subsequent disconnection of their MP with the government. But if you scratch the surface of what they are saying you'll see that right beneath that surface.

I put it to him directly that if he wins because of the Ontario vote and wins the next federal election that with his attitude, all we'll have really accomplished is the change of the name and leader of the Progressive Conservative party.

Mr Long repeated that he was not from British Columbia - which everyone knows. But not to be aware of what the third largest province in Canada is thinking ... to not have assessed the Charlottetown Referendum and the subsequent thrashing of the Tories including our only home-grown Prime Minister is more than a bit scary.

Mr Long's performance was, I thought, very scripted which, considering that he is a backroom boy non pareil is not surprising. What is surprising is that given the feeling in much of Western Canada, especially the far West, he was not able, or should I say not willing to deal with the unity question.

For example - in favour of Senate reform but if that's not possible, abolish it. Not too thoughtful nor very helpful. No secret votes in the House of Commons - which they already have for the election of the Speaker - but some "free votes" even though he admits that they will still be watched very carefully by the Prime Minister. On the question of removing the prime ministerial veto over candidates Mr Long would reserve the right to stop candidates that didn’t toe the party line – as seen by him no doubt. Scarcely much improvement.

The Commons resolution of December 1995 giving, in effect, a federal veto over constitutional change to any region that demands it? Didn't really know about that!

Didn't know about that! Here the Federal Liberals have, through the back door, changed the Constitutional amending formula thus constipating the Canadian body politic, and he hasn't even hear of it.

Mr Long came into my studio wanting to show that he was a fiscal conservative like Mr Klein and Mr Harris. He succeeded.

He wanted to show that he was no red neck on homosexual questions – he succeeded.

But if he came into the studio wanting to show that he understood British Columbia's basic attitude towards Ottawa and Confederation as practiced today, he failed badly.

If you, like me, believe that the economy, Medicare and all those hot button issues don't count for much it we don't have a country at the end of the day, you'd have to be pretty disappointed in Mr Long's performance.