CKNW Editorial
for February 1, 2001

There are many reasons the BC NDP find themselves in such deep trouble. From the outset they were seen as not fulfilling their promise of clean government. It wasn't long after Mike Harcourt took over that the "bad old Socreds" were seen as pretty minor sinners compared to what was now happening.. And not only did the scandals, major and minor continue, unlike the Socred days no one seemed to pay. Ministers simply bluffed their way through, the most egregious example being when the attorney-general of the day, Colin Gabelman swore a false affidavit and stayed in office while the investigation went on. The only one to suffer was Mike Harcourt who resigned over a scandal, the Nanaimo Bingo mess, in which he played no part. There was, of course, the question of fiscal incompetence as so thoroughly aired by the auditor-general.

And perhaps the biggest mess of all, the fast ferries combined with casinogate which combined not only to bring down Premier Glen Clark but also to sink the NDP permanently into the deep mire.

But I think there is another factor at work here. The NDP have lost young people and by that I mean all under 40. Of course they still have the exuberant protestors who are dabbling in anarchy and all those things we all play with when we're kids ... I'm not talking about them if only because they seldom vote anyway. No I'm talking about the middle class young voter who in other times would have worked the mines, the forests and industry and been part of large, labour intensive workplaces ... Even then the NDP had trouble getting more than 50% of union votes but it was a large part of their traditional constituency. The labour force capable of being easily unionized, with the clear exception of the public service, has shrunk dramatically and will continue to do so. The new young man and woman is in a computer-dominated workplace and sees a different world and future out there than their parents and grandparents did. They are not joining a company with the idea of putting in 30-40 years then retiring to play golf in their declining years with their compatriots ... they're mobile and very conscious of what's going on around them. They see a new world out there and though it's a hugely scary one from time to time they just don't see the NDP as tuned in and in any way helpful in solving their problems or helping them to cope.

Let me give two examples. On the national scene, Alexa McDonough's answer to the problems of the country is to bring in what's known as a Tobin tax, which would tax speculative profits. Sounds great except that those who think for a moment - and young people are good at that - know that in order to implement that tax you would have to have the support of every country that has a stock or commodities market starting with the United States. It's this sort of dreamy, utterly impractical traditional socialist thinking that immediately drives a wedge between the young, upwardly mobile and the left.

Second, anyone who watched last year's NDP leadership contest will have seen what looked like a rally of the British Labour Party at the turn of the last century. This was, of course, because the NDP were trying desperately to get back their core support ... the union members, the intellectual socialists and so on. In doing so they gave everyone a good hard look at what drives the guts of the party ... and what drives the party is medieval.

Younger people today may wish there was no Nafta and that governments could keep them safe and cozy from the impact of outside forces but they know that this can't happen. They know free trade is here to stay and that the marketplace is an exciting if often cruel place. The NDP, I think, has confused lack of huge public enthusiasm for globalization as support for anyone who is against it. This clearly isn't so. Young people today, like older people, are bewildered at what is happening and the pace of it but they know that this is the world in which they live. And much of it is hugely exciting and for all its perils the young generation wants to be an active participant.

This doesn't mean that there isn't an old union constituency out there ... there is ... but it is diminishing. And the NDP seems to forget that loggers don't chop down trees any more any more than miners swing picks.

And there are poor, disadvantaged and elderly citizens that need help. But the NDP, who should be the helpers or at least prodding others into helping have lost their voice. They've lost their voice because they haven't moved with the times. The problems of the 21^st century will not be solved with the mantras and union songs of the 19^th.

When the NDP gets slaughtered in the coming election, they have to hope two things - that there are enough of them left to pick up the pieces and that leadership appears, as happened 15 years ago in Britain that sees the need to modernize and relate to the young people who are creating the wealth in this country ... and has the skills to translate these thoughts into a cogent policy around which the party can be rebuilt.

If they don't, the Liberals will occupy the right wing of the left's traditional space and the opposition will come not from the left but, as is the case nationally, from the right.

The NDP has not only been a bad government for the past 10 years, it has been visionless as to its future. And the latter is what bids fair to finish them off.