Vancouver Courier
for February 22, 1998

Many years ago there was a fighter named Stanley Ketchel, the meanest, most ornery, dirty, unsportsmanlike hard loser in boxing. It was said that if you knocked him down - which never happened - you should stand over him and kick him in the head every time he moved until you were sure he wouldn't try to kill you. Which he always tried to do in the ring but would continue to try after the fight at the slightest provocation.

Guess what B.C. politician made me think of Ketchel?

Two free tickets to the Nanaimo Bingo Hall for everyone who said Glen Clark.

The B.C. Liberals may finally have come to accept the fact that the Premier is one very tough political opponent and, as his budget meanderings demonstrate, a dirty fighter whose instinct is to keep punching, not always above the belt, so long as there is a target available. Which there always is.

Gordon Campbell has matured a lot since 1996 when, not to put too fine a point on it, he took victory for granted winning all the polls plus the popular vote while losing the election.

This maturing process took some time but, on reflection, that's understandable. For after losing the election he should have won, Campbell had to do several things.

He had to rally the troops, for politicians are by nature hard losers and will place the stiletto twixt a losing leader's shoulder blades at the first opportunity.

He had to re-establish his right to lead.

Mostly, he had to dramatically upgrade his party's image which was badly burnished, not only because of the election, but because of the appalling record of the Federal Liberals when it came to British Columbia interests.

The first job was the easiest for there was no one waiting in the wings. His 1993 opponents for the leadership were gone from the scene and no one else had either the cachet or the organization to do anything but mutter over drinks with those who love to bitch but hate to act. (Political parties are full of such people.)

To rally the troops took some doing and we will see in a couple of week's how well he has done. Without question, the legislative sessions of '96 and '97 were simply awful for the Liberals. They were unfocussed and utterly undisciplined. The NDP got away with murder.

But Gordon Campbell has done much to convince his colleagues that it must be his way or the highway. There is no other leader available therefore the troops must follow the leader they have.

Upgrading the B.C. Liberals' image is a formidable task made all the more difficult by their inability, hitherto, to dissociate themselves, in the public's mind and suspicion, from the federal party.

Well, as luck would have it, two issues have come down the lane which give Mr Campbell and his caucus a perfect opportunity to stake out a position upon which the NDP are woefully weak and which will run utterly contrary to the views of the Federal government.

First, in a press release 10 days ago, Mr Campbell concisely spelled out the dangers of the Legislature passing the Calgary Declaration. He correctly zeroed in on "uniqueness" of Quebec as being a highly dangerous concession to make without any clear idea of what the consequences might be. He asks, I think rightly, whether such a recognition won't imply, in the strongest possible terms, that British Columbia recognizes Quebec's right to a constitutional veto.

The "we-always-know-best" higher purpose persons from Ottawa believe that British Columbians will agree to a Quebec veto if they have one themselves. Campbell knows this isn't true. That to change the amending formula requires unanimity and in B.C. an approving referendum. Campbell understands that despite what the likes of Hedy Fry and David Anderson tell Jean Chretien, once British Columbians understand the ramifications of a veto to Quebec they will emphatically reject it no matter who else has one.

This position puts him at the opposite side of a very wide chasm from the Federal Liberals.

The Federal government and the NDP have been handmaidens in bringing us the disastrous Delgamuukw case. It was the NDP which persistently talked about "title" as opposed to land; it was they who spoke of "nation to nation" negotiations; it was they who, upon winning the case at trial, fired their winning law firm and hired new counsel with instructions to lose.

It's the federal Liberals which brought in the race based native fishery and who support, with the Nisga'a near deal, the equivalent of native homelands in B.C. where all rights are based upon race and race only.

Both these issues dramatically separate the B.C. Liberals from both the Federal Liberals and the Clark government and should ensure, along with the easy case they can make for NDP fiscal incompetence, their victory in the next election.

Unless, they fail to maintain discipline and keep on punching long after the fight seems won.

For the opponent is none other than Stanley Ketchel, 1998 version.