Vancouver Courier
for April 8, 1998

I've no doubt that Gordon Campbell has a long way to go before he dispels the notion that his party and the Federal Liberals are joined at the hip. He has, tentatively, distanced himself from the Chretien folks on constitutional matters but as discussions with party insiders have confirmed, behind the scenes it's the same old gang under the careful eye of Vancouver lawyer David McLean who twangs the purse strings into whatever tune he wishes his lads and lasses to dance to.

There was, I'm told, a recent meeting in the Vancouver Club, the bastion of Liberal "good ol' boys" for years, where after considerable debate, McLean announced that hearing all the arguments, he had decided that Campbell would stay as leader - for the time being anyway.

But there's one area where Gordon Campbell has stood apart from his federal friends though it must be pointed out that Campbell has not yet been faced with the temptations of power.

The federal Liberal Party is a corrupt party. They all are, of course - we used to think that the NDP were political Snow Whites until Mike Harcourt and Glen Clark discovered what fun it was to be political tarts. But the Liberals invented corruption - so much so that when Jean Chretien appointed his own nephew to be Ambassador to the United States there was scarcely a murmur from the badly jaded public. It's like learning to live with the bomb and the Liberals know that.

Newly elected Liberal MP Lou Sekora has been shown up as a tawdry political hack voting to break tied votes to the profit of large campaign contributors and fuzzifying campaign finances. Colourful, electable and untroubled by political conscience, he's a perfect Liberal MP. (Making one wonder how the eminently honourable Ted McWhinney can stand being in the same room with such people.)

And when it emerged that Sekora has been less than forthright in his political career, what was Jean Chretien's attitude?

A mere trifle. Just a little local politics. Nothing to be concerned about. One unidentified Liberal source (they have an abundance of those) said that Sekora was not elected to Parliament as an accountant.

Come one, come all say the Liberals. Who cares about abstract things like integrity when there's only one question - can you get elected?

Contrast this, if you will, with Gordon Campbell's handling of the relatively minor matter of Jeremy Dalton using his MLA stationery to flog bureaucrats who were giving his daddy-in-law a hard time his ranch property, and the more serious matter of Paul Reitsma's letter writing binge.

Campbell promptly disciplined Dalton and though it was in contempt of the inherent right of caucus itself to deal with the matter, fired Reitsma from that caucus. Procedures aside, the fact remains that Gordon Campbell sent a strong message that, while in opposition at least, his moral compass is working.

B.C. Premiers have varied in their commitment to political honesty.

The great W.A.C. Bennett had a blind spot when it came to his two big problems - Robert Sommers who took a bribe and Phil Gaglardi who coopted government planes for private use. In the Sommers case it took 707 days after it hit the fan for the Attorney-general Robert Bonner to lay charges - in Gaglardi's case a cabinet demotion was the penalty reluctantly extracted.

Dave Barrett was never badly tested - though fortunately for him there was no requirement to fire incompetent ministers - but I have no doubt whatever that he would not have tolerated improper conduct.

Bill Bennett was the soul of rectitude and we all knew that if we crossed the line we were outta there. In 1978 a Supreme Court Judge held that as Minister of Consumer and Corporate Affairs I interfered with a decision of the Rentalsman, Barrie Clark. It was a front page headline story.

"You'd better clear this up quickly", said Bennett, which, thanks to full support from Mr Clark, and my deputy, Tex Enemark, plus a complete backdown and reversal of judgment by the judge I was able to do. But I'd no doubt about what "you'd better" meant.

What's wrong?

It's the system. No matter who we vote for they'll just be mere ciphers in the Prime Minister's calculator. Oh, we play the game as our fathers taught us. We try to find the "right man". But it's all humbug.

There's no requirement that a candidate be honest - only popular enough to recruit enough new party members to get nominated, then elected.

Sure, occasionally a special person is nominated and elected but for the most part the criteria are those imposed upon Lou Sekora - never mind what you stand for, can you get elected?

So the good people of Port Moody-Coquitlam got what they asked for - an amoral fencepost with hair who promises to speak out for his constituency and his province but will do exactly as he's told - or else.

That's our system and we get what we deserve.