Georgia Straight
for February 1994, Article 3

Ding, dong, the wicked witch is dead!

Grace McCarthy, seen as very wickedly witchy indeed by the left, has ridden her last broomstick and despite her claims that she will fight on, is tostada. Period.

I am surprised, to be truthful. I thought that the Socreds, while ill nigh unto death, still had a chance and that Grace would bring them back. I was obviously wrong.

Perhaps Grace has lost a step or two since she was last really in the fray which was back in the eighties. Maybe, like John Turner in 1984, she just couldn't find her footing after a long absence from the political arena. More likely, however, is that pundits like me missed the essential point - Bill Vander Zalm and to a much lesser extent Rita Johnston, had so tarnished the Social Credit Party that it was permanently done for and that all that was necessary for death to occur was for the body to stop twitching. Well, the twitching stopped last week in Matsqui.

Does this mean that it is only a matter of a couple of years and we will have the first Liberal government in B.C. since 1952?

If present trends continue, yes. If the NDP continues to wallow in policies of ill disguised payoffs to party hacks combined with leadership by strong, but divided cabinet ministers propping up an amiable scatterbrain, the Liberals only have to wait it out until the next election.

But it is very dangerous to play the role of government-in-waiting. Dave Barrett tried that in 1983 only to watch Bill Bennett grab onto the "restraint" issue and thrash him at the polls in May. Bob Skelly played the same game in 1986 to be foiled by a Social Credit party revived by a suddenly recycled and rehabilitated Bill Vander Zalm.

The Liberals have some problems. It is disturbing - to me at least - to think that if one is to be judged by the company one keeps, Mr Campbell would become a Premier beholden to stock promoters, hustlers on the make, and oldtime Liberals who, like the Bourbons, have learned nothing and forgotten nothing. Politics always involves paying off supporters and I'm not sure I see Campbell's prospective piggies at the trough as much of an improvement (though they would provide a change) over those now lapping up NDP tax payer financed goodies.

Mr Campbell faces other challenges. He is new to the legislature and if Mr Harcourt is smart, he will loosen the chains on his Rottweilers such as Glen Clark and Moe Sihota. For both of these stalwarts, especially the latter, one is reminded of the comment about David Lloyd George by Margot Asquith - "he could not see a belt without hitting below it." Such people, like the goons of hockey, are necessary to allow the team to score goals. And for the NDP enforcers, there will be much to work with.

The present Liberal caucus, almost but not quite bereft of talent, will have as many enemies sitting to it's left as across the Chamber and the likes of Sihota and Clark are just the guys to exploit the situation.

First, there is the Punch and Judy show which, although they are made up of a discredited former leader and his Helen of Troy, are nevertheless the best researched and, in the case of Gordon Wilson, the most articulate members of the House.

Next to them is seated David Mitchell, perhaps the best MLA of them all, who hates Gordon Campbell from another movie. Mr Mitchell supported Gordon Gibson for leader of the Liberal Party making no secret of the fact that he felt that Campbell's group (as hereinbefore described) were hijacking the party. He will make much mischief for his former mates.

Somehow, then, new Opposition leader Gordon Campbell must unite a rowdy and under skilled caucus while fending off not only sharp shots from across the floor of the house but from disgruntled former Liberals to boot. Added to that will be occasional whiffs of the grape, however halfhearted, from the disheartened and leaderless Socred "six pack."

So, don't count the NDP out just yet.

For all its appearance of a cluttered coalition, the Socred Party of old knew who the enemy was and effectively found unity when it mattered. Gordon Campbell, on the other hand, has the appearance of unity but the reality of a badly divided political party.

So, forget the polls which reflect today, not 1994 when the election will be held.

For as we all know, it ain't over until the weight challenged female type person sings.