The Written Word
for July 23, 2000

$400,000 goes to the BC Federation of Labour for studies into worker safety from the NDP controlled Workers Compensation Board. The Attorney-general brings action to get a court ruling that same sex couples can get married. The government instructs lawyers to appeal libel suit against Glen Clark. The government ponders raising the minimum wage, a move guaranteed to piss off small business. Is there no end to this? What on earth is Ujjal Dosanjh doing … isn’t the NDP government unpopular enough without rubbing people’s noses in it? Why on earth would the Premier be doing all these things calculated to annoy hell out of British Columbians?

Let me tell you – Premier Dosanjh knows exactly what he’s doing.

It started at the leadership convention in February. That wasn’t an exercise in gaining the support of the doubtful … the uncommitted voter. What that was all about was getting the traditional NDP supporter back in the fold. Not that the old line socialists had anywhere else to go but the problem is not that traditional support will vote Liberal but that they’ll stay away from the polls. For the NDP to survive the next election they must get their hard core 30% back on side and voting.

Because of the way our system works, the NDP getting 20% of the popular vote could translate into a near wipe-out. Ujjal Dosanjh is no fool and he knows this. He also knows that the 30% the NDP needs to be competitive isn’t going to come from the undecided, for the undecided have all decided to vote Liberal. He’s got to get the traditional support to turn out because this is for sure the time that all good men (and women) must come to the aid of the party.

And the people Ujjal is pissing off, for the most part, would never vote NDP in any event.

This is very good politics. Most people have trouble understanding how anyone can live on $7.50 an hour and, if it costs us all another 20 cents a hamburger, what the hell? The majority of people, not of the hard right, are pretty laid back about homosexuality so who cares if they can "marry"? And as far as $400,000 to the BC Fed is concerned, most people either accept this as the kind of political pay-off all parties give when in power or, alternatively, it’s probably little enough if the workplace is safer.

The interesting part of this political exercise is the scary thing for the Liberals and all those who are prepared for any government provided it isn’t the NDP. For if Ujjal Dosanjh can get all the traditional NDP support back – say 30% - they’re competitive for the next election. After all, they were elected with 39% of the vote in 1996 … it only takes a goof by Gordon Campbell (who’s not liked by the voter anyway) or a bit of a break from Bill Vander Zalm getting some votes in key ridings and it’s a horse race.

So, bitch and belly ache about the crass, raw politics of what Ujjal Dosanjh and the NDP are doing but understand that at the worst it keeps the NDP alive after the next election and at best, from their point of view, it gives them a chance to be competitive.