The Written Word
for August 12, 2001

Premier Gordon Campbell has surprised a lot of people by his take charge attitude. He came to this toughness, however, through a very severe school of hard political knocks.

Mr Campbell’s early political experience came at City hall where things are much different than in the big leagues. There the contact with the administration and the public is much closer. Moreover, there is a need for collegiality between the mayor and even his own allied councilors since there is no party discipline to hold groups together.

I believe it was this experience that killed former Vancouver Mayor Mike Harcourt and made him such an ineffectual leader. A very nice man who liked to smooth over troubles he was like the bush leaguer who, on getting to the majors, wired home saying "Ma … they’re throwing curves! What now?"

The same malaise struck Gordon Campbell when he became Liberal leader in September of 1993. And boy did he have some curves to face with all the warring factions left over from the Gordon Wilson era. To be fair to Mr Campbell, it was pretty difficult for him to be firm without losing control of a caucus that had within it Wilson Liberals, Federal Liberals, and Liberals that just didn’t like Gordon Campbell all that much. To add to his woes the NDP gave him a working over you wouldn’t believe. He was a developers’ man, he had made money out of his office, he had sired a love child and so on. He dealt with these problems head on and with the exception of being a developer’s man (after all, he was a developer in private life) put the rumours to rest.

Then he ran the ruinous 1996 campaign which saw his party get the most votes but the fewest seats. This was scarcely all Mr Campbell’s part since much of it came from Glen Clark lies that weren’t exposed until after the election. But Campbell took all the blame and did so like a man. He never flinched and simply plowed ahead.

Many observers, including me, thought he should have changed the name of his party so as to make all non socialists feel comfortable but he stuck to his guns, fearful that a name change might alienate his supporters. In all events the question became moot when the NDP proceeded to make such a hash of governing as never before seen in BC if not Canada. By election time 2001 the coalition had been forged in part through Mr Campbell’s efforts but more by the incompetence of the NDP.

You can’t argue with the results. The Liberal win under Gordon Campbell was immense and he is entitled, for now at any rate, to claim the victory. Toughened by the blows taken since 1993, Gordon Campbell is no Mike Harcourt and has an obvious toughness as displayed in his early decisions.

The test will come, as it always does, with time. He has a huge caucus to keep happy. He is doing this at present with make work projects and extra money for the hired hands. Just what he is going to do when the going gets real heavy, as its sure to do in the years to come, makes interesting speculation. He will not balance the books in three years as promised. We will likely have a business recession, fueled by the US duty on softwood lumber, slowing down the business recovery he promised. He will no doubt face ever increasing hostility from ancient enemies who at present quietly lick their wounds and wait. Moreover, governments tend to lose popularity as they proceed to govern and just how Mr Campbell will handle the grumbles from his backbench which are certain to come from the grumbles these backbenchers hear back home, remains to be seen.

For the present, however, we see a confident, battle hardened leader fresh from taking on the bus drivers, the health sciences professionals and the nurses, standing in bare-fisted pose challenging his enemies, come one, come all.

If British Columbians crave, as I believe they do, a tough leader in the mold of Bill Bennett who left office back in 1986, they may just have one.