In the former case, Christy Clark, Mike DeJong and Kevin Falcon seem to be the front runners while in the latter, though there are no declared candidates, it would seem to be Adrian Dix, Mike Farnworth and John Horgan.

With the Liberals, two things must, I think, be borne on mind – the Liberal voting procedure is not yet tested and the decision will tell us if the urban or rural vote is favoured. If it’s the rule, George Abbott comes into the picture.

Christy is the “charisma queen” and given that the Liberals tend to worry most about getting a winner whatever the cost, she must rank as leader in the race – for the time being.

But as Kim Campbell said of Bill Vander Zalm though she didn’t name him, “Charisma without substance is a dangerous thing”. So be it with Ms Clark. Her strong suit is her deep connections to the party; her problem is that she cannot escape the sale of BC Rail decision and will be faced by many British Columbians who will connect her support of privatization to the dangers facing BC Hydro.

Speaking of party strength, Kevin Falcon will be the “Campbellite” favourite but it remains to be seen if that is a plus or minus. His selection would be greeted with shrills of delight from the NDP since Falcon is the most loyal of all to the Campbell loyalists. Again, if he is seen as unelectable or close in the polls, he’ll not get the nod.

Mike DeJong has the advantage of being able to stand back from many controversies because he was Attorney-General and, moreover, has said he will axe the HST.

What DeJong cannot avoid is his position on the Basi-Virk scandal. He ordered the pay-out and the settlement just in time to save Campbell and former Finance Minister Gary Collins from having to testify.

What’s for sure is that the polls, as campaigns move along, will be a very serious factor

The NDP is, like the Liberal Party, a coalition. Unlike the Liberals they tend to favour a leader who has the fewest serious enemies in the party without much regard as to whether he/she can win.

Mike Farnworth is the experienced one having been in the cabinet as well as showing considerable ability in the Legislature and on the hustings. That he’s gay is seen rightly, as irrelevant, except in the Bible Belt where people get very antsy about such matters.

John Horgan, seen as the favourite of the environmentalist community has only one problem: his health. On the former matter, he’s the best read and strongest of the lot and, if as I suspect, the environment is a big issue he would do well.

In one way, Adrian Dix is the best of the candidates because he’s an alley fighter, a take no prisoners campaigner. If he gets the nod, he’ll be tough and you would see many Liberal references to Dix’s creative memo back in the Clark days.

The biggest problem for the NDP is putting Humpty Dumpty back together again. Whenever you have the sort of political homicide that saw Carole James “done-in” the wounds remain deep – especially with the NDP the divisions of which take eons to go away, if they ever do.

Each party has an elephant in the room.

For the Liberals, it’s Carole Taylor who, though she has ruled it out, might just get in the race (which would no longer be a race) if the bloodletting threatens the party itself.

For the NDP it’s Corky Evans who denies any such ambitions but has been sending forth long, philosophical mail-outs which usually only happens when the writer is at least saying “if you really have trouble keeping the party alive and well, I will, with seemly reluctance, come to the rescue”. I don’t believe that the party wants him that badly – he’s lost two prior leadership contests but he would be a terrific campaigner,

There is another possibility arising – a “third” party of the centre. The window of time is limited but it’s there and I’ll forbear comment until the picture clears a bit.

Looking at the candidates and assuming that Christy Clark will be in, I see nothing to choose amongst them with the exception that Kevin Falcon is the worst of a bad lot. What is so terrifying about this political situation in our province is that the Liberals may win again in default of another option.

On November 30, Carole James laid down her policies and one can only read them with a mixture of anger and sorrow if you care for our natural resources. The environment was well down the list of priorities and what she did say was the usual political bullshit. Generalities – nothing specific. I have the feeling that one of two things prevail in the NDP’s plans- either the rivers, our salmon, our Agricultural Land Reserve, our coastline mean nothing but issues for loud mouths like Donna Passmore, Alexandra Morton Rex Weyler, Joe Foy – and yes I will immodestly include Rafe Mair, OR she and the NDP haven’t got the guts to raise them as they are, preferring mindless political blather.

I voice this anger because if the NDP doesn’t raise these issues, Liberal leadership wanabes won’t either.

This question for Carole James and her party – are the serious breaches of the ALR, the slaughter of salmon by sea lice from salmon farms and the bankrupting of BC Hydro while destroying our environment, threatening our environment with pipelines, just second or third tier issues? Is it that the thousands who march, write and support the fights I’ve mentioned are just noisy kids who can be silenced by an ice cream cone with a warning that no further criticism of their “betters” will be tolerated?

Ms. James talks of “tough work and tough conversation”. Does tough conversation not include abusing farm land for highways? Fish farms? Pillage of our rivers and theft of our great power company, BC Hydro? Our pristine coast?

Each one of those headings calls either for very tough questions and decisions or indifference. There is no middle ground to be suffocated by banal bullshit. Either you state unequivocally that the ALR is a sacred issue or you don’t care because you can’t have a “protection when convenient” policy. Either you force fish farms out of our waters or you don’t. Either we prevent large corporations trashing our rivers while destroying BC Hydro, or you don’t. Either we permit plpelines bringing Tar Sands sludge across the province and down our coastline or you don’t. In short, meaning nothing personal of course, you can’t be a little bit pregnant.

Either you take them on in clear unmistakable, unadorned English, Ms. James, or you will quite properly be called a coward.

We all know that there is dissension in the NDP ranks. If that means that we’ll only have the “tough conversation” when you can keep your troops from deserting, it will be too late.

From the point of view of the environmentalist, the only thing worse than losing an election on these issues would be losing without a fight.

H.L. Mencken once said “Every normal man must be tempted, at times, to spit upon his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats”.

Those of us trying to preserve what we have for future generations, hearing the bilge we do, indeed, figuratively speaking, of course,  feel ready to start wielding cutlasses.

“An estimated 90 agencies that have contracts with the Vancouver Coastal Health Region are being told to reduce costs, but provincial Health Minister Kevin Falcon says the reductions will not mean a cut in services.

“Falcon told the legislature Tuesday that his ministry is making changes in order to provide better service for those individuals coping with both mental health and addiction issues”.

This from a report by Justine Hunter in the Globe and Mail:

“Health-care workers in Victoria will only be able to treat the most acute mental-health patients as budget cuts result in fewer beds, caseworkers and community support services”.

Let me identify my interest in this subject; I suffer from mental illness and have been treated for depression/anxiety for 20 years. I’ve been active in this field for some years and am a Patron of the Canadian Mental Health Association, BC Branch and founder of the Bottom Line Conference dealing with mental health in the workplace.

On hearing about the cuts my otherwise mild disposition exploded in anger and let me tell you some of the reasons.

About one in five will suffer from mental illness in their lifetime and it’s no exaggeration to say that virtually every family will be impacted some time; many substance abuse cases are mentally ill people self medicating; mentally ill people are rejected by society and government as they wander helplessly and often are homeless; AND MOST MENTAL ILLNESS CAN BE SUCCESSFULLY TREATED IF ONLY THE MENTALLY SICK DIDN’T FACE AN ENORMOUS STIGMA THAT BLOCKS THEIR PATH TO THE DOCTOR’S OFFICE.

Health Minister Falcon’s merciless comments can be expected from a man who, as Transportation minister, annoyed at rules for building highways, wished we were like China whose government does as it pleases. His cuts are not to a system with a lot of “fat” in it but one which has always been strapped for money. I’ve said it before and will say it again – if the physically ill were treated as are the mentally ill, they would storm the legislature.

The problem is that you can’t, for the most part, see mental illness. It expresses itself through behaviour, uncontrollable behaviour. “Consumers” as they’re called, often know that their behaviour is irrational but are unable to cope with their stronger inner voice.

In 1988, out of the blue, I became convinced that I had cancer of the liver. I went to my Columbia Medical Dictionary and sure enough, there it was – liver cancer. I phoned my doctor, Mel Bruchet, in North Vancouver and was told that the earliest he could see me was the next day. I exploded “I’ll be there in a few minutes and will wait for him”. I saw him and told him I had diagnosed liver cancer. He examined me and said “you dumb bugger” (we were good friends) you have gallstones”. “You’re lying to me” I said. I had an ultra sound the next day and when the report confirmed that my liver was fine and that I had gallstones I accused him of lying to me.

Mel then asked me how long it had been since my daughter was killed and I asked “what the hell has that got to do with my liver cancer?”

He asked some more questions and at about #4 I broke into uncontrollable sobs and he held me like a baby. He then explained depression, what serotonin was and how a lack of it would explain my bizarre behaviour. He said “we’ll find the right medicine”. Fortunately he did and within a few days I felt as if I had come back from the dead.

Some years later I interviewed an American psychiatrist who, in an off air moment, told me of a new medicine I should use. I went back to Mel who said “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” but finally gave in and prescribed it. I had to go off my medicine for two weeks which coincided with a holiday. Some holiday as I spent countless hours sobbing uncontrollably on Wendy’s shoulder. I went back to my old med as soon as I got back. It was a big lesson – depression, like any chronic ailment, was nothing to fool with, (Just this aside – Mel was, at that time, one of a small minority of doctors who knew anything about depression; today, thank God, that’s changed.)

In British Columbia there are thousands like me but remain untreated for one reason – the horrid stigma that society attaches to mental illness keeps them from seeking help. One’s afraid to tell one’s partner, one’s friends, and one’s employer. I “came out” by accident when taking a call on my show about 15 years ago. As the caller spoke I found myself telling him that he could take it from me, a mental health consumer, that there was help; that he must see his doctor.

The stigma remains. We perpetuate it in how we talk. We say “he must be crazy” but would never say “he must have cancer of the stomach”. We tell jokes about mental illness and I well remember a colleague of mine saying, on air, “our school was so small that our debating team was one schizophrenic”. Funny? Not if you’re a family dealing with this very serious illness.

With the Bottom Line Conference I’ve been privileged to work with prominent businessman Michael Francis and president of the BC Federation of Labour Jim Sinclair trying, with some success I think, to get management to recognize symptoms of mental illness, alcoholism being but one, and make help available through confidential employee assistance programs.

I finish where I started. Here we have with us perhaps the most serious and widespread illness in our community – one but only one manifestation is the homeless who, having been evicted from hospital wander without support – yet the Campbell government can spend hundreds of millions on circuses like the Olympics as they cut back vital funding to a community of sick people who have always been badly underserved by the system. This government started its mandate in 2001 by dumping Nancy Hall, the Mental Health Advocate because she was doing what she was mandated to do – finding out where help for mentally people was most needed. Campbell & Co didn’t want to know about those expensive sorts of people so Hall was dumped.

The needs for fighting mentally illness increase while this government flogs those least able to fight for their medical needs by decreasing what was already unsatisfactory help.

Let the games begin!

Back in 1976 I was a newly minted member of Bill Bennett’s first cabinet as Minister of Consumer Services. Early on, after a very long cabinet meeting, I did a long, rambling interview with Mike Grenby, then of the Vancouver Sun. I assumed that we were just in a sort of friendly chat about consumerism generally – it was, but not off the record with Mike. During the talk as I was waxing eloquent on my virtual non knowledge of the subject and I offered the off hand remark that it’s probably a good thing that consumers got a kick in the ass once in a while to sharpen their consumer awareness.

Well, it hit the fan with coast to coast coverage. “BC Consumer minister says consumers should get a ‘kick in the ass’”!

If I do say so myself I turned out to be a damned good minister but I never fully recovered from my remark, (Incidentally, Mike was just doing his job and I had no quarrel with him.)

When I became Health Minister in 1980, and got back to my office from the swearing-in ceremony, I was “scrummed” by the press. I think it was Allan Garr who asked me for my views on the Long Term Care program.

I had learned my lesson.

“Ladies and Gentlemen”, I said, “I’ve been in this job for 45 minutes and I will have no comments until I’ve read my briefing books and had a chance to talk things over with my predecessor, Bob McLelland”.

I should have told Mr. Falcon this story as it may have prevented him from commenting, with a couple of days as Health Minister, that he rather liked the idea of some private medical care and since has fallen all over his tongue trying to extricate himself.

I’m surprised that Mr. Falcon, in his years of cabinet experience, has not, if only through osmosis, learned that this is a very hot potato and, amongst other things, has serious constitutional implications.

I feel for Mr. Falcon – he’s a combative chap as I am. But perhaps I can leave him with this thought – in order to survive as a minister, it’s perhaps a good thing if he gets a good kick in the ass once in awhile.