BC's Political Scene: The 'family values' theme

A few recurring themes have come up in the Twitter stream regarding the BC Liberal leadership race.

First is the nauseating use by leadership contenders of the 'families first' or 'focus on family' theme.

It is meaningless fluff intended to make people feel good.

Somewhere, sometime, someone (likely Frank Luntz) did a 'focus group' and determined that family could be a key into manipulating public opinion. That the family mantra leaves so many Canadians cold appears to have been overlooked by our politicos.

A more appropriate theme than family values (whatever the hell those are) would be community, specifically returning power and autonomy to local governments.

Communities are, after all, where families live. If communities were not so strapped for funding, or limited in terms of areas of responsibility and means to raise funding, then fewer families would be struggling.

The biggest problem facing communities is that of autonomy or the reluctance of upper tier governments to return power to them, the result of which has been communities with their hearts wrung out. Senior governments dictate one-size-fits-all policies for problems which they, and not locals, identify. Then they dribble money attached to those policies to a few lucky municipalities.

This typifies the funding problem. Money is attached to top-tier policy while the needs of communities, all unique, rise up from the bottom where families live.

So I say to Liberal (and future NDP) leadership candidates: Enough with 'families first' or 'focus on family' talk. Let's talk communities.

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BC NDP Leadership Convention & Vote - Petition

A local Cowichan Valley man, Richard Hughes, has just begun a petition demanding there be a BC NDP leadership convention and one-member-one-vote in the Spring 2011.

Good on him!

No matter how much you may like Carole James, you cannot deny that she has missed two opportunities to defeat Gordon Campbell, in 2005 and then again in 2009. Despite he and his government having LIED to the people of this province about BC Rail. Despite all cuts to programs and services. Despite so many errors, despite so much artifice.

Now the man James loved to target is, or soon will be, gone.

If James couldn't defeat GORDON CAMPBELL, how can she defeat a reinvigorated, rebranded BC Liberal Party under a new leader? 

Not only should James step down as leader of the BC NDP, but as suggested by a signatory to Hughes' petition, James' backroom supporters should be questioned or ousted too. 

Let the NDP start anew.

Along with the BC Liberals - and the Greens - PLEASE, give the voters of this province decent viable options when next we visit the polls.

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BC NDP: Both sides of mouth syndrome

Party leader, Carole James, says one thing in public. Party president, Moe Sihota, says another thing in private.

New Democratic Party president Moe Sihota is encouraging members to help organize recalls against Liberal MLAs, according to an NDP executive's personal notes from a meeting of top party officials.

The move comes after NDP leader Carole James said her party will not get involved in the campaign organized by the anti-HST movement.

Am fine with recall campaigns to unseat BC Liberals. Am not fine with dishonesty in politics and the predilection for not saying what you mean. After all, it's the dishonesty and lack of dealing frankly with British Columbians that has most British Columbians so incensed against the Gordon Campbell government, regardless of where we stand with respect to the HST.

On a personal note... My joke of a NDP MLA was a disaster during the 2009 election and was far outclassed by the Green candidate Simon Lindley (a refreshing change for a Green - or any - candidate, Lindley received the most applause at the ACMs and excellent media reviews).

Still, Bill Routley - who banked during the election on the confusion about his relationship to DOUG Routley, the former local BC NDP MLA for this riding - is my 'representative'. Therefore, BILL Routley is the one to which I turn if I've a problem with the BC Government. So I wrote to him, twice, about the SAFER issue. Never got a reply.

I'll take an independent like Bob Simpson over such a useless party apparatchik any time.

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I Support the HST

... but I don't support the way our Liberal government foisted its particular brand of the HST onto British Columbians.

In principle, I consider taxes on consumption to be a good idea and a harmonized sales tax an improvement over two or more separate taxes. Simplicity is better; additional paperwork and process for the collection of money from the same source introduces needless complication.

However, the HST being rammed down the throats of British Columbians now, wouldn't likely have been the HST British Columbians ultimately got - and supported - had the process been vastly different. Indeed, had the May 2009 election been decided in a different manner, then the process surrounding the HST decision WOULD, in fact, have been vastly different; and so, likely, would the election campaign itself.

I am referring to the way the Liberals and other MLAs were elected.

Had BC-STV been the system by which voters elected their government, the likely result (all else being equal) would have been a coalition of the Liberals and Greens.

In a coalition government, one political party cannot arbitrarily ram through its favoured policy in a legislature. It must negotiate with MLAs of other parties. They, no less than MLAs who are members of the party who got the most votes, are elected to represent their constituents; and in a coalition government, they can do so more effectively.

In the present case, the BC Greens have come out in support of the HST, but say it should have been set at 10 percent.

Had our political representatives been elected in a fairer manner, closer to proportionally representing British Columbians' voting preferences in the legislature, our government's policies would likely have better reflected the majority's own values. We'd likely still have the HST starting in July 2010. But it's form and the process by which it was implemented and presented to the public would likely have been considerably different.

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UPDATE: Local Green Candidate Looking Good for 2013

See email response from Simon below...

The 2009 Student Vote stats for the recent BC election reveal that Simon Lindley, Green candidate for Cowichan Valley, placed second by only two votes to first-place finisher, Bill-not-Doug Routley.

These numbers bode well for Lindley in 2013, given he was among the few candidates who substantially improved the Green vote in his district in an otherwise lacklustre election, and his commitment to stay here and build a strong Electoral District Association.

EDA: I wrote an email to Simon, telling him of the results of Student Vote 2009. The following was his response:

It’s wonderful news, and a point about how vastly different the vote would be if long-held habits and attachments were stripped away in favor of informed decision-making.

Our youth understand very clearly the challenges the future holds for them, often more so than their parents, who may not look beyond their day-to-day wants to view the true state of the earth and the conditions they are leaving to their offspring. There are statistics that unfortunately speak to this. The average parent spends 11 times the amount of money on entertainment and non-essential items than they do on their own children, including education savings and trust accounts. The ecological and economic credit card is being racked up for our children to somehow pay off. I constantly hear children say, “well, why don’t we just stop doing all these bad things?”

Their vote is the most valuable. Too bad their parents aren’t always listening.

Over the course of the next four years, I will work even harder to connect to the Cowichan Valley, bringing out guest speakers and hosting workshops, but a large focus will be with our youth. In four years, many of them will have the power to vote, the ability to make profound changes. I only hope they remain as inspired for change then as they are now.

I may never win a seat, but I will never abandon my goal of bringing about the necessary changes our good earth so desperately needs, if not for my own generation but for theirs.

Have heard rumours of leadership potential. As long as Simon remains in this district, fine. Otherwise, go look for your leader elsewhere.

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