March 6, 2002

This Spring Break Meet Your MLA

Premier Campbell has implemented a new legislative calendar. Part of that calendar provides three one week breaks during the spring sitting when the Legislature will adjourn so MLAs can be available in their constituencies. The Premier's section of the government website proclaims:

"During the third session of the 37th Parliament, the Legislature will be in session from February 12, 2002 to May 30, 2002 and from October 7, 2002 to November 28, 2002."

"The Legislature will not be in session during the weeks of March 18, April 22, May 20, October 14 and November 11, 2002. Members of the Legislative Assembly will be in their constituencies during those weeks."

Readers will note the Legislative Calendar does not say that the MLAs will take off for vacation during spring break. It clearly says "Members of the Legislative Assembly will be in their constituencies during those weeks."

I have received emails from people who are having difficulty arranging meetings with their MLAs. This week regional media throughout the province are reporting shock from school trustees who now want to meet with their MLAs. Unless Premier Campbell and his caucus are about to break another promise, meeting times should be scheduled for every available minute during the week the Legislature adjourns specifically for the purpose of allowing MLAs to be in their constituencies.

November 24, 2001

Day to Day Politics

As the Campbell government starts getting into trouble, some of its apologists are starting to accuse its critics of trying to re-fight the last election. No matter how many times Premier Campbell says "we got elected to do things differently", the fact is that a government was thrown out far more than a new government was elected. Daily politics are now about influencing the new government's policies and decisions. Even if the mandate had been clear, that is how day to day politics really work.

In a speech that would have done Tommy Douglas proud, Mt. Pleasant MLA Jenny Kwan told the recent provincial NDP convention that "politics is about more than elections." That is in part a brutally realistic recognition that it will be very hard for the NDP to recover. More importantly, it is an acknowledgement that changing people's behaviour and influencing government policies is part of day to day politics.

Government apologists should not take every criticism as somehow threatening their iron clad grip on power. They should take the criticism as legitimate calls for the government to come to its senses and perform in a competent, moderate manner for all British Columbians.

Government announced that up to 11,000 jobs, one third of the public service, will be eliminated but it hasn't bothered to tell the public which programs are being eliminated in order to make that job reduction necessary. Wouldn't it make more sense to identify what programs can be eliminated, and then base layoffs on a calculation of how many employees are necessary to do the job?

The threat to the Campbell government will not come from New Democrats or anyone who is "trying to re-fight the election". The threat will come from disillusioned BC Liberals. The greatest threat will come from disillusioned BC Liberal MLAs. It would only take four such MLAs to cross the floor and form a new party; they would then be recognized as the Official Opposition, and they would suddenly enjoy far more power than a government backbencher.

Those who are concerned about nurses being laid off despite a nursing shortage, about cutbacks in services to children at risk, about extreme rhetoric rather than reasoned policies, those people ought to meet with their MLA and talk about their concerns. There is a protest almost every day on the lawn of the legislature. Those protests don't get as much attention as a sincere face to face meeting between an MLA and that member's constituent.

The most likely way to moderate a government bent on an ideological path will be to persuade individual MLAs to take a more reasonable course. If that persuasion leads to a new political party in BC, then those who try to justify every government action with an attack on the NDP may find themselves shadow boxing. Events will soon move past teaching the NDP a lesson and on to deciding what is best for over 4 million British Columbians - most of whom got very little by way of a tax cut.

As much as some of us would like to see a vigorous New Democratic Party emerge from its hard lesson, events may move beyond that scenario as sitting MLAs decide that enough is enough.