There is nothing wrong with recruiting business leaders to advise the Premier, but British Columbia's future ought to reflect the views of many diverse perspectives. Traditional economic measurements notoriously exclude values or measurements of air pollution, oil spills, degradation of public services, loss of local control over resources such as water, destruction of wildlife habitat or increases in inequality. Including activists who put these and other such issues on the top of their agenda, or creating equally important advisory panels composed of British Columbians with broad perspectives would provide some assurance that the New Era isn't simply going to turn our government into BC, Inc.

Premier Campbell must be very proud of all the condescending letters that were sent to each cabinet minister (all 28). The bad graphic files have now been replaced with Adobe pdf files viewable in several different orders on a website devoted entirely to their display! A central feature of the letters is the emphasis on the economy and a promise to set up a "Progress Committee" to measure performance.

The Progress Committee has now been appointed. Amongst the sixteen committee members, there are five women. All but two appointees are a president, chairman or CEO of a BC business. In the absence of obvious balance on the committee, we can only hope that the particular individuals bring more than a profit maximization at all cost attitude to the table. Imagine what the reaction would have been if the NDP had established a high level committee consisting of nothing but union leaders!

Consider one simple example. There would be fewer deaths from lung cancer in BC if the WCB regulation scheduled for implementation Sept. 10th goes ahead. A narrow economic perspective might say that workers health should come second to the profits at a casino or bar. Which view dominates says a lot about our quality of life, about our values and about the character of our government.