You gotta love the double standard applied by some pundits, columnists and editorial writers. Last week the usual suspects were quick to criticize Manitoba Premier Gary Doer for appearing at an NDP fundraiser and giving a hand to Carole James. The appointment of Frank McKenna as Canada's ambassador to the United States should jog a few memories. McKenna was one of Gordon Campbell's favorites to trot out in his campaign to defeat the NDP. Near the end of April 2001 McKenna spent a week in BC. He denied he was campaigning but was quoted saying "I don't like to be hypocritical about it. I know I'm partisan. There's no point hiding it.'' The former Premier of New Brunswick went on to call for "dramatic change'' in BC. In the four years since McKenna's last non-campaign visit, BC certainly has gotten dramatic change although most of it is nothing like what people expected.

McKenna was not the only Premier or former Premier to rush to the aid of then Opposition Leader Gordon Campbell. Ralph Klein attended a meeting of the B.C. Business Summit which was little more than a faintly disguised rally against the NDP. He didn't bother to pay his regards to BC's Premier when he made those visits, but he appears to have helped make key right wing strategists like Rod Love available to assist Campbell. McKenna was also at that 1998 event. In July 2001, a spokesperson for the Business Summit gushed that Campbell's tax cuts were like "Christmas in July".

While Carole James is accepting advice from two term NDP Premier Doer, she has also made it clear to the business community that she wants advice from all factions within British Columbia. She consulted with Doer on how his Economic Advisory Council works, and she visited Oregon to look at its Progress Board, which includes representatives from a cross section of interests. Unlike the Campbell government, which has slammed the door to advice from labour, James is building a big tent that will moderate, if not end, the extreme polarization of BC politics.