A Four-Part Series:
Part 1 here | Part 2 here | Part 3 here
Part Four of Four
Even the mention of the word “NDP” is enough to scare business away from British Columbia as elsewhere, since they are an extreme left-wing socialist party that has a record of ruining BC’s economy in the 1990’s. And while in Europe the word “liberal” is used to describe rather “right-wing” government philosophy, in the United States and elsewhere it is seen as an often unfriendly-to-business, anti-free-trade, pro-social/welfare entitlement-program, big government, higher taxes type of regime.
Those in BC who suffer the illusion that the BC Liberal Party is a “right-wing” party will help BC suffer the perpetual state of abject mediocrity that it has endured for decades.
I took an immediate interest in the news release, barely even mentioned in the media either in BC or anywhere in Canada at all whatsoever, that Unity Party of BC and the old BC Progressive Conservative Party were interested in merging and becoming the BC Conservative Party.
I wrote to both parties and asked to be kept informed and I have been. Among other documents, I’ve received copies of emails of endorsement written by several small-town mayors. And despite my growing excitement at the initial prospect of an actual right-wing, conservative, free-market, made-in-BC political party, I found that my suspicions about BC politics and the electorate itself—including even the politicians—were bona fide.
Right out of the gate, the BC Unity leader (actually former leader as he just quit), the very capable Chris Delaney, explained in a letter that one of its founding principles would be to “protect BC’s publicly owned assets, including BC Hydro, ICBC [the state-owned monopoly car insurance scheme], our highways, our shared resources and our sovereign land base.”
Government ownership of business assets? That doesn’t sound conservative, economically, to me. That sounds like a party of socialism.
As a conservative, one of my priorities would be to sell those assets to the highest bidder or at least in the interim to allow and actively encourage private enterprise to assume as big a role as possible in the sectors in which they operate. “Protect ICBC”? No thanks—protect free enterprise, thanks! That’s half the point, for me. And I’d advertise it world-wide, literally, with full-page, full-color ads, for which I have absolutely no doubt the private business community in BC and even individuals would happily help pay.
The very next founding principle they list is: “The [newly formed party] believes in private enterprise and fiscal responsibility as the cornerstones of wealth creation and prosperity”. Do they? How do they square that circle? Do they simply think it sounds good but it’s really just too late now?
Mayor Jack Peake of Lake Cowichan wrote in a letter endorsing the concept of a new Conservative Party: “I, for one, have been very dissatisfied with the constant back and forth extremes of the current political landscape here in BC. We faced the extreme “left” of the NDP and now the extreme “right” of the Provincial Liberals. Something has to change.”
Huh? Extreme “right” of the provincial Liberals? And what you’re saying is that your new “Conservative Party” wants to be less right than the Liberals? Would somebody please explain “conservative” to this person? And “right-wing”? And maybe somebody could ask him how it is that maintaining state-owned businesses such as the Soviet-style liquor stores and distribution system, as the BC Liberals have done, is “extreme right”. What planet are we on?! Indeed, what country is this? Cuba?
That’s just a whole lot of mind-boggling ignorance of politics by a political amateur at play, otherwise known as a British Columbian.
Okanagan Shushwap Conservative MP Darrel Stinson wrote endorsing the plan because “the building of the ferries [BC’s state-owned car-ferry service between Vancouver and Vancouver Island and other islands] overseas while BC has its own world class shipyards”, was ridiculous to him. But that is a ridiculous statement on its head, at least to a conservative who has studied the issue and is against government subsidies of business and big labor unions.
BC has no world-class shipyards capable of building world-class car/passenger ships of the type they required. His position isn’t a conservative position in the slightest—his position sounds more like that of the populist socialist left, and those on the liberal-left are indeed blathering out the specious arguments in favor of building them in BC—no matter what the cost or risk. It is a mantra based on nothing more than feel-good and sound-good specious political expediency, rather than on pragmatism and on getting good value for taxpayer money, not to mention the spirit of free-market conservativism.
I strongly disagree with Stinson despite his later assertions (in complete deference to his own position on the BC ferries) that he believes in “Free Enterprise/Fiscal Responsibility”. Does he pull slogans out of a hat? Does he own a bumper-sticker press?
Beryl Ludwig, Councillor for the City of Enderby wrote in a letter of endorsement: “Many people were originally prepared to make some sacrifices if it meant helping get BC’s fiscal house in order. But now they see the billions of dollars being spent in Vancouver/Whistler for projects that are questionable, and they feel betrayed”. But he’s talking about the frigging 2010 Olympic Games! While I am leery of such taxpayer-funded largesse by any government, this is something every city/province in the entire world fights for, hand-over-fist, every two years! I’m totally in favor of the Olympic bid—even the socialist NDP were, as were cities and states and provinces and nations the world over. This is a huge boon to our future economy. These are “questionable projects”?
And these people call themselves conservatives? Come on.
They are not. Either they need a lesson on what “conservatism” means, or they need to think of a different name for the party—and reserve the name “conservative” for those who may someday rejuvenate an actual conservative party.
Or they risk being labelled phonies or worse: “liberals”.
But no sooner did they write all their news releases, I received one saying that it’s all off—that the old Conservative Party members, while voting two-thirds in favor of the merger with the BC Unity Party, were deemed by the President of the Party to be too uninformed to really make any proper decision on their own. So he cancelled the whole thing—the vote and all. I’ve yet to hear a thorough explanation from him, but one wonders if he didn’t see it as I did: that before they get a fresh start and start slinging rhetoric around like typical liberals, they best get a handle on what “conservative” means.
So while I yearn for a true, forthright social and fiscal conservative alternative and it may still come, I am fully if rather uncomfortably in the BC Liberal Party camp and a solid Gordon Campbell backer for now.
These would-be merger partners are typical of the very electorate they portend to lead: scatter-brained and bereft of a political philosophy and set of guiding principles—with the political acumen of “a toaster” as Ann Coulter put it. Despite their conservative-sounding bon mots, they are simply trying to be “not them”, as Vancouver Sun columnist Vaughn Palmer has seemingly taught them so well. They are as dutifully liberal-left as the sophomoric old media in general would have us all be. And ironically (or maybe not) they (of all people) seem, like all other British Columbians, to seek to not even appear as “conservatives”, as that very notion is now anathema to the population. And credit for that goes to the real political leaders of BC: those on the liberal-left, the labor unions, the old media, and academia, who have all gradually taught the jejune, amenable British Columbians.
And I’ll have none of it.
By Joel Johannesen
This editorial is posted at ProudToBeCanadian.ca. Here is the exact link to the editorial:
http://www.proudtobecanadian.ca/threads/showflat.php?Number=1291
PTBC was founded by Mr. Johannesen in 2000.
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