Submission HERBERT-0133 (Online)

I have great admiration for citizens who take the time and effort to study our political system. One of our great problems is that most people only think of our system and our political parties at election time, and their thinking process is "do I like the party in power – if not I’ll vote for the alternative" without any real understanding of what the alternative is.

So that my comments can be evaluated, I will briefly outline my background. I am a retired lawyer having practiced in the civil litigation field for over 40 years. I have been an avid student of politics and political parties since my political science days in college. I have been active in federal politics at election time most of my adult life. I would describe myself as a fiscal conservative, but otherwise liberal.

I think it goes without saying that a viable political system in any province or nation necessitates at least two political parties that if elected as government can and will endeavor to represent the interests of all the people.

In my view unlike all other provinces in Canada for the last fifty years we have not had two such parties.

We have had and continue to have the NDP, and a series of coalition parties, designed to try to keep the NDP out of power.

In my view the NDP in this province, unlike the NDP in other parts of Canada has and always has had as it’s primary function and objective the preservation and advancement of organized labour. In power, the interests and needs of the majority of citizens; the economy and the future of the province are all secondary to the interests of organized labour.

In an ideal world the British Columbian NDP would have 5 or 6 seats in the legislature as a representative of organized labour.

In short it has never been a party which in power could represent the interests of all citizens.

To have the interest in BC politics to devote the time and effort to be a member of the assembly, you must have a knowledge of what the NDP did to this province in the eight years they were in power.

Suffice to say they drove business and people out of the province by smothering regulations and over taxation. No one will ever know the millions of dollars they cost our economy. We went from one of Canada’s most prosperous provinces to a “have not” province. They gave public sector unions status and power out of all proportion to the point where arguably the public sector unions were the “de facto” government.

Bill Bennett who led one of our best governments, opined just prior to the last election that it would take our present government two terms just to undo the damage to our economy caused by the NDP

Bill Bennet’s opinion has proven to be incredibly accurate.

In my lifetime we have had the Liberal-Conservative Coalition in the late 1940’s and early 1950’s; the Social Credit Coalition, and now the Liberal Coaliton, all to try to keep the NDP out of power.

One can ask, "why hasn’t a second moderate political party been established to give voters a legitimate choice?" The answer is that splitting the vote of moderate people in BC would certainly let the NDP win.

You may remember that six years or so ago, when the NDP was seeking re-election there was a BC Reform party headed by Jack Weisgerber. Although’ the Liberal Coalition got the majority of the popular vote, the Reform Party split the vote sufficiently in a number of ridings to allow the NDP to be re-elected. Jack Weisgerber later said that running the BC Reform party was a disastrous mistake for BC.

The media has reported that members of the Citizens' Assembly are very concerned about the “violent swings in this province from left to right”. Stop to think why this happens.

When the Liberal Coalition came to power they had to take draconian measures just to try to undo the damage the NDP had caused, and to try to get business to come back to the province.

Let me give you an example. Not long ago I ran into a businessman from Oregon who I had acted for in the past. He is in the distribution business, and had outlets in BC employing 150-200 people. When the NDP was re-elected, he closed his outlets in BC and let his 150-200 employees go. We had a coffee and I said I hoped that with a moderate government now in power he would re-establish his business in BC. His answer was “when your present government gets re-elected I will consider coming back”.

The point of all this is that while I sincerely respect your endeavors and your deliberations  considering our children and grand-children, and the future of our wonderful province we can’t do any thing that will make it easier than it now is for the NDP to gain power.

We are cursed with this albatross, and the seemingly insurmountable problem is that most people do not have time for politics. Their energies go to surviving, to paying the rent or the mortgage; to raising their children, to getting a job, etc. etc.

At election time if they are dissatisfied with whatever coalition is in power they vote for “the alternative’’ the NDP without thinking or realizing the disastrous mistake they are making.

Maybe in the future the British Columbian NDP will come into this century as Tony Blair's Labour party has done in England. If that ever happened we could have a viable two party system.

The bottom line is that in the meantime for the sake of all of us, and the future of our province we must not make it easier for the NDP to gain power.