Carole Taylor mounting a leadership charge with the BC Liberals?

Look at those glasses!

Carole Taylor's name is always mentioned when talk of leadership succession in the BC Liberal party starts. She was a charismatic Finance Minister before quitting to pursue other things in the banking sector (but not before giving the banks a $100 million tax cut), has great glasses, and is seemingly less ideologically driven than Gordon Campbell.

So, is she positioning herself for a leadership run/push? I think so, and here's some random circumstantial evidence:

1. Someone has recently put up a Carole Taylor Facebook page (first post April 3rd).

2. caroletaylor.bc.ca is an automatic link to the BC Liberal Caucus page.

3. She was on Power Play with Tom Clark on CTV today, and she seems to be positioning herself against the HST, saying Gordon Campbell said they wouldn't do it, saying people feel deceived by the government.

4. She's hosting a profile-boosting talk by Bill Clinton on May 20th, hosted by the Vancouver Board of Trade.

So nothing concrete, but it's starting to look like she's positioning herself as the saviour of the BC Liberal party, ready to swoop in and save them from the HST nightmare.

A moment of political inspiration - Norm MacDonald

The other day I watched the BC Legislature on the web (you can post your comments about my dorkiness below), and was entirely surprised and indeed delighted to watch Norm MacDonald, MLA for Columbia River - Revelstoke, rise and deliver an inspirational speech on public services and the political process.


I've never heard anything about Mr. MacDonald, but certainly will pay more attention from now on. Anyone who champions the value of the reasoned and productive debate is deserving of our respect. I really recommend watching the video of his speech. He was calm yet passionate, and his belief in the political process was evident.

The full transcript is available here; this post highlights Mr MacDonald's views on the democratic process.

It is over eight years that this government has been in place, and what you saw with the very short throne speech that we had is a government that really has run out of new ideas — ideas about how to deal with the very serious problems that British Columbians face.

We are uniquely fortunate in this province, and I think whenever we go forward, we have to keep the problems that we have here in context. The problems that we have are manageable. There are solutions, but nevertheless, there are real issues that need to be dealt with.

The philosophy that I have, and the philosophy that those that are in the NDP share with me, is the idea that the wisdom of this province sits within the communities and with people on the ground, and that our job is to take that wisdom and bring it into this House and generate policy that is going to reflect the wider wisdom of the people in British Columbia.

Yet what we see is a government that has centralized decision-making and does not share the information in the way that it needs to with the wider population. It does not allow them to participate in the way that they need to. There are real issues that need to be dealt with.

We have a province where more and more children are slipping into poverty. That's a fact that is year after year after year. That poverty ties directly to policy decisions that are made in this House.

It's very easy to stand up and brag about the fact that there are tax cuts. This is something that the wider public embraces, but there are consequences to that. The consequence for this year is that we have a deficit. That deficit is a deficit that you cannot disconnect from the fact that taxes have been lowered. You have taken away some of the tools that taxation allows you to redistribute wealth so that you don't have large parts of your population falling into poverty. That's sound public policy.

Now, it is something that Canada has in the past done quite well — making sure that you don't allow children to fall into poverty. But it's six years in a province with all the wealth, all the potential wealth that British Columbia has, where child poverty is highest in this province.

Now at the end of the speech, in a very strange choice for this government, there was a quotation from Nelson Mandela. Now Nelson Mandela is an incredible individual. I was in Lesotho in the 1980s, '85-86, and Lesotho was surrounded by South Africa at a time when a picture of Nelson Mandela was illegal to have in a South African newspaper. To write his name was illegal. What he has accomplished is pretty amazing.

To lift a quotation and to choose to paraphrase what he said and put it into the throne speech just seems particularly inappropriate. I mean, he has a pretty clear set of standards that I think wouldn't synchronize with the direction that this government goes.

One of the things he said that I think is a direct quotation, rather than to paraphrase it, is this: "There can be no keener revelation of a society's soul than the way that it treats its children." Now that's a quotation that is exact from Nelson Mandela. When you look at government policy, what you see is — certainly, with the poverty piece — no effort, no sincere effort on behalf of this government to deal with a very real problem.

You have Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond, who has called on the Premier — has called on the Leader of the Opposition as well — to meet with her to work together on a poverty plan, asked legislators here to work on dealing on that poverty issue. Yet the Premier will not participate in dealing with that.

We heard nothing in the throne speech that really talks about that issue at all, because it's not a priority for this government. Yet if you're going to quote Nelson Mandela, to be true to what he believes in…. He says very clearly that you have to deal with the issue of child poverty, but year after year I've come to this House and it is never dealt with in a meaningful way. That's fundamentally wrong.

Well done, Norm MacDonald. Take note, Gordon Campbell; that is the way to quote Nelson Mandela. And that is how you should approach public policy, as a tool for improving the lives of British Columbians.*


* Thanks again to Paul Willcocks over at Paying Attention for this simple idea.

Bill Bennett heads up Municipal Election Task Force

I'm stealing from Paying Attention again. At the Union of British Columbia Municipalities convention this summer Gordon Campbell announced the formation of a task force examining civic election rules/laws. We currently have no restrictions on election spending, transparency, and so on. In a speech that offered little to anyone* and was largely bereft of substance, GC announced this task force as if it was a major policy move or something. Okay.

The other day the government announced the formation of the task force. Liberal MLA Bill Bennett (he of questionable judgment at the best of times) will co-chair with Harry Nyce, president of the UBCM. They are joined by two more Liberal MLAs, Donna Barnett from Cariboo-Chilcotin and Douglas Horne, Coquitlam-Burke Mountain, and Surrey Councillor Barbara Steele and Quesnel Mayor Mary Sjostrom, both vice-presidents at the UBCM.

Here is Paul Willcocks' take on it:

"The task force will have six members - three from the UBCM and three MLAs. All Liberals. No public interest representatives. No NDP MLAs, or independent Vicki Huntington. The fix appears to be in. Campbell has rejected any limits on corporate and union donations to provincial parties. Any recommendations on limits for municipal donations would be embarassing. Stacking the committee reduces the risk."

I'll have to take his word that the three UBCM officials are Liberals (his word is pretty solid, kids). This is ridiculous. No experienced experts from Elections BC or Elections Canada? No policy wonk professors? Nope, instead we get Bill Bennett. Our choice. He's one of us. What?

Thinly veiled racism? "You want someone who pays taxes and is concerned about how that money is spent."

Co-chair Bill Bennett is a horrible choice, given his chequered past (see link above). His campaign this spring was rocked by controversy, including the publication of the above ad, which pretty clearly asks East Kootenay residents to vote for him because he's white (his NDP opponent, Troy Sebastian, is a member of the Ktunaxa nation): "He's one of us... You want someone who pays taxes..." Um, who doesn't pay taxes, Bill? Do you mean Indians? They don't care about how money is spent, right, because they suck up government funds like nothin' else. Freeloaders...

This is the guy we have directing a body tasked with making ethical and policy decisions about election reform? Brutal.


*Usually he gives millions and millions to municipalities.

Vision Vancouver fundraiser

I attended the Vision Vancouver fundraiser on Tuesday as a volunteer (with student loans like this, who needs enemies?) and was treated to a lovely evening of good food, entertainment, and some good old fashion politicking. A wonderful evening, all in all. I'll leave a more full and entertaining description of the event to Jonathan Ross over at civicscene.ca; I just have a few notes.

I've heard some grumbling about its location at the Wall Centre, but as far as I can tell it was there because the Walls (are they ever called the Walls?) donated some serious cash and the use of the room (Gregor thanked them personally), and when you're holding a fundraiser you probably don't turn that down. Especially when you know who your audience is.

I attended a similar function last year during the nomination campaign as a guest of a candidate, when no one really knew what Vision stood for, when ex-Parks Board Commissioner Allan De Genova was a real contender for the mayoral nomination. There was some money there (apparently De Genova sold half the tables), but there were also quite a few union tables, and candidate supporters tables.

The big difference this year (apart from the presence of contortionists), and it wasn't that big but enough so that it was quite evident, was the amount of money in suits that came through the door. I'm not sure what the guest list looked like, but the event was sold out and it seemed to me that most tables were corporate buys. Simple conclusion: now that Vision are in power, there are more people interested in making nice with them. I don't mean to imply that there is anything wrong with this, just an observation, and I was surprised that Jonathan Ross didn't make note of it, in his otherwise excellent and entertaining post on the fundraiser.

Aside: former NDP premiers Mike Harcourt and Glen Clark were in attendance, as was former COPE/Vision city councilor Jim Green; all were recognized by Gregor in his speech. As was Prime Minister Stephen Harper, and I think Premier Gordon Campbell and BC Housing Minister Rich Coleman were as well.