Ecclesiastes 3: 1
IT'S the nature of providence that when things swing out of balance one way, the pendulum must shift to the other.
You can feel it in the air. People are ready for change on Voting Day, May 14.
Elections make us question what we don't know. Unfortunately, we know plenty about Christy Clark and the B.C.Liberals. After 12 years in power, the last two with Clark at the top, we've been governed by the politics of consumerism, and dominated by the money of their big corporate friends for too long. B.C. is on the cusp of losing its social cohesion. It's time for a shift toward co-operation, toward working with people as a guiding government principle. If you're growing older and need seniors health care, who do you trust to best look after you? If you're a North Shore working family with kids to put through university when the cost of tuition has doubled in the past 10 years under the B.C. Liberals, who's going to look out for you? Our kids can hardly make it through school affordably or find a decent place to live the way that we, their parents, did not so long ago. It's the small things that count in politics.
Elections give us the freedom to choose - a gift from our elders who sacrificed for us. Imagine the alternative. So, more of Premier Clark and her tattered crew, or try the new guys?
The Liberals are campaigning after more than a dozen of their own governing team quit under Clark's leadership. What does that tell you? The televised leaders debate this past week demonstrated her poor grasp of facts, and how she specializes in the language of avoidance: on a question as simple as "Do you favour the legalization of marijuana?" What's so hard about "Yes" or "No"? Adrian Dix, NDP: Yes. John Cummins, Conservative: No. Jane Sterk, Green: No to prohibition.
And Clark? She gave us a rambling speech about "growing the economy" that was plumb incoherent. Is that what's wrong with these Liberals, that they don't really know what they stand for any more?
As they say in the Maritimes, when you don't know where you're headed, any road will take you there.
Change begins at home. The feedback I'm getting suggests North Vancouver is ready for a shift, but it's good to seek advice. A few mornings ago, I met with David Schreck, the likeable former MLA for North Vancouver-Lonsdale. An economist, he was the NDP's last elected representative in an area undergoing major transformation. We spoke near Lonsdale and 29th Avenue where North Vancouver's two electoral districts converge, and I asked what he honestly thought of a voter switch from the Liberals to the NDP or other opposition.
Schreck knows history. "Dorothy Gretchen Steeves represented the North Shore as MLA for the old CCF forerunners of the NDP from 1934-1945" he reminded me. "Colin Gabelman was elected here in 1972 in a four-way split, and I was elected in 1991 in a three-way split. So periodically voters here do change and go with the NDP. With the loss of Liberal support throughout the province, and with unusually strong candidates, you'd have to think that Craig Keating in Lonsdale should win and that Jim Hanson in Seymour has a better than usual chance."
Both ridings have multiple strong candidates on offer and Schreck agreed that during the televised leaders' debate the addition of John Cummins, leader of the free-enterprise alternative Conservatives, and Jane Sterk for the Green Party "made it better politics."
The facts support him. Jaime Webbe continues her strong Independent campaign in Seymour, and at the all-candidates debate in North Van-Lonsdale the other evening, Ryan Conroy for the Greens distinguished himself as a from-the-heart, intelligent guy. His answers and sincerity were a class act. The front-runners Keating and Yamamoto were polished but as predictable as a date with your ex. What happened to soul and passion in politics? Conroy drives a bus for a living. He spoke about
TransLink and transportation screw-ups with expert knowledge. His fresh idea of the night? Get the $6-billion pot industry legalized, tax it and use it to help pay for TransLink instead of more taxes and roads tolls. If you don't elect him as MLA, then for heaven's sake remember Conroy next time for municipal council.
Returning to the change business, David Schreck echoes the time-tested maxim that "in provincial elections, governments defeat themselves. What influences voting behaviour is whether people want change, or they don't."
I asked him about issues. His answer surprised me: "In this election it's loss of trust and credibility with the Liberal Party. It came to a head with the HST - all other issues are verifiers of that one issue. The Liberals have squandered people's trust, their (own) credibility."
That made me think about Adrian Dix. We met last summer at an East Van arts festival at Trout Lake. I'd given my reading and was attending another outdoor show. A couple took seats in front of me: middle-aged, affectionate with each other. Presentable, but not showy. I noticed they held hands. It's good to see a veteran couple still in love. The man turned to whisper to his wife. He looked like Adrian Dix. Nah. Then same again. I didn't bug them in case I was wrong. Later, a writer pal said "That'd be him. He lives near here, a regular guy in the neighbourhood. His wife is a good poet too. Say hello."
I did. We talked briefly. Dix looks like a hard-working guy. You get to recognize that in a fellah. Nothing glib or photo-op slick.
I'd been out of love with the NDP for quite a while, so I came away feeling better. Not so frightened by them.
Like every North Shore neighbour I speak with though, the ecological health risk of the Kinder Morgan pipeline near our home has been a serious worry. Environmentally, I don't trust the Liberals and their corporate funders.
The Greens, bless 'em, can help influence, but won't form government. So when Dix came out saying he doesn't support our local inner harbour - the North Shore's front yard - being used for an expanded oil route, it's a game-changer. This doesn't end the debate: it opens up new possibilities. Suddenly I'm interested.
You want issues? Craig Keating is speaking up for B.C.'s film industry, for North Shore shipyards getting ferry-building contracts, against Capilano University cutting back study programs, and for better treatment of our paramedics. Where are the Liberals on all these? Lonsdale Conservative Alan Molyneaux says the ferries should return to government management. Jane Sterk, Ryan Conroy and the Greens argue for more B.C. geothermal and wind-powered energy alternatives. How about B.C.'s precious wild salmon? Alexandra Morton and Rafe Mair campaign tirelessly to save these fish from extinction caused by fish-farm overcrowding and pollution of our coastal wild salmon migration routes. The feds and B.C. Liberals won't do it, so who'll fight for our beloved wild salmon?
John Cummins spoke out this week against MLAs acting "like trained seals." North Van-Seymour residents get a chance to see who'll genuinely fight for them at Monday night's all-candidates debate, Mount Seymour United Church, 7 p.m. At last Jim Hanson, Jane Thornthwaite, Jaime Webbe and the rest, battle nose to nose. The spring winds are blowing. Bring on the changes!
