Bhreandain Clugston Editor

NDP supporters feeling left out

In oh-so-typical fashion, it’s taken an impending provincial election to force the NDP government to get off it’s duff and start doing something.

The Health Inaction Plan, the sudden provincial surplus and rumblings of Labour Code changes are signs the party is at least going to put up a fight in the election, expected to be called next spring.

Surplus aside, the New Democrats are finally starting to act like New Democrats, though whether it’s enough to get the faithful back on side is unknown.

It’s been a disastrous term for the NDP, that’s left many wondering what has happened to the party of social conscience?

When left-of-centre parties take office, we can often expect deficits, higher taxes, class struggle revival rhetoric and pro-union labour laws, but, hey, at least health care, education and the poor will be taken care of. That’s hardly been the case this term.

What’s more disturbing was the NDP’s drift away from its core values in recent years, a move which has seriously shaken much of its support it would normally take for granted.

Nowhere was that more evident than with expanded gaming, the environment and the fast ferries fiasco.

The government’s push to allow expanded gaming in B.C. was a real shocker. Allowing more gambling was hardly a major agenda in the public eye.

Many opposed to gaming warned of the increased social problems gambling can bring, especially to the small minority which is addicted to games of chance.

You would think the party of the left would have listened to such fears, rather than rolling the dice on a questionable issue.

The NDP’s approach to the environment has been ever more bizarre.

First, there was the bizarre plot to carve up Burns Bog for industry, some green space and, perhaps, the Pacific National Exhibition. While the bog is a complicated issue (some of it is privately owned), carving it up didn’t go down well with environmentalists and much of the public at large.

Fortunately, that boonboggle didn’t go ahead.

However, the NDP has been equally inept in fighting a proposal to build the Sumas 2 power plant in Washington, near the Fraser Valley. Such a project would exacerbate the already-poor air quality of the Fraser Valley. The New Democrats didn’t even bother seeking intervenor status during hearings in Washington state. The Liberals, alas, had a field day with that one.

Such stances are effectively slow balls ready for the opposition Liberals to hit out of the park.

Perhaps Liberal leader Gordon Campbell won’t look so silly the next time he dons a plaid shirt.

The NDP’s other strange drift to the right was the fast ferries fiasco, which then-premier Glen Clark tore out of the W.A.C. Bennett playbook, sans the happy ending. Needless to say, half-a-billion dollars down the drain isn’t going to hire any more nurses.

Obviously, with recent stabs at stopping the bleeding of the health care crisis, Premier Ujjal Dosanjh is trying to put the Clark years behind him. But, as the recent Sumas 2 inaction proves, he has a long way to go.