Skip to content
Join our Newsletter

The ABC’s of B.C.

A 2009 Provincial Election Primer
1614election

Election year politics are all about the issues, even if the parties themselves sometimes might wish they were about values, character, achievements in and out of office, common sense, and getting voters to honestly answer one simple question: "Are you better off now than you were four years ago?"

It's an interesting question. Firstly, it implies that people will always put their economic self-interest ahead of their conscience when heading to the polls, while simultaneously allowing political parties to take credit for every good thing that may have happened to you while they were in office.

Secondly, it's a hard question to answer this year because of the global financial meltdown taking place in the background as British Columbians get ready to vote in the May 12 provincial election. These days most people would probably say they are far worse off than they were four years ago.

Tens of thousands of people have lost their jobs in recent months, and the construction boom that sustained the province in recent years is winding down. Some people have seen their homes decrease in value as the real estate bubble deflates, or their investments and retirement savings mauled by the rampaging bear that is the stock market.

Although you can't pin the economic downturn on any political party, the parties do have very different plans to grease the wheels for the recovery, and different priorities for they money we're essentially borrowing from our children and grandchildren.

Issues, as always, are lines in the sand, blood in the water. And while the economy is the big issue of the day, it won't be the only issue discussed and debated in the coming weeks and months, or the only way to differentiate between the candidates.

Pique has put together this short, alphabetical election primer to help voters get a sense of the issues at hand.

A is for Aboriginal Land Title. No province has done as much as B.C. in the past few years to negotiate treaties and land use plans with First Nations. Locally, both the Squamish and Lil'wat Nations have signed land use agreements with the province that will also form the basis of their future economic development, much of which is taking place in and around Whistler.

In early March, the province released a discussion paper on new aboriginal title and rights legislation that would entrench First Nation title and rights into provincial law. That has created a few new headaches for Lower Mainland governments, who are now being asked by a First Nations band with less than 500 members to pay consultation fees for any and all development projects on their claimed territory, encompassing more than 23 municipal governments from Squamish to Maple Ridge, and which also overlaps with other First Nations land claims.

A is for also Attorney General. Wally Oppal's office has been responsible for several important inquiries recently, including the fatal sinking of the Queen of the North ferry and the B.C. Rail Sale, as well as resolving the growing issues of gun violence and the drug trade in the Lower Mainland. The next Attorney General, which could be Oppal again, will inherit many of the same issues.

A can also be for Ashlu, and the controversial run of river hydro project being constructed in the Squamish area despite the opposition of local governments, including the Squamish-Lillooet Regional District. See Bill 30 for more information

B is for B.C. Rail Sale, the bugbear and alleged insider conspiracy that still rankles the electorate. Although it's old news - B.C. Rail lines were leased to CN Rail for 99 years and a billion dollars back in 2003 - three Liberal government insiders from the time are currently facing trial for corruption, and the NDP has proposed new integrity legislation that would overhaul the Lobbyist Registry Act. Calls for a full inquiry could follow.

B is also for Bill 30, which was amended a few years ago to formally give the B.C. Utilities Commission final authority over all public utilities in the province, stripping local governments of any real power in the approval process. That way private companies developing utility projects can get the same privileges when building utilities on Crown land as Crown corporations. It's not a particularly well-liked piece of legislation, especially where local governments are concerned, and the Green Party has already pledged to overturn that amendment.

C is for Carbon Tax and Cap-and-Trade. Imposed in July of 2008, the province slapped a $10 per tonne tax on carbon emissions, which works out to an additional 2.4 cents per litre at the pump. This tax will continue to grow each year until it reaches about 7.2 cents per litre in 2012. While it's supported by many environmentalists, some claim the tax unfairly impacts people in the north and rural parts of the province where there is little or no public transportation. The fact that it's a neutral tax - low income workers get a credit, and communities get the rest - has not lessened the furor. No question the timing couldn't have been worse, with record fuel prices last summer.

B.C. has also embraced a Cap and Trade system through the Western Climate Initiative, where different provinces and states would be allocated a certain level of carbon emissions or have to purchase carbon credits from other jurisdictions. The goal is to decrease carbon by 15 per cent below 2005 levels between 2012 and 2020, although some are worried that industry would rather relocate than invest is low carbon technologies.

C is for Crime. Although statistically B.C. is safer for people and their possessions, the recent gun violence among Lower Mainland gangs is a huge concern.

C is for Child Poverty, a metric where B.C. apparently tops the nation. According to Statistics Canada one in five children in B.C. is growing up below the poverty line. The NDP made this a big issue in the 2005 election, and things haven't improved since.

D is for Deficit. When he was elected Premier Gordon Campbell made it illegal for provincial governments to run deficits, but in the face of the financial crisis the Liberal Party has repealed that law to allow them to run deficits during the recovery to the tune of $740 million over two years. Not that B.C. is the only province spending its way out of the crisis, but expect the opposition parties to make hay - e.g. the Liberals are spending too much, they're not spending enough, and they're spending money on the wrong things.

D is also for Daycare, and the urgent need communities like Whistler have to get the province to reduce the certification requirements for daycare workers, given the critical shortage of certified workers and funding. By May 31 two not-for-profit daycares in Whistler will have closed their doors.

D is also for downloading, a practice by which the province balances its books by downloading the responsibility of providing services to local governments, who in turn raise property taxes. Burdens shift, but they never disappear.

E is for "It's the Economy, Stupid!" In the last provincial election there were a lot of issues on the table, from the environment, to public-private partnerships, to the B.C. Rail sale, to electoral reform, to health care, to the lack of affordable housing in the province. Now it's all about the economy - the number one issue, and maybe the only issue that will matter in the coming debates. All the parties agree that the economy must be fixed, but disagree what route we should take.

Here are some statistics for you: RBC suggested in early March that the B.C. economy would shrink by about 1.5 per cent in the next fiscal year, the first contraction in 25 years. While that may seem like small potatoes - Ontario and Quebec are looking at 3.5 per cent drops - it still represents tens of thousands of jobs. The forestry industry is particularly hard-hit, with housing starts across Canada and the U.S. dropping off. And the construction market is a close second. It's estimated that the province shed 35,000 jobs in January alone, and provincial unemployment is expected to creep up to 6.8 per cent - better than the national forecast of 7.8 per cent, but still the worst in a decade.

The tourism industry is also being hit, with U.S. overnight visitors to B.C. declining in December 2008 by 16.8 per cent compared to 2007.

F is for Fast Ferries. Like the B.C. Rail Sale this is old news, but it still comes up surprisingly often. It goes like this: The NDP commissioned the construction of three high-speed ferries, which were delivered for $460 million, or more than double the projected cost. They were a disaster from the start, with higher fuel costs, broken engines, and issues with wake that forced them to sail at less than top speed. Then Ujjal Dosajnh came to power when Glen Clark was forced to step down, and put the ferries on sale. After the Liberal Party came to power in 2001 they eventually put the fleet up for auction. The ferries were sold back to the builder for $19.4 million, or about 4.2 cents on the dollar.

While the sale is old news - six years old now - it's still a sore point between parties. For the Liberals, it's an example of NDP mismanagement. For the NDP, who believe that the Liberals sold the ferries for less than a third of what they were offered before the auction, it's an example of the Liberals deliberately making a bad situation worse to score a political point. We haven't heard the last of this.

F is also for the Fraser Institute, a right wing think tank that wields a lot of power in this province. Of particular concern is their work to rank schools based on the results of Foundation Skills Assessments exams, or standardized testing. Teachers are opposed to the tests in principle, but are particularly against making the test results public without taking into consideration issues like the socio-economics characteristics of various neighbourhoods, the number of students learning English as a second language, the number of special needs students enrolled, etc.

G is for Green Party. In the last provincial election the Green Party finished third in the vote tally with about nine per cent of the popular vote, and failed to win a seat. In the West Vancouver-Sea to Sky riding, Green Party candidate Dennis Perry finished second to Joan McIntyre with 26.4 per cent of the vote, ahead of the NDP candidate.

The leader of the provincial party in this election is Jane Sterk, running in the riding of Esquimalt-Royal Roads on Vancouver Island. Continuing with the theme of putting business people front and centre, Sterk teaches MBA courses in business environment and organizational behaviour at University Canada West. She also owns a retail business in the computer industry, with 60 full time positions. She has her doctorate in counseling psychology and a Masters degree in education. She worked as a psychologist and a public school teacher before becoming a professor and entrepreneur.

The candidate in West Vancouver-Sea to Sky is Jim Stephenson, who is currently employed as a computer consultant. He has a BS in electrical engineering, and a joint doctorate in business and economics from Stanford University.

He has worked with First Nations on economic development, and his other clients have included B.C. Hydro, B.C. Gas and WorkSafe B.C., as well as corporate clients around the world. He has also worked as a professor of business at UBC and SFU, and taught courses in policy analysis and information systems.

He is also an avid environmentalist, and in 2006 flew to Nashville to train with Al Gore to give the "Inconvenient Truth" slideshow, which he has since presented more than 50 times.

G is also for guns, of which there are clearly too many in the hands of Lower Mainland "gangs," which also starts with G.

G is also for gas, as in natural gas, which is a potential growth industry for the province but remains limited by a ban on offshore drilling.

H is for Hotel Tax. Whistler's agreement with the province to keep an additional 4 per cent of the 10 per cent tax collected on hotel rooms expires in 2011. Vote for any candidate who promises to extend this tax indefinitely.

Also, H is for Highway 99, and Health Care - one of the main issues in the 2005 election - as well as housing and homelessness. While property values have taken a hit throughout the Lower Mainland there is still a shortage of affordable housing for sale or purchase, as well as a growing number of homeless on the streets of Vancouver.

H is for Hydrogen Highway, and the hydrogen bus fleet that will remain in Whistler after the 2010 Games. There has been some controversy, as a new hydrogen fueling station and depot is constructed on and around wetlands to the north of the municipal works yard. The Resort Municipality of Whistler cited the cost of the depot as part of the reason that the cost of providing transit has gone up.

I is for Infrastructure. The federal government is going almost $80 billion in debt over the next two fiscal years as part of an economic recovery package. Almost $30 billion of that money will likely go to infrastructure projects. At the same time, it's estimated that Canada's municipal infrastructure deficit is around $123 billion.

Infrastructure has also clearly been a priority for B.C., with the Sea to Sky Highway Improvement Project, the Canada Line, the proposed Evergreen Line, Pacific Gateway Project (including a new 10-lane Port Mann Bridge). Other projects completed recently include upgrades to the TransCanada Highway near Golden and the Coquihalla, and new bridge over Okanagan Lake into Kelowna.

Whistler recently signed some infrastructure agreements with the federal and provincial governments for $1.1 million, including $375,000 toward the $815,000 cost of extending the Valley Trail from Spring Creek to Cheakamus Crossing and Function Junction.

The battle for funding is loudest among Lower Mainland suburbs, as well as between the people who advocate for more roads and bridges to ease congestion, and those that want more public transit and bike lanes.

J is for Join a Party. British Columbians are generally a pretty apathetic bunch when it comes to politics, and the selection of candidates often comes down to handful of people voting on a handful of candidates - that is, if there is more than one candidate even interested in running for a party. There's an old saying that we get the government we deserve, and considering what's at stake these days we need the best people possible representing us. If you want candidates that truly represent your views then choose the party that best suits your values, pay your dues, familiarize yourself with the party platform, and participate.

K is for Kinsella, or Patrick Kinsella, the Liberal insider who allegedly worked for both B.C. Rail and CN in negotiating the B.C. Rail sale, which at best could be described as a conflict of interest. Kinsella was also co-chair of the Liberal election campaigns in 2001 and 2005, and is tied closely the Liberal Party. The three former government employees in pre-trial hearings about the sale have implicated Kinsella as part of their defence strategy, insisting that they thought they were doing the bidding of government.

David Basi and Bobby Virk are charged with accepting a benefit, fraud and break of trust, while another former Liberal aide, Aneal Basi, is being charged with money laundering.

It all goes back to that dramatic 2003 police raid on the offices of the legislature. At the time the police were investigating Basi's cousin for drug trafficking, but overhead information about the B.C. Rail sale after tapping the cousin's phone.

The timing of the most recent revelations and their traction in the media could have a significant impact on the campaign, forcing the Liberal Party to fend off accusations of corruption at a time when they'd rather be talking about their record the past eight years.

L is for Liberal Party. The Liberal Party under Premier Gordon Campbell was elected in a landslide in 2001, winning 77 of 79 seats. They won another majority in 2005 with 46 seats.

In West Vancouver-Sea to Sky our Liberal MLA is Joan McIntyre, elected with slightly more than 50 per cent of the vote in 2005. Starting out as a backbencher, McIntyre has quickly worked her way in up in the ranks, and was appointed Minister of State for Intergovernmental Relations in 2008.

Well known in West Vancouver's business community, McIntyre founded McIntyre & Mustel Research Association in 1980, selling her interest in 1996 to work independently as a consultant for political campaigns.

She was also directly involved in the bid to win the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, and was in Prague in 2003 when Vancouver was awarded the Games.

M is for Michael Smyth, a columnist for The Province who has been on the legislature like white on rice. He keeps controversies and scandals alive, long after other columnists and voters have moved on. M can also be for Mason, as in Gary Mason, a B.C. columnist for The Globe and Mail , or in Rafe Mair, a former cabinet minister turned radio host and environmental advocate.

Whatever choices voters make seven weeks from now, it shouldn't be for a lack of information.

M can also be for mills, which are closing and cutting shifts across the province, as well as Mackenzie, the northern town where almost three quarters of the population is now unemployed after three mill closures.

M is for the B.C. Marijuana Party. They recently endorsed the Green Party in the upcoming election instead of running their own slate of candidates. Marijuana itself is on the radar a lot recently as society starts to question the effectiveness and cost of a 30-year war on drugs. More people in the public eye are seriously discussing a shift from criminalizing drug use and empowering gangs to treating drugs as a health care issue where addictions sometimes occur.

M is for minimum wage, which the Liberals have refused to raise from $8 to $10, despite pressure from opposition parties, the B.C. Federation of Labour and other organizations. The Liberals are concerned that a minimum wage hike will pose hardships for small businesses, and ultimately result in lost jobs.

N is for the NDP. NDP leader Carole James brought the party back from the brink in the last election, increasing the number of members in the legislature to 33 from a low of three when the 2005 election was called (two NDP members were elected in 2001, and the party picked up a third seat in a by-election).

After several months of closing the gap on the Liberals, according to public opinion polls, since the start of the year NDP support has dropped from 42-44 per cent to 35-37 per cent. (The most recent polls show Liberal support between 43 and 52 per cent). The NDP have not released their official platform yet, but have a long record as Liberal critics.

There is currently no NDP candidate for the West Vancouver-Sea to Sky riding, but that should be remedied in a week or so.

O is for the Olympics. For better or worse, the provincial government is the underwriter of the 2010 Games, while already contributing over a billion dollars to Games facilities and operations. The auditor general and other parties have also criticized the province for hiding Olympic costs, like claiming that the Sea to Sky Highway Improvement Project and Canada Line are not related to the Games.

Whatever party is elected on May 12 will bear responsibility for the execution of the Games, and spending whatever money is necessary to make sure B.C. puts on its best face. By summer 2010, the people will want an accurate accounting.

P is for P3s, or Public-Private Partnerships, which is the province's preferred way to build infrastructure these days. One of the most prominent examples of success is the Sea to Sky Highway Improvement Project, which is slated for completion this fall. That's not say that P3s are all successful. The province encouraged Whistler to use the P3 model to upgrade the sewage treatment plant, which council rejected after a public outcry. Another failed P3 is the new Port Mann Bridge project, as the leading bidder was having trouble securing financing.

Which brings us to another "P" issue, Privatization. The B.C. government has come under fire for privatizing various public agencies or functions of those agencies, and for leading other agencies down the road towards full or partial privatization. For example, the province has sold B.C. Rail, while freezing B.C. Hydro investment in new power projects and allowing private projects to flourish. The administrative wing of the Medical Services Plan has been contracted out to a private company with mixed results, while the province is allowing more privatization in health care. The Liberals also attempted to privatize liquor distribution in B.C. at one point, but later decided against it. ICBC was also put forward as a candidate for privatization, an idea that is taking hold again as that agency reels from an insider scam where cars were written off and later resold, and ICBC employees purchased vehicles at rigged auctions.

P is also for Pacific Gateway Project, which includes the Port Mann Bridge and the $500 million over budget Vancouver Convention Centre.

P could apply to the new U.S. passport laws which come into effect on June 1, effectively kicking B.C.'s tourism industry while it's already down. Under the new laws, Americans will need passports or other forms of enhanced I.D. when returning from Canada or elsewhere, and currently less than 30 per cent of Americans have the proper I.D.

P is for polling. The most recent Angus Reid poll found that the economy tops voter concerns, with 36 per cent of respondents saying it was the number one issue. That was followed by crime at 19 per cent. Last August only 14 per cent of British Columbians said the economy was a leading concern, and just seven per cent were most concerned with gang violence. A lot can happen in seven months.

The same poll also found the NDP was trailing the Liberal Party by six per cent of the vote, narrowing to two per cent among likely voters.

P is also for pay raises. When the province was booming, top deputy ministers received pay raises of 43 per cent, while MLAs received a boost of 29 per cent.

Q is for Question Period, as in whatever happened to Question period? The Liberal Party is notorious for canceling or curtailing question sessions in the legislature, which the NDP claims is being done to prevent debate in the house.

A leaked document from the premier's office advises MLAs to use Question Period to attack the opposition and the NDP record at every opportunity. The document also reminds MLAs that "It's Question Period, not Answer Period," while emphasizing the three Cs - competence, confidence and control - when answering questions. The same document also recommends tactics for the media scrums - scoring more points if Question Period was a success and getting out of the building quickly if it wasn't.

R is for Run of River hydro projects. There are three central issues with Run-of-River independent power projects (IPPs) that are of concern to opponents: 1) The fact that they are owned by private companies instead of the public. Opponents support the idea of maintaining public utilities; 2) the fact that Bill 30 overrides the right of local governments to have any say in the approval process through zoning; and 3) the fact that the province has issued 135 licences to develop IPP projects, and received another 582 applications, without a larger master plan in place that says where they should go, or that would limit their number or reach. Government maintains that not all of these licences will result in project approvals, but without a master plan there are no guarantees either way. R is also for Rafe Mair, a former politician turned radio host who is leading the Save Our Rivers campaign against Run of River projects.

R is also for "Record." Although it's been eight years since they ruled, expect the Liberal Party to continue to attack the NDP's record and voter sentiment that took the NDP from ruling party to just two seats in 2001. Has the NDP changed since then? Did they learn anything from 2001? And will there be enough in the Liberals' record to convince voters to switch back? Stay tuned...

S is for STV, or Single Transferable Vote - the alternative voting system that a panel of British Columbians advocated for in the 2005 provincial election after rejecting other forms of proportional representation. Under STV, we would have bigger ridings and would vote for multiple candidates in order of preference. Some 57 per cent of voters supported STV in a referendum held during the last election, short of the 60 per cent required. STV will be on the ballot again in this election.

The reason for the referendum is the ongoing concern over the large number of disenfranchised voters in the "first past the post system." In 2001 the Liberal Party won 58 per cent of the vote but took 77 of 79 seats. The NDP won 22 per cent of the vote but only won two seats, while the Green Party earned over 12 per cent o the vote and won no seats.

The disparity continued in 2005, when the liberals won 46 of 79 seats with 46 per cent of the vote, and the NDP won 33 seats with 41 per cent of the popular vote. That's a 13-seat difference separated by five per cent of votes.

STV is too complicated to explain in this space, but a more detailed explanation is at www.citizenassembly.bc.ca/

T is for taxes, which have gone down or been frozen under the Liberal Party. It's also for TILMA, which is the Trade Investment and Labour Mobility Agreement with Alberta. The province feels it will help economies and reduce red tape. But the Council of Canadians and Union of B.C. Municipalities say it will hamper the ability of local governments to contract local companies and take steps to protect the environment.

T is also for the TransLink board, which at one point was facing a deficit of $500 million by 2012. The province imposed a new car levy and new taxes to pay for the discrepancy.

T is for tasers. The death of Robert Dziekanski, a recall of older units, and other incidents that have been brought to light suggest that these devices may not be as safe as police have been led to believe, and are being used in the wrong circumstances.

U is for Unions (teachers, nurses, construction companies, the Union of B.C. Municipalities, public sector, etc.) The Campbell government was proactive is negotiating contracts with most public sector unions, but most of those agreements expire next year. Contract talks will be interesting.

V is for Vote. Please. Because not enough of us are registering in advance or showing up on election day. In West Vancouver-Sea to Sky only 65.2 per cent of eligible voters are registered with their correct address, compared to a provincial average of 75.6 per cent. You have until April 21 to update your information, or you'll have to wait in line to register before voting on May 12. Provincially, only 57 per cent of eligible voters bothered to go to the polls in the 2005 election.

W is for Western Canada Wilderness Committee. Claiming more than 20,000 members, the WCWC is one of the most active environmental groups in the province as well as one of the few organizations that can still get 3,000 people out to the legislature to protest old growth logging. They are against private power projects, logging old growth not protected in parks, development in parks, and raw log exports, and will probably be very active during the campaign.

W is also for water. The province just released a WaterSmart B.C. program, part of a larger LiveSmart B.C. program, that advances the idea of water conservation at a provincial level. While last summer was a wet one, the previous three years resulted in some type of water use restrictions through the Lower Mainland and across Vancouver Island. The "Wet" coast does go dry from time to time.

X is for X-acto knife, which homeless man Michael Vann Hubbard was carrying when he was shot and killed by police officers in downtown Vancouver in March. At the time police were pursuing a thief, and mistook Hubbard for the suspect who broke into a car and took a black backpack. Hubbard also had a black backpack, and when he was stopped by police he pulled an X-acto knife out of the pack that he reportedly uses as an artist and craftsman. Police say they told Hubbard to drop the knife and he refused, and he was advancing towards the officers when he was shot.

While this is a single incident, it occurred just as the province released a report on the death of Frank Paul, a homeless aboriginal man who froze to death in 1998 after Vancouver Police dumped him in an alley. It also occurred during the inquiry into the death of Polish national Robert Dziekanski.

There is a growing call for better police training, changes to the way police deal with the homeless, addicted and mentally ill citizens, and changes to the way incidents involving police are investigated.

Y is for Yes. In the last election 57 per cent of voters said yes to the STV system, just three per cent shy of the 60 per cent required to change the face of provincial politics forever. If enough people vote yes on the referendum this time around, lines will be redrawn on the electoral map, and more parties would likely get involved. Whether that's a good thing or not is a matter for debate, but many people believe that our current first past the post system doesn't represent the true wishes of the voters, marginalizing hundreds of thousands of votes or prompting voters to cast their ballots strategically instead of as a matter of conscience. The STV system may not be the best way to achieve proportional representation, but that's what's on the table.

Z is for Zhongguó, a.k.a. The Middle Kingdom, a.k.a. China. Not only are Chinese Canadians poised to play a bigger role in the future of this province, but China also represents a huge opportunity for B.C. From a trade perspective, China is a growing market for B.C. resource industries like forestry, mining and oil and gas, potentially stabilizing trade while easing our dependence on the U.S. market. Canada is also working to achieve "Approved Destination Status" with China, which would allow Chinese tourists to visit us. China is a growing market for skiing and snowboarding, which bodes very well for Whistler.



Comments