OPINION
6 The Mission Record Thursday, May 23, 2013
Published and printed by Black Press Ltd. at Mission at 33047 First Ave., V2V 1G2
System broken
Another election has come and gone, and once again half of those eligible to vote in this province didn’t bother. And who can blame them? In a political system where the BC Liberals can win a clear majority in the legislature with fewer than half the votes, and thus dictate legislation for the next four years unimpeded, is it any wonder why the other half feel completely disenfranchised? When the Conservatives can garner close to 80,000 votes and still have no representation in the legislature, is it any wonder why so many British Columbians feel like they don’t have a voice? Of course, representation means nothing in the provincial legislature if you are a member of a minority party. Because every vote in the legislature is whipped, there is no opportunity for meaningful debate, and no chance for good ideas to be heard, should they come a member of the opposition. When a majority government consistently votes in the legislature along party lines, as every ruling party in B.C. has done for more than 60 years, then what we have is little more than a dictatorship, dressed up to look like democracy. If no meaningful debate takes place in the legislature, which is the reason it exists in the first place, and instead happens only behind closed doors by party insiders, why is the legislature even necessary? Something is very wrong with our political system, and low voter turnout is symptomatic of this. The fact is, if you’re not with the winners, you’re a loser, and your voice doesn’t matter. - South Delta Leader
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Polarized politics a costly system O ne benefit of the surprising fourth term for the BC Liberal Party is that the provincial government won’t be subjected to another big, expensive ideological remake. Taxpayers are spared a bill of millions in severance pay for deputy ministers and other senior staff who would be purged in large numbers in the left-right lurch that has defined B.C. politics for a generation. BC Ferries will continue as an arms-length operation, with ferry commissioner Gord Macatee in charge of service levels as well as fare caps. The service rationalization that the government set out in the past year will continue. The NDP platform vowed to “position BC Ferries as an integral part of B.C.’s transportation infrastructure.” Freely translated, that means “suck BC Ferries back into government,” as one of their strident supporters likes to say. That would conceal the growth of the subsidy and facilitate the kind of political and union interference that resulted in the current
Q
structure. There will be no $10 million rehash of the BC Rail sale and subsequent sevenyear trial, to enrich elite lawyers once again. The NDP promised an inquiry for strictly political reasons, to drag their opponents through the scandal one more time. It was not a prelude to “nationalizing” the province’s train service, dream scenarios of the NDP provincial council notwithstanding. Costly legal confrontations over development projects have been avoided. The Jumbo Glacier To Resort proponents finally won a 20year fight for permits, and the NDP promised to take them away. A larger ideological battle over private power contracts has also been avoided. The BC Liberals have been caught by a sudden shift in power markets caused by cheap, abundant natural gas, but the billions in commit-
ments to independent power producers isn’t the fiasco that critics have described. If all those privately developed run-of-river hydro projects were owned and operated by BC Hydro, the Crown corporation would have to staff them and maintain them all for the next 40 years. There are differing views about the future demand for electricity in B.C., but it can only rise with industry and population growth. We will have a Seniors’ Advocate office, but it won’t be staffed up to duplicate the Ombudsperson’s role of m taking complaints. That’s good, since the Ombudsperson has become ineffective, labouring for years over a massive seniors’ report with so many recommendations it sank like a stone. We have 85 seniors’ advocates now. They’re called MLAs, and they definitely take complaints. They have staffed offices
B.C. Views
Fletcher
uestion of the Week:
Should voting be made mandatory?
in their home communities and in Victoria. When they’re not doing political work that everyone denies is going on in constituency offices, those office staffers try to help people through the labyrinth of seniors’ at-home and institutional care. A new seniors’ advocate can offer advice at the management level to help the health care system evolve, but only elected politicians are positioned to tell individuals they can’t have what they are demanding. The government should be adding more direct services, not more bureaucrats. There will be many arguments about the failure of the NDP to win against an unpopular B.C. Liberal government that is still weighed down by the harmonized sales tax and other heavy baggage. This election could be the beginning of the end for the old left-right model for B.C. politics. Tom Fletcher is legislative reporter and columnist for Black Press and BCLocalnews.com tfletcher@blackpress.ca
Last week: Did you vote in this year’s provincial election? Yes: 93% No: 7%
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