Campbell's Big Promises This Time

In April, Gordon Campbell and his BC Liberal party released a document entitled Real Leadership, Real Progress for British Columbia. Touted as the party's election "platform," the 44-page, full-colour, glossy-paper production featured 29 photographs of a grinning Campbell, questionable boasts of past accomplishments, and the occasional slap at their New Democratic Party rivals.

The platform also outlined several dozen policy initiatives to be implemented should Campbell's party win re-election to government. Weeks later, on May 17, the Liberals retained a majority of legislative seats, 46, compared to 33 for the New Democrats.

But at the end of August, following a NDP caucus retreat, opposition leader Carole James issued the following statement: "Since the election, the Campbell government has been very quiet. And we're all wondering what direction it intends to take. Wondering what message Mr. Campbell took from the election. In a short time, the people of BC will get a first look at the Campbell government's second term agenda."

This seems a remarkable interpretation of events. Does James mean to suggest that Campbell and his BC Liberal government, rather than planning the implementation of their election promises, only now are drafting their agenda for the next four years? Such a view is at odds with our parliamentary system of government, where a party wins a "mandate" from the electorate to implement its "platform."

Having made a slew of promises to B.C. voters, the re-elected Campbell government ought to be expected to keep them.

Fewer commitments this time around

Real Leadership, Real Progress is the third platform that Gordon Campbell's BC Liberals have produced in the last decade, following The Courage to Change in 1996, and A New Era for British Columbia in 2001. The latter two documents, written when Campbell and his party were in opposition to New Democratic Party governments, contained promises of tax cuts, balanced budgets, and the designation of education as an "essential service."

And as everyone knows, Campbell, in 1996, promised to sell the government-owned BC Rail. Five years later, he dropped that pledge and instead vowed that he would "not sell or privatize" the Crown corporation. He failed to win a mandate for the first policy, and then won with the second, but broke his word and sold the provincial railway to CN Rail. (Space does not allow for an examination of "broken" mandates.)

The 2005 Campbell-Liberal platform offers far fewer commitments than the party's first two election documents, but nonetheless there are a couple of dozen promises that British Columbians will expect the government to keep.

Tuition and veggies

Education appears to be a priority for the Campbell government. Physical fitness will be made mandatory for students from kindergarten to grade 9, "junk food" will be banned from all public schools, and all students will receive free-servings of BC-grown fruits and vegetables by 2010.

The government will ban "inappropriate partisan political activities" at public schools, and create a public registry at the College of Teachers to reveal the names of instructors disciplined for abusing students. At the same time, the Liberals want to initiate a dialogue with teachers at an annual congress, and offer "financial incentives" to reward teachers for unspecified achievements.

The Liberal platform also reiterates an earlier commitment to cap post-secondary tuition rates at the rate of inflation, and vows to help low-income families with an expanded student loan reduction program.

As for health, the Liberals pledge to boost efforts to recruit and train physicians and nurse-practitioners.

Make taxes more 'fair'

The Campbell government also has promised to create an "Asia-Pacific Museum of Trade and Culture," as well as a "World Women's History Museum" in conjunction with the Royal BC Museum. To assist in promoting the Winter Olympics in 2010, funding will be doubled for Tourism BC, a $20 million "Spirit of BC Arts Fund" will be established, and the industry's share of the hotel room tax lifted from 1.65 percent to 3 percent.

There are additional commitments to increase First Nations' hiring by the public service, host an annual "Multicultural Dialogue" between ethnic leaders and MLAs, improve the Knowledge Network, and double the government's fleet of hybrid automobiles.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the Campbell government intends to conduct a "comprehensive review of B.C.'s tax policies and legislation" to enhance "fairness." No doubt the study will generate considerable comment on Liberal policies which have shifted the tax burden from higher-income to lower-income British Columbians, and moved from "progressive" to "regressive" levies.

All in all, the 2005 Campbell-Liberal platform is rather thin and unsubstantial compared to those offered in previous elections. Still, it provides a blueprint for what British Columbians may expect from Victoria over the next four years.

And it will be up to Carole James and her NDP caucus to ensure that the Liberals keep their election promises, as well as opposing flip-flops and unpopular policies. That's part of our parliamentary system, too.

POLITICIANS & PROMISES, A SHORT HISTORY
Running on 'platforms' and earning 'mandates' is only two centuries old.

Although the British parliamentary system dates to the 13th century, "mandates" and "platforms" are less than 200 years old. They form an essential part of that long, slow process whereby political power devolved from the sovereign to parliament; and within the latter institution, from the unelected House of Lords to the popularly-elected House of Commons.

From the development of the party system in the late 1600s to the early 1800s, the franchise was restricted to the aristocracy and upper gentry in the counties - 'the landed interest,' which generally favoured the Tories - and select merchants and tradesmen in the boroughs - 'the moneyed interest' which tended to support the Whigs.

The entire electorate was less than five percent of the British population. Women did not have the right to vote, and only one in every six or seven men was eligible to do so.

After holding power for much of the 18th century (from the South Sea Bubble to the American Revolution), the Whigs finally gave way to the Tories as the Industrial Revolution took hold of Britain and the island's population exploded. By the time Napoleon was defeated at Waterloo in 1815, the growing middle-class chafed to participate in public affairs. But fearful of 'democracy' and a replay on home soil of the bloody French Revolution, and made anxious by Luddite riots and mass public demonstrations, the Tory government responded with repression. Badly divided in opposition, the Whigs offered no clear alternative.

The first 'mandate'

The first cracks in the old party system appeared in 1828 and 1829 when legislation preventing 'non-conformists' and 'dissenters' - those who, such as Unitarians and Methodists, rejected the Anglican doctrine - and Catholics from holding public office was repealed.

In 1831, the Tory government retained a shaky hold on power in the general election that followed William IV's ascension to the British throne, but they soon were defeated in the Commons. The new king summoned the Whigs to form a government and Earl Grey, their leader, introduced a bill to abolish the "rotten" boroughs and create new electoral districts in unrepresented cities in the North and Midlands

In speaking to the Reform bill, Grey said he was "pledged to it when out of office, and still more when in office, from a sense of public duty." It went down to defeat, parliament was dissolved, and the country faced another general election with Reform the sole issue before voters. Pledged to that policy, the Whigs triumphed with a huge majority.

Grey's statement supporting Reform marked the first time a government had sought, and obtained, a "mandate" from voters to enact a specific policy. The following year, in 1832, the first great Reform Act became law.

(Not until 1918, after several reform measures, did the electorate include nearly all adult men and women. Over that period, generally, the Tories were transformed into Conservatives, while the Whigs became Liberals.)

The Tamworth Manifesto

The 'platform' soon followed. In 1834, after Grey had retired and his Whig successor, Viscount Melbourne, was dismissed by William IV, the king summoned Robert Peel to form a government. Peel was a prominent Tory, although he had taken to describing himself as a Conservative.

He acceded to the king's request, but because the office of prime minister (actually, First Lord of the Treasury) provided a government salary, Peel had to resign as a member of parliament and seek re-election.

In the subsequent by-election in the borough of Tamworth, Peel wrote an open letter to the constituents explaining the Tory-Conservative principles that would guide his government. Known to history as the 'Tamworth Manifesto,' the letter caused a sensation in Britain. "When before did a Prime Minister think it expedient to announce to the people," a correspondent with the Quarterly Review wrote in wonder, "not only his acceptance of office, but the principles and even the details which he intended to produce."

More than a century later, one of Britain's greatest prime ministers took note of the impact that the mandate and the platform had on parliamentary politics. "Elections gradually became a judgment on what the Government of the day had accomplished," wrote Winston Churchill, "and an assessment of the promises for the future made by the two parties."

BC in 1903

British Columbia's first general election with political parties, in 1903, also marked the inaugural appearance of party platforms. The policies were developed by delegates at conventions across the province: the Liberals in Vancouver, the labour-socialist Provincial Progressive Party at Kamloops; and the Conservatives in Revelstoke.

Many policies in the three platforms were surprisingly similar. The Liberals pledged government-owned "public services and utilities" and government-controlled railway rates; the Progressives were committed to public-ownership of railways, the "means of communication," smelters and refineries; and the Conservatives promised government-owned railways "wherever possible" (with provincially-controlled rates), telephone systems, the "possible establishment of state-owned [coal] mines," and "active state aid in the development of agriculture."

Labour relations were important to all parties, and, probably, to voters as well. The Progressives and Liberals both favoured "compulsory arbitration" to resolve disputes, while the Conservatives vowed to enact legislation "to help in the amicable adjustment of disputes between employers and employees."

And in a dispiriting reminder of social sentiments in the province a century ago, all three parties promised to prevent "Oriental" immigration.

Tyee regular columnist Will McMartin is a political consultant who has been affiliated with the Conservative, Social Credit and BC Reform parties.