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BC Politics

Postcard From The Leg'

Wish you were here? Read our reporter's notes from the summer session of the BC Legislature.

Tom Hawthorn 1 Aug 2013TheTyee.ca

Tom Hawthorn, a frequent contributor to The Tyee, is the author of "Deadlines: Obits of Memorable British Columbians." He lives in Victoria-Beacon Hill, where the BC Liberal candidate got just 16.96 per cent of the vote, the worst performance by a Liberal in the election.

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The BC Legislative Chambers. Photo by Scazon via Flickr Creative Commons.

It was a short beginning, only 17 days, to the 40th BC Legislative Assembly. With the dog days of summer here, it's time for vacation, and reflection.

The Liberals launched this session riding high on an unexpected election win, acquired with the help of some noteworthy newcomers.

Like Andrew Wilkinson. On paper, you will not find a more accomplished figure in the Legislature than he.

He is a Rhodes Scholar who has go on to become both a lawyer and a physician. He has been a deputy minister. He has been president of the B.C. Civil Liberties Association and of the B.C. Liberal party. In May, the voters of Vancouver-Quilchena elected him to the legislature and, in June, the premier named him minister of technology, innovation and citizens’ services.

The man is a walking CV.

So, how does so eminent a figure respond when faced with pointed Opposition questions about the scandal surrounding his party's ethnic outreach campaign?

"We not only have the rich have the rich parliamentary tradition here," he told the House. "We have the rich tradition of the English language, which contains phrases like chasing your tail, catching a red herring and flogging a dead horse. That latter term, flogging a dead horse, must surely apply to this line of questioning."

After further questions about the possibility of hush money having been paid to a disgruntled staffer, Wilkinson responded: "Well, this horse truly has no skin left. It's been flogged until it is red and blue, my friends."

After transforming into a walking-talking Cliché-O-Matic, Wilkinson picked it up a notch the next day by accusing all 34 sitting NDP members of fraud.

As a denouement, Wilkinson had second thoughts. He rose to apologize to the House for his "intemperate" remarks.

A league of their own

Congratulations to Michelle Stilwell, another Leg neophyte, who set a world record at the International Paralympic Committee world championships in Lyon, France. The new Liberal and MLA for Parksville-Qualicum knocked almost two seconds off the previous mark in the 800-metre wheelchair race.

Stilwell is following in the tracks of the late MLA Doug Mowat, who had managed the famed Dueck Powerglides wheelchair basketball team. Both Terry Fox and Rick Hansen played for the championship squad.

Sport reveals character. The Liberal caucus staff played the Press Gallery in a friendly game of softball last week at Beacon Hill Park in Victoria. The spin doctors stacked their lineup so the best hitters had more times at the plate than weaker players. The egalitarian reporters had a more laissez-faire approach in which a 10-year-old girl had twice as many at-bats as team captain Sean Leslie of CKNW. Though the polls predicted an easy win for the ink-and-pixel-stained wretches, the Liberals claimed a 13-4 victory. At least it wasn't a quick win.

'Holy corporate subsidy, Batman'

The upcoming Fantastic Four movie will be filmed in Louisiana instead of British Columbia, a disappointing decision for those who work in the movie industry. Vancouver had been the location for other Marvel movies, such as in the X-Men series. The NDP had campaigned on improving tax breaks for the television and film industry.

The latest news led George Heyman to tell the House on Thursday that "the B.C. film industry is going up in flames like The Human Torch."

Replied finance minister Mike de Jong: "Holy corporate subsidy, Batman. I always appreciate the commentary from the Boy Wonder over there."

Remember Berger?

Perhaps the NDP was hoping Adrian Dix would be their Boy Wonder. Sadly, the party's membership has an uncanny talent for selecting leaders non-NDPers find unappealing.

(Has no one in the party ever read Marshall McLuhan? Or Richard Ben Cramer's "What It Takes"? Or listened to an episode of Terry O'Reilly’s "The Age of Persuasion" or "Under the Influence" on CBC Radio? Remember: Wonks in the backroom, glad-handers on the front lines.)

Instead, Dix has turned out to be another Thomas Berger.

Berger won the New Democrat leadership convention in 1969, leading the NDP into a campaign several pundits thought spelled an end to the Socred regime. In the end, the NDP vote stayed about the same, but the party lost four seats and SoCred leader W.A.C. Bennett claimed his seventh consecutive victory. (Berger quit to be replaced by fiery social worker Dave Barrett, who would go on to win an overwhelming majority in 1972 and oversee a hectic and historic three-year government.)

The voters had a chance to evaluate Dix and his team in circumstances as favourable as the NDP has ever faced since then and he failed to win over enough of them. It happens. His leadership is doomed, though not his career.

Media playing nice

Premier Christy Clark made a surprise cameo this week when sworn in as MLA for Westside-Kelowna. The august ceremony took place overlooking the waters of Vancouver harbour and not of Okanagan Lake in her home-away-from-home riding.

To the everlasting embarrassment of British Columbia's media, such newspapers as the Vancouver Sun and the Victoria Times Colonist published handout photographs of the event released by the B.C. Liberal's government caucus.

The swearing in appears to have taken place within shouting distance of the Vancouver Sun and Province newsrooms. No photographers left on staff? Or no invitation?

I can see why the government would like to control its image in the media, and Christy Clark is a brilliant retail politician, a happy warrior on the hustings, a baby-kissing, hand-shaking, hockey jersey-wearing, red light-avoiding campaigner. (Oops. Forget the last attribute.)

I cannot see why the commercial media should play along.  [Tyee]

Read more: BC Politics

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