The prime minister came to British Columbia several times during the campaign, apparently eagerto demonstrate just how out-of-touch he is with politics in our province.Paul Martin, whose campaign in B.C. is directed, financed andcontrolled by Gordon Campbell Liberals, is calling on voters to reject a Conservative program of “unaffordable corporate tax reductions, privatization and slashing cuts to health care.”

Martin is apparently turning irony into a political message.

Again and again during his visit last week, Martin appealed to NDP supporters tovote Liberal in order to block Stephen Harper’s Conservatives from forming the next government. The prime minister has given up discussing his record or his program. His final appeal for strategic voting is based on the hopethat his now-tarnished B.C. “dream team” can somehow come to the rescue of the Liberals’ diminished base in Eastern Canada.

Martin’s message is fundamentally unconvincing for at least two central reasons. Firstly, the Liberals are third and dropping in B.C. The polls indicatethat B.C. is returning to voting patterns of the 1980s, primarily a Conservative-NDP fight. If voters really want to stop Harper here, theyneed to vote NDP.

Outside of a few seats they hold at present in the city of Vancouver, the Liberal party is done in British Columbia and nowhere is this more evident than on Vancouver Island. On the Island, the prime minister’s Liberal candidates will finish thirdin every seat on with one possible exception — in Saanich-Gulf Islands, they might finish fourth.

Tellingly, the prime minister did not even bother to visit Vancouver Island during his final campaign swing in our province.

You don’t need to believe the pollsters, or the pundits or the media, for signs that the Liberal party is a spent force after 11 years asgovernment. The prime minister who was going to change politics, to correct the democracy deficit, has not run a single positive ad in a month. Nightafter night, the airwaves are filled with Liberal attack ads principallytargeting Harper. What can we say of a prime minister who is unable to devote even30 seconds of paid time to promote his own record or sparse agenda forchange?

Secondly, particularly on the application of the Canada Health Act,Martin’s most recent “No. 1 issue,” his position is virtually indistinguishablefrom that of the Conservatives. For a few days, for example, the prime minister seized on Alberta Premier Ralph Klein’s comments that he planned to introduce health reforms in defiance of the Canada Health Act. Martin declared that he would neverallow the Canada Health Act to be violated and alleged a secret deal betweenKlein and Harper to destroy the fundamental principles of medicare.

After Martin made Alberta’s stand a federal election issue, Klein revealed his plans early — and they contained no threats to the Canada Health Act. But here’s the rub. Klein made virtually the exact same declarations in February, in March, in April and in May about introducing legislation in defiance of the Canada Health Act. In response, Martin said nothing. The question is who do you believe: Martin in February, March, April andMay or Martin of the last week?

A more concrete example is even more telling. In March 2004, B.C.’sprovincial Liberal government implemented a privatization plan for MSP, offering the contract to manage public health insurance and the public Pharmacare planto Maximus Inc., an American multinational company based in Reston, Va. The first principle of the Canada Health Act reads: “The administration of the health-care insurance plan of a province or territory must be carried out on a non-profit basis by a public authority.” The B.C. government’s action is a defiant and clear-cut violation of the fundamental principlesof medicare, as defined by federal law. Nothing “secret” about it, they went and did it right in front of the prime minister.

The provincial government’s decision also exposes our health-care systemto challenges under the North American Free Trade Agreement and potentially threatens the privacy of B.C. residents by exposing confidential health information to scrutiny under the U.S. Patriot Act.

Yet Martin has said nothing and done nothing about it. He has notchallenged his B.C. Liberal friends. Could it be then that the federal Liberals’ passionate commitment to the Canada Health Act extends only to provinces governed by “Conservative” premiers? Regardless, Martin has failed hisonly test in defending the Canada Health Act. In the final days of the election campaign, there have been moreself-serving appeals for “strategic voting” by Martin’s Liberals. This argument isbased on the notion that by voting for the party you most believe in, you may be “wasting” your vote. However, in B.C., the rejuvenated NDP is the partymost likely to defeat the Conservatives, not Martin’s party.

And in reality, no vote is wasted, in spite of the spin from politiciansand their campaigns. Not all of our politics is determined by what happens in parliament. Let this be the election when the voters’ true voice is heard.