The B.C. Liberals are famous for their misdirection. What are we to make of Premier Gordon Campbell’s suggestion that he is about to become a political victim of a campaign by trade unions and special interests in B.C.?

The Premier claimed in one interview: “I have every expectation that all the dollars the major unions have set aside to fight the government will be coming forward next fall as part of their campaign against us. I won’t be surprised by that.” The Premier further claimed that trade unions have “millions and millions of dollars they’re setting aside with membership dues, etc.,” to fight the government.

Campbell’s invocation of union power is laughable in substance. It is as if 77 out of 79 seats are apparently not enough to satisfy his drive for power or implement his agenda.

There is a threat to the democratic debate in B.C. from special interest money but it doesn’t come from the labour movement. The B.C. Liberal Party itself has become the representative of private, special interests to an extent never before seen in B.C. or Canada.

Over the past four years, the B.C. Liberals have received $14.8 millionfrom corporations and business organizations. The NDP in the same four-year period received just under $1.1 million from trade unions. For the Premier to talk about a multi-million dollar labour fund is little more than a politician demonizing his opponents with untruths.

The B.C. Liberals received more than 13 times as much from business as the NDP received from Labour.

On top of this, the B.C. Liberals spent more than $2 million of taxpayers’ money on their most recent TV and print advertising campaign, promoting the government’s health care agenda. This is part of an extravaganza of government paid partisan advertising this year. How much did the government spend this year of your money on ad campaigns? They currently refuse to say.

The B.C. Liberals received more than three-quarters of their money from big corporations in the 2001 general election campaign. No party in Canadian history has come close to this level of corporate dominance. No American state-level party approaches this level. And most European countries place strict limits on donations from corporations.

This level of corporate control of the political process only promotes cynicism and diminishes the political process. The Premier’s party received almost $100,000 in campaign donations from CN, the new owners of BC Rail, over the past four years. When the Premier broke his solemn promise to B.C. voters not to privatize the crown corporation, what role did such contributions play?

It isn’t just BC Rail. The pharmaceutical industry and private health care providers have contributed significantly to the B.C. Liberals and have seen their interests promoted by the government contrary to specific campaign promises. The result inevitably will be more care for the few, less care for the many, more costs for all taxpayers and growing cynicism about the political process.

Sadly, the Premier has rejected calls to reform the campaign finance system in our province to promote a cleaner, more transparent political process. Could it be that he benefits too much from the present system to consider necessary reforms? The B.C. Liberals oppose any effort to ban or limit corporate and union donations to political parties and refer to limits on special interest participation in election campaigns as “gag laws.”

The Premier is out-of-step with the province and the country on this issue. For all of the criticism leveled at former Prime Minister Jean Chrétien over ethical questions, he made a vital contribution to restoring integrity to national politics when he led his government to ban corporate and union donations at the national level.

This month, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform law that banned so-called soft money contribution to American candidates and parties and limited special interest spending in the electoral campaigns.

In supporting the majority decision, Justice Sandra Day O’Connor wrote: “Just as troubling to a functioning democracy as classic quid pro quo corruption is the danger that officeholders will decide issues not on their merits or the desires of their constituencies, but according to the wishes of those who have made large financial contributions valued by the officeholder. And unlike straight cash-for-votes transactions, such corruption is neither easily detected nor practical to criminalize. The best means of prevention is to identify and to remove the temptation.” She could have been talking about Gordon Campbell’s B.C.

The B.C. Liberal Party has a massive war chest from its private backers and myriad organizations willing and able to spend their own money to trash opponents of the government.

The Premier diminishes himself with this approach. Earlier this year, voters showed great generosity toward Campbell when he was convicted in the courts in Hawaii. He has not responded with generosity in return. Rather than offering a message for all British Columbians, he has responded with more of the politics of division, targeting workers, income assistance recipients, tenants and environmentalists.

With less than 18 months to the election and his government’s agenda in disarray, the Premier has little left but to use his powerful backers to pound his opponents. Get ready. The Premier has rung the bell on what maybe the most expensive, parochial and longest election campaign ever.