Last month’s unqualified acquittal of former British Columbia premier Glen Clark may well signal a turning point in that province’s political scene.

The last of the NDP government’s perceived misdeeds has now been dealt with conclusively and — just as with the so-called “fudge-it budget” and the bingo fraud case — no one associated with the government was found to have done anything wrong.

Perhaps now the province can move on to more pressing matters, such as how the “Liberal” government that so convincingly defeated Clark’s successor is rapidly replacing the Klein and Harris/Eves governments as the most reactionary regime in Canada.

Slash Gordon, as Premier Gordon Campbell has unaffectionately been named in his home province, is doing some really, really bad stuff. The spotlight turned on the Clark trial helped him to avoid the attention that these sorts of actions would normally merit, but he no longer has the luxury of that distraction. Those actions have helped the NDP, which was reduced to two seats in last year’s election, to creep up past thirty per cent in the polls, and have even caused an improvement in the public’s view of Clark. “I look a bit better now,” he told the Toronto Star.

The most destructive thing that Campbell’s government has done is to hold a so-called “referendum” on treaty negotiations with native peoples. Even supporters of direct democracy admit that referendums should never be an instrument for the majority to suppress the rights of a minority. The process and wording were so flawed that even pollster Angus Reid broke his usual neutrality on the issues of the day to argue that the referendum questions were “one of the most amateurish, one-sided attempts to gauge the public will that I have seen in my political career.”

Not surprisingly, Campbell’s mail-in questionnaire (with little or no controls on voting) yielded the answers that its loaded questions were designed to elicit.

On Campbell’s first day in office, he cut personal income taxes by twenty-five per cent (with the largest portion of the cuts going to those earning $60,000 a year or more). He then cut corporate taxes even further and had the gonads to blame the resulting $1.9 billion in cuts and $4.4 billion deficit on what he calls “ten years of decline” under the NDP. Tuition was deregulated, leading to increases of twenty-two to thirty per cent. Health care premiums were increased by fifty per cent. One third of the provincial public service has been fired, at the same time as the size of the Premier’s Office was being expanded by a third and deputy ministers were been given a thirty-two per cent raise. The minimum wage was lowered to $6.00 an hour for newly hired employees.

The effect on the economy has hardly followed the path predicted by the right. Unemployment is up significantly from the final NDP years while exports have declined at a record pace.

Campbell closed two dozen court houses (including five in the riding of Liberal MLA Dave Chutter, who told reporters he didn’t know anything about the closures), shut down five hospitals (while removing key services from dozens of others), eliminated 3,000 long-term care beds, and padlocked at least thirty schools — but stood by his claim that “public services will not be affected” by his policies.

Health Minister Colin Hansen did admit that, “It may not look exactly like the health system that we have become accustomed to in the past.” Meanwhile, the independence of the Child, Youth and Family Advocate was eliminated, while the B.C. Human Rights Commission was scrapped entirely — shortly after its chief commissioner was fired for doing too good a job.

The people of B.C. are starting to take notice and raise their voice in opposition. Judging from the results of the last election, they can’t all be NDP voters.

Even provincial officials are getting into the action. The Chief Justice of B.C.’s provincial court, Carol Ellen Baird, sent a letter to Attorney General Geoff Plant expressing concern that cuts to courthouses will impede access to justice. Information and Privacy Commissioner David Loukadelis issued a press release warning that the Campbell government’s planned cuts to his office undermine the B.C. Liberals’ election promise of open and accountable government. Even the Chief Electoral Officer warns that further cuts to Elections B.C. may jeopardize his ability to run fair elections.

Following a rash of tragic speed-related crashes, Vancouver police and Vancouver City Council called for a return of photo radar.

But the most powerful indictment of the Campbell government comes not from any provincial body or official spokesperson. After being denied access to the drugs he needs to treat his liver disease, Victoria senior Bart Wittke commented, “I strongly disagreed with some of the things the last government did, but at least the NDP didn’t try and kill me.”

picture-2299.jpg

Scott Piatkowski

Scott Piatkowski is a former columnist for rabble.ca. He wrote a weekly column for 13 years that appeared in the Waterloo Chronicle, the Woolwich Observer and ECHO Weekly. He has also written for Straight...