News tonight that former federal Conservative Party MP Randy White has joined the BC Conservative Party.
White was an effective if sometimes controversial MP who pushed law and order issues in the House of Commons.His letter to the BC Conservatives is reprinted below in full.
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September 20, 2009
To the membership - BC Conservative Party
For years in this province Gordon Campbell and the BC Liberals said “if you don’t vote for us you will get the NDP” and perhaps they were right. The situation today is that the BC Liberals are as bad as the BC NDP and neither are acceptable to British Columbia any longer.
It is time for the BC Conservatives to offer our province a true alternative. It is time for quality candidates to be in place one year before the next election and be in every community handing out a better message.
It is time to find us a leader that will motivate a majority of people in British Columbia to believe that both parties in the BC Legislature are out of date and offer nothing but bad spending and more taxation.
I have, after considerable deliberation joined the BC Conservative Party because the platform is responsible, believable and not the status quo and it offers the only alternative that can form a Government.
It is time to give our citizens a positive outlook to the future - something other than more taxes, improper spending and a disregard for the common ordinary resident.
Like many residents of our province I intend to put considerable energy assisting the BC Conservative Party in finding a quality leader, organize constituencies and form the next BC Government.
I spent 13 years in the House of Commons as a House Leader and Critic of various portfolios and can truly say the actions of the BC Liberals today are very similar to the Federal Government that grew out of touch with the populace back then.
The time has come for a renewal in our province and the BC Conservative Party must step up and take the lead.
Randy White
Former Member of Parliament for Abbotsford and Langley
Qualicum Beach, British Columbia
.
20 comments:
"Somewhat controversial" sure fits Randy White. It's interesting that somebody with his background finds Gordo and his gang a problem. Nobody can ever say that he is from the left side of the political spectrum. Politics makes strange bedfellows, but welcome Randy in your efforts to thump Gordo.
There is a growing number of ex-Reform-Tory MPs (and Tory MP Cummins from Delta) who have cedibility in right-wing circles.
If the provincial Tories are able to tap into a populist vein they will draw beyond the right wing populists to create a wider Reform-like appeal that could hurt the New Democrats as well as the Liberals.
NDP MLA's and workers must not rest on Legislative laurels - they must build on their community roots and issues.
Randy White? Bill, I want to see the BC Cons split the vote, too, but please for the love of god, stop providing a platform for these guys.
Anonymous said...8:34 AM
Bill,stop providing a platform for these guys.
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Do tell us then, who should Bill provide a platform for, surely you must have someone in mind.
Allow me to guess,Lizzy May?
I can see why you are warmly welcoming White into the BC Conservative fold, because this (a significantly split right in BC) is the NDP's only chance at winning a future election in this province.
It's funny to read your opening to the article. It has the sub-tone of someone celebrating the arrival of a long, lost friend and future ally.
Henri Paul: No, not Lizzy May. I vote NDP, provincially, and always have. I've never been a fan of Mr. White or any of his knee-jerk, reactionary Reformer brethren, for that matter.
Yeah, I get the "enemy of my enemy..." bit, but that doesn't make cozying up to these clowns any more palatable.. at least to me.
there is an old Arab saying " The enemy of my enemy,is my friend"
I don't care who get's in as long as it's not this criminal govt. we have in now,the people are being held back from the services we pay for while they spend and sell our assets to oblivion,there's a reason we dont have enough funds coming into our coffers,they've given them to there friends,just look who collins use to work for (harmony airlines)just after he left office,friends of a feather.Damn this is getting depressing!!!!!
Bill:
Looks like gordo's spin doctors (PAB) are loading up the blogs with their right wing nonsense. Remember one thing please righties. The fellow you are defending in office is a drunk, liar, cheat, as well as a criminal. Whether its another rightie-tightie coming in or the old guard, they are corrupt. Write away if you like. The end is coming for your bullshit. Give us back our province!
What do Gordon Campbell, Randy White and Bill Vander Zalm have in common ?
They're all part of the same political party. Liberal and Conservative voters have a long history of bouncing back and forth depending on which one is currently better equipped to keep the NDP out of power.
The Socreds emerged out of the ashes of the late 40's coalition to absorb all the votes until '91 when they all migrated back to the Liberal Party.
Vander Zalm keeps everyone distracted with this anti-HST charade while Campbell continues to completely obliterate BC and any chance of winning a 4th term. It's a master plan to avoid the split vote concern for one election period and allow them to retain control under what appears to be a new name.
In the fight between Liberal and NDP, when the Liberals are about to collapse, shouldn't we be looking for an alternative closer to the NDP instead of further away?
Angela, in answer to your last question, "In the fight between Liberal and NDP, when the Liberals are about to collapse, shouldn't we be looking for an alternative closer to the NDP instead of further away?" --
Clearly, the answer is yes. And that answer lies, not in drawing out your enemy's enemy, but in electoral reform. The FPTP system is undemocratic, and encourages a dictatorial (power concentrated in the premier of PM's office) style of governance.
This system forces polarization rather than co-operation. It produces vitriolic PR-spin hacks like Bill and his right-wing counterparts. Under FPTP, it's much easier to change party hats and reinvent yourself than it is co-operate. I have no doubt that if/when NDP power brokers reach their own logical conclusion on this score, they will morph into something else, ala a Socreds-to-Conservative-to-Liberal style transformation. If they don't, they are likely doomed under this system. And if they continue supporting FPTP, they deserve to be doomed.
The history of BC politics, of the archaic, outdated parliamentary system reads like a Kierkegaard parable:
"It is like Tordenskjold with his famous parade: it uses over and over again the same few troops,
but when they have marched past the reviewing stand they turn into a side street, don another
uniform, and thus continue the parade.....of the incalculable forces of the garrison."
Braithwaite, like many other misguided Single Transferable Vote supporters, is big on attacking me for not backing his bizarro electoral system but says nothing about the fact that 61% of BC voters took a look and said "No thanks!"
If you and Angela can't see the important differences between the NDP and the BC Liberals, sure, go out and form another party that will go absolutely nowhere and appeal to the small handful of like-minded fringies.
Or spend your time with the Green Party but don't expect social democracy to break out - Jane Sterk won't even fight the HST!
Bill, there's no need to carry on this Christ-like complex about how you represented the forces of electoral goodness, and all people who supported STV are out to crucify you since its defeat. No one, certainly not I, believes you have anything approaching this kind of influence on a broad political scale. STV failed for a host of reasons, not the least of which was low voter interest.
I actually didn't even raise STV in my previous post. I raised the general issue and need for electoral reform, and made light of the flaws inherent in FPTP. I'll let Angela defend herself.
Nor did I suggest that the NDP and Liberals were indistinguishable (although the type of cat-fight politicking they both are forced to under FPTP is indistinguishable); however, in recent years under Carole James, the gap has certainly been narrowing. What both ideological wings share is a lusty support for FPTP, which affords them each (the NDP increasingly less so) absolute power for four year stretches. This results in polarization and a culture of negative spin on all sides. You are deep in it. And I don't single you out. Many of my ideological allies are deep in it.
Minority governments, like the one in Ottawa, hint to us what's possible under a different system. The threat of election or loss of power does force co-operation and does instill a bit of much needed humility in governing leaders and parties. Yes I am fully aware of the flip side, but in Canada, all we've had is FPTP for the past 150 years. A new democratic system, even hints of one via minority governments, is just that - a hint. When we first began under a FPTP parliamentary system, there were decades of growing pains. Some didn't even get the vote until well into the last century. A new electoral system, difficult as it is for you to fathom and stomach, would also take time to grow and mature. Conceptualizing electoral reform forces you to adopt a long-term vision, rather than a cynical can-we-win-with-this-in-next-election type of vision.
As for your following remark: "Or spend your time with the Green Party but don't expect social democracy to break out - Jane Sterk won't even fight the HST!"
This is laughable, Bill. So now you would have us believe that the HST issue is an issue of social democracy? And because Jane Sterk supports the concept of an HST (we'll get to this in a sec), she is incapable of being a social democrat? From which of your hats did you pull this gem of twisted logic?
(to be continued)
(continued...)
Here's what Sterk told the Georgia Straight in August:
"The B.C. Liberal government’s decision to implement the harmonized sales tax has caused outrage in the population generally (85 percent were opposed in an Ipsos Reid poll) and from some businesses that will be negatively affected by the change. Like others, the Green Party of B.C. believes that the Liberals would have been advised to discuss the possibility of harmonizing the two sales taxes during the election.
Greens believe that the HST will be implemented despite public opposition—the B.C. Liberals need the money the federal government is offering to reduce the deficit. Given that, Greens would like to see the provincial government maintain some of the current PST exemptions and, in fact, lobby the federal government to remove the GST from these items to provide additional savings for consumers. Greens support the exemptions on sales of bicycles, electric vehicles, energy-efficient windows and appliances, building material used for energy cost reductions, heat pumps, solar power, other energy efficient devices, and used clothing.
In both 2005 and 2009, B.C. Greens’ platforms supported combining GST and PST collection. The Green Party of B.C. adopted this policy as a result of consultations with small-business organizations that said a harmonized tax would help reduce costs and simplify doing business. Reducing red tape for business is a common method for government to stimulate the economy, and simplifying taxation systems represents a step in the right direction...."
Full article: http://www.straight.com/article-247693/jane-sterk-hst-wont-help-bc-adapt-climate-change
This sounds pretty reasonable to me, Bill. Sterk has a common sense approach, has, long before the Liberals plotted to drop this bomb, consulted small business, and she shows us that there are more than one way to skin a cat when it comes to the HST.
Your problem has always been a need to play partisan brinkmanship with hot issues. At the first sign of an issue giving your Liberal opponents trouble, you don't analyze or think, but you rub your hands in joy, strategize and react, asking how you can milk the issue for maximum NDP political points. You seem to live almost exclusively for issues-exploitation and Facebook petitions to bolster that exploitation. But I don't blame you entirely - you're a product of the FPTP system, so it's sort of to be expected. Can you rise above the spin and political gamesmanship? It seems Sterk and others, even some NDP'ers can.
metaphorically speaking,we are but toilet paper to the ass of the politics!
Now a article about Randy white trying to motivate some voters on the right, morphes into election reform and cheap shots at anyone who didn't support STV which is about two thirds of those who voted. The parachute candidate in North Saanich and the Islands , a place far removed from her start point, will muddy the water and come in 4th or 5th. Makes it hard for the folks who actually live in the riding to unseat little Garry Lunn. Wonder where she will be going next time? There is no safe green seat as with all the bluster, that group haven't got one .
Randy White and the Conservative Party are upset that Campbell is negotiating treaties with First Nations.
Randy White, John Cummins, Mel Smith and Rafe Mair were all very vocal opponents to treaty negotiations when the NDP proposed the system in the 1990s. It lead to Mel SMith writing the "bible" for the anti-Indian movement in Canada - Our Home or Native Land - and to the creation of the umbrella organization for the movement, BC FIRE. They simply copied the cleaned up language of the Ku Klux Klan a la David Duke and used slogans like "one law for all" and "equal rights for everyone". The BC Liberal Party's aboriginal policy was originally to scrap the Nisga'a Treaty and their campaign propaganda was taken from BC FIRE - it was titled "One Law for All". In fact, I believe Martyn Brown, the Chief of Staff for the Campbell govt, was an organizer with BC FIRE.
To me, racist organizers are the scum of the earth. Organizing hate against First Nations should not be tolerated on the left and such organizers should be exposed at every oppoortunity.
Thanks Braithwaite, but I honestly see no need to defend myself. I just state my opinion when I have something important to say, like most people here, same as Bill. I see DPL has chimed in again too.
I don't think anyone is accusing anybody else of anything, except a difference of opinion. Bill thinks STV is bizarro, I think FPTP is bizarro.
There are differences and similarities between all parties, some important-some trivial, but these change slightly over time also and in the end it's up to each individual voter to decide which differences are important to them at the time of voting (or 1-3 months later in the case of Liberals).
By the way, DPL, I think your prediction for Elizabeth May is accurate but she is only muddying the mud. I don't see the problem in Randy White's announcement generating more dialogue on electoral reform, the change from FPTP would help defeat Gary Lunn more than hoping someone like May won't avail herself of the right to stand up as the voice for a significant number of people.
If electoral reform wasn't the biggest issue on the table would Bill be involved? Which reminds me, thanks for the advice Bill, but we've already been working on the new party concept. I think two of the groups I'm involved with came up with the idea independently. We're just hashing out some ideas for the name. Hopefully someone here has an opinion.
I want to address a couple of comments here.
One poster asked me "for the love of god" not to give the BC Conservatives a platform here.
They have no platform here - I am merely reporting the news - which I might add you have not seen in any BC newspaper, despite it's obvious significance. So far as I know only Public Eye Online and this blog have information on this development.
I will also add that this is a free speech blog.
I don't agree with much of what Randy White stands for but I find it fascinating that he is denouncing the BC Liberals, as federal Conservative Party MP John Cummins has done. It's an indication of big trouble for the Gordon Campbell government.
Next, Anonymous 6:38 talks about "racist organizers" as being the "scum of the earth".
I have allowed this strong comment despite misgivings but I think it is important to differentiate between racism and disagreeing with public policies.
I have been called an "extremist columnist" because I publicly opposed the Tsawwassen Treaty over the exclusion of Agricultural Land Reserve farmland.
But I have always supported First Nations' right to negotiate fair treaties and right the historical wrongs their people have suffered.
That's not to defend others' positions - just to note that one can have a difference of opinion without being a "racist".
Careful could be a Harperite in Conservative clothing. Just like the Greens....
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