The Art of the Impossible: Dave Barrett and the NDP in Power 1972-1975
By Geoff Meggs and Rod Mickleburgh
Harbour, 368 pp., $32.95
It's been four decades since Dave Barrett led his New Democrats to power in British Columbia, the first time the "socialist horde," as former premier W.A.C. Bennett called the NDP, formed our government.
It seems like yesterday. That's probably because of the changes Barrett brought to British Columbia, changes that are still with us.
Barrett was a man in a hurry, after waiting many years for his chance to take control. In office for just 39 months, from September 1972 to December 1975, his government averaged a new piece of legislation every three days.
He was responsible for the Insurance Corp. of B.C., the Agricultural Land Reserve, Pharmacare, Canada's first guaranteed income program for seniors, a ban on use of the strap in schools, a provincewide ambulance service, Hansard, question period and full-time MLAs.
The Art of the Impossible is the first in-depth look at the Barrett years since 1978. It's the work of Geoff Meggs, a Vancouver councillor, and Rod Mickle-burgh, who writes for the Globe and Mail.
Let there be no doubt where Meggs and Mickle-burgh stand. This is hardly an objective analysis of the Barrett government. If you take them seriously, you will have to believe that the Barrett years represented goodness, light and common sense, while the Bennett years before and after were bleak, bumbling and misguided at best.
Yes, the book presents good and bad sides of Barrett, but the bias against the Social Credit governments before and after his time in office undercuts the credibility of The Art of the Impossible. It's written for the party faithful, not for the province as a whole.
The book leans heavily on media coverage of the Barrett years, which helped shape public opinion. It draws on the memories of many people in or close to the government, but there is little of what Barrett said in retrospect in the years after he left office.
Barrett's views would have made the book stronger. A few years ago, for example, he told me that his greatest accomplishment was closing the two jails for youth, the Willing-don School for Girls and the Brannen Lake Centre for Boys. Only Willingdon is included here.
Barrett had worked in social welfare before he was fired for seeking a Co-operative Commonwealth Federation nomination for the 1960 provincial election. He had a keen interest in helping the underdog, and his election that year gave him a platform to fight for change.
Twelve years later, when he led his party to victory, Barrett declared that the New Democrats were there for a good time - more precisely, that they were there to do good things. That thinking drove their agenda, and their commitment to bring change as quickly as they could.
There is no denying that Barrett was like a blast of fresh air when he took office. The 1972 election marked not just a change in political philosophy, but also a transfer from one generation to another.
Meggs and Mickleburgh use far too many adjectives to describe the characters in their book, and it makes the narrative sound juvenile at times. We can't fault, however, their inclusion of ages. It's worth remembering that so many key decisions of the Barrett government were made by people in their 30s and 40s. They brought a perspective that was dramatically different from that of the Socreds.
Barrett's government was defeated after just one term, after it lost the support of organized labour after ordering an end to a series of strikes in 1975.
His 39 months in office transformed the province - and this book, warts and all, is the best record of what transpired.
Dave Obee is the editor-in-chief of the Times Colonist, and author of The Library Book: A History of Service to British Columbia.
