British Columbia has long been world-class when it comes to goofy politics, but we’re really going to have to lengthen our stride if we are to retain that title. Others are treading on our heels.
We need to re-energize our goofiness if we want to continue to attract the admiration of the likes of Matthew Engel, a columnist with the Guardian newspaper in the U.K., who wrote that while B.C. is “definitely one of God’s better ideas … its politics are vicious, corrupt, polarized and rather charmingly wacko.”
When it comes to goofiness, B.C. seldom fails to deliver. Premiers come and go in other provinces, but not at the same rate as in B.C., where tumbling out of office in disgrace seems to be a favoured method of exit.
There’s Bill Vander Zalm, resigning as premier after being found in conflict of interest over the sale of his theme park, and Glen Clark leaving abruptly in the wake of the Casinogate scandal, after succeeding Mike Harcourt who resigned because of the Bingogate scandal.
Politicians usually like to have their images splashed about, but it depends on the circumstances. After Gordon Campbell was arrested in Hawaii for drunk driving, his police mug shot was plastered all over the place: on T-shirts, coffee mugs, barbecue aprons, votive candles and lunchboxes.
Maybe the publicity didn’t hurt — he went on to win two more terms as premier, although a year-and-a-half after lis last election, he resigned over the HST debacle, thanks in part to the efforts of Vander Zalm.
You would think elections would put premiers in power and boot them out, but the last B.C. premier to be voted both in and out of power was Dave Barrett, whose party was defeated in the 1975 election.
You can get dizzy watching the revolving door on the premier’s office.
But we’re slipping. Look at all the attention that’s been lavished on Toronto’s Mayor-in-name-only Rob Ford. Why, he even enjoyed a spell as the darling of American talk shows. Sure, he was the target of ridicule, but as my lawyer friend says: “There’s no such thing as bad publicity.”
Speaking of Americans, we’re going to have to beef up our goofiness to compete with what happens south of the border. I spent six years running a newspaper in Nevada, living in a small city that shares Clark County with a much larger Nevada city that is the world capital of goofy. When a certain county commissioner termed out (politicians can serve only three consecutive terms in Nevada), he was lambasted by a Las Vegas newspaper columnist for his complete unsuitability for the position:
“Because Bruce Woodbury is a terrible disappointment, that’s why. And when I say terrible, I mean he’s one of the worst commissioners I’ve ever watched in action.
“For one thing, Woodbury was never indicted for political corruption by a federal grand jury. Not once. This is simply unacceptable in Clark County.”
The columnist went on to list the former county commissioners who had served or were serving time in prison for political corruption. He also listed the squeaky-clean Woodbury’s boring list of achievements.
“In all that time, I haven’t found one good slice of scandal to pin to his lapel,” he wrote.
Political tricks were not limited to the big city. In the town where I worked, the mayor lost his re-election bid after being investigated by the FBI for political corruption and after holding an illegal meeting with certain city employees (a recording of which was handed to me from the back seat of a dark-windowed Suburban to which I had been summoned by a mysterious phone call).
But can Nevada compare to Illinois, where six governors have been charged with crimes during or after their governorships; four were convicted, and of those, one was impeached and removed from office?
The newest question on background checks: Are you, or have you ever been, a governor of the state of Illinois?
When you think about it, “goofy politics” is a redundancy, regardless of where you live.
But still, our reputation is at stake. Premier Christy Clark and Opposition Leader John Horgan are able, charismatic people, but ethnic-outreach scandal and lavish expenses notwithstanding, they and other B.C. politicians are simply not doing their part to uphold B.C.’s tradition of political wackiness.
