View From Victoria: Conservatives and DRIPA

- All right, it is time for us to check in with Von Palmer from the Vancouver Sun, Von. Von, I have a question for you this morning. - Yeah, sure. - What do you do when the news is terrible? Like, what do you do to chill out and not think about terrible news? - My best advice on this came from my mentor in this business, Bruce Hucherson. He started work during World War I, and he worked all the way World War II, and he did his last piece for the paper when he was 91 years old in 1992. And I asked him about it, like, what was it like to be there at these events? And he said, people won't believe you. You won't believe me, but you just get on with your life. He said that when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, so Canada was already in the war at that point, he said, someone leaned out to him and said, you know, this had happened, and Bruce said, he was digging a latrine at his summer place at Shawnegan Lake, and he said, and in fact, he wrote this, I kept digging. What else was I going to do? We're little people in the world. We don't control events, get on with your life. It's the best thing, what will happen, what will be will be, and looking after your family and your job and your life, and not doing scrolling or getting anxious. We didn't have to do those days, of course. That's the best advice, you know? Keep doing what you're doing. You are so right, thank you. You know, when 9/11 happened, it's funny, I thought of Bruce. I was out walking the dog. And you know, a friend phoned me on my then giant cell phone to tell me, and I just kept walking the dog and went to work, because what else were you going to do? That is very true. Thank you for that. I think we needed to hear that this morning. And there's always BC politics to amuse us, right, when we need a bit of a break. Let's talk about the BC conservative leadership here, because they were finally hearing about some of the rules. Yeah, they got the rules out on Friday. I thought the committee might take a little longer to do that. I joked about the fact there were six lawyers on it. How long would it take them to get consensus? So they got consensus, and the rules are tough and straightforward. So the members have got three months to sign up, new members. So that's, you know, you jump in, you can go out and sign people up. That's a pretty good long window. Voting itself starts on May the 9th. So it'll be kind of an online system. Party hasn't decided whether they need to have a formal convention to mark the end of it, but the race is over May 30th. So that means you'll have a good long window to sign people up, but it also means the new leader, unless it's an acclamation. It isn't going to be that. The new leader won't be in place before the legislature adjourns. Man, these folks, they got a high entry fee, $15,000. That's a big fee. And they're not fooling around about the news of the rules. Finds of up to $75,000 for messing around and breaking the rules. So I know one of the candidates, Sheldon Claire, said, this is to make sure there's no funny business. And I think he's right about that. As you know, Simea, there was a lot of controversy over the last conservative convention back at March. But any leadership, any leadership race, Vaughn, usually has some kind of weird stuff that goes on that becomes like an issue. Yeah. Oh, yeah, oh, it does. The difference here is the oversight. So this panel is going to remain in charge of things. And as I said, their determined this will not be tainted by such synonygons. We'll see. But they've certainly put in place a bunch of tough rules. Claire, by the way, who's not that well-known, I don't think in BC Yeti's MLA for Prince George, he says he can afford the money upfront and he's in. He's already announced he's running. And I guess he's got a line on either a great bank loan or some backers, but he's going to put up $115,000. And he says he thinks all of us serious candidates, not triflers, will be weeded out by this. OK, that's going to be really interesting, because a couple of the people who jumped in, they would have known already that it was going to be a pretty high entrance fee, wouldn't they? Yeah, the party had passed the word around. We'd kind of heard last week before this came down that it was going to be $100,000. So yeah, the people who jumped in last week knew that this is what they were looking at. And of course, the other thing, the limit, the spending limit. You can spend $2 million. I looked at that and went, who the hell is going to spend $1,000? That's a lot of money. Maybe we've jumped about the A&W guy, right? That from West Van, he can afford. But no, I mean, I'll be surprised if they spend that much. All of the spending does have to be disclosed. And you'll know at the end of it who put it up. And it is subject to the rules on donations that also apply in provincial elections. So anyway, they're underway. It looks like they're going to have a field of maybe as many as 1/2 dozen candidates. And I think we'll be following this all spring. The new Democrats, however, are not going to be seeing the new leader in the House. I don't think, as I say, unless it's an acclimation. So Trevor Hallford will be a leader of the opposition. And he stays semi, as you know, as leader of the opposition, if they pick somebody who doesn't have a seat in the House, because he's an interim leader of the conservatives. But you can't be leader of the opposition unless you have a seat in the legislature. - So interesting, lots for us to talk about too. And we have more to discuss on this front. Talking with Vom Palmer from the Vancouver Sun. A little bit more about the BC conservatives here. This one, it feels like one of the big issues shaping up for their leadership race has to do with the, with the Drupal legislation. - Yeah, in fact, I think it's emerging as the first really big issue of the year, because the government says it's going to rewrite that legislation. The conservatives are saying, repeal it. And in between that, you have people saying, well, maybe you can get away with just amendments. But the whole issue is we way back in 2019, legislature unanimously enacted legislation that said we're going to begin implementing the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. And the government assured the House that that was just a process that was being put in place. Framework, consultation, there'd be separate agreements on different things. But the government said that's not going to mean that the courts are going to start rewriting our laws right away, mindful of the UN Declaration. The courts haven't seen it that way. As you know, Sammy, they've started stepping in and saying, well, this law is void. So, you know, the debate is genuine. It's both sides are admitting there needs to be change. The government hasn't told us what they're going to do. But they say they're going to amend the law. The conservatives are saying, no, this is so sweeping. What's happening here? You're just going to repeal the law and just began doing one-off agreements with First Nations on Projects. So that's the range. Trevor Halford, the interim leader of the conservatives, he said last December, repeal is the way to go. And I see the latest candidate in Peter Milibar who announced on Friday, he says he supports repeal as well. Sammy, it's interesting. He got asked about that and he said, look, it is not racist to say that that legislation needs to be repealed. That's interesting because it is relevant to point out. Milibar is wife and indigenous. His children are indigenous. As he says, he's told us his son-in-law is indigenous. So when he says it's not racist, he does speak with some authority on that issue. OK, there's that. But let's also talk about one of the other opposition parties. And there's so many for us to choose from. But center BC, why are we talking about center BC? You know, I'm guessing there may be listeners out there who don't follow provincial politics as a full-time obsession, the way I do it, maybe you never heard of center BC. But center BC started up in the wake of the collapse of BC United before the last election. BC United MLA, briefly Karen Kirkpatrick, is its leader and their party is out there trying to position itself as the new option in the center, like the name says. I was struck, Bob Mackin had this last week. There's a group of center BC members who are complaining about a toxic atmosphere in the party demanding resignations. They say they're reluctant to go public entirely because they're worried about recrimination and retribution although I don't know what a party like that could do in terms of retribution. But anyway, I sort of saw that. And I thought, Jimmy, you finally reached the big leagues in DC politics. You've got internal dissension and you're going to split. What distinguishes British Columbia political parties particularly those on the center right is internal dissension. So welcome to the club center BC. You're now in there along with all the others. That's just, it's funny, but also so disheartening, though, Vaughan, why is it so hard for these parties or just people to get their act together? Yes, that is a question for the ages. And, you know, it underscores one of the remarkable things about the NDP, you know, this party was reduced to two seats in the 2001 election. It picked itself up off the floor and rebuilt itself. It has certainly had dissension over the years and it's had leaders forced out, both Glenn Clark and Mike Hartcourt, but it has somehow managed a phenomenal level of discipline for the most part, kept its internal seething internal. Careful not to say too much publicly. And I think it's one reason that they have managed to govern the province for eight years and why, even though there's a lot of trouble at the moment, Simea and the conservative candidates are saying their leader will be the next premier of British Columbia. We're a long way from that because one thing that the center right hasn't been able to do is to master the NDP art of internal discipline. - Right, but you made a point there is it's clearly the NDP have had this happen before. They obviously went through a lot of years where this was a problem. And you could say during that time, the center right didn't have that problem. Like from Post-Gordon Wilson, Post-Gordon Wilson was Gordon Campbell took over right up until the party went awry when Chris E. Clark stepped down. That was a remarkable stretch of tight party discipline. That is true, Simea. And one thing that political scientists will tell us is that it is easier to master the discipline and internal discipline if you're in power. Because you know, honorable memory, you want the road paved and you're riding well, you better shut up, right? And you know, or we'll make you parliamentary secretary in charge of glaciation or something, right? You give you a job. That isn't as easy to do in opposition. You just don't have those kinds of tools. And also, you're out of power. So everybody's having a big argument about which combination of issues will get us back into power. And of course, you talk to your friends and supporters. They all agree with you. And you go, you know what we really need to do is all, let's see, privatize ICBC. There's an issue that will click with me and my friends, doesn't swing with the public. So yeah, I think it's partly, but I think, don't downplay the NDP's degree of discipline and eye on the ball. That party has been more united and not through a history that goes back to 1933 and a different name. So, you know, Ebi has managed, even though you, you know, won the election semi by one seat in 22 votes so far, he's managed a level of public unity. Never mind what people might be saying about him behind his back. That's very true. All right, thanks for that, Vaughn. Bye-bye, Sid. It's Vaughn Palmer there from the Vancouver Sun. If you want to weigh in, see me at cknw.com. Everybody, I have an announcement. Your favorite family in law, it's lawyering 101 is back. This is gonna be fun. Controversial cases. So you're dating a doll. Hello, nice to meet you. Complicated relationships. You broke up. What did you do? What did I do? You'd have a very aggressive personality. 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