Bruce Strachan
Right Side Up
Recent events on the provincial political scene show the B.C. electorate has its politicians right where it wants them: worried and on the move.
NDP leader Carole James was in Prince George last week with a regional economic forum titled Our Province - Our Future. It was the Central Interior leg of an NDP roadshow designed to produce a major economic position paper next spring.
"We're developing an economic strategy for all British Columbians" James told me, "and these input sessions are helping us put meat on the bones of development policy."
It's a good process, and if anything, shows that James is in for the long haul. From a personal perspective, James has two nagging issues to address. First, she's winning by default. James' current popularity is a direct result of Gordon Campbell's significant unpopularity, but the comfort of having Campbell run interference for her will end when Campbell goes.
The other cloud on James' horizon is the NDP. The party can be nasty and if it senses James could lose her current lead and her third provincial campaign, watch for the knives to come out.
Give James credit for the provincial policy meetings, she's staking out her position as a leader in touch, while developing a province-wide grass-roots base.
Over in Liberal land, Premier Gordon Campbell is doing his best to lead from behind, way behind.
He's slogging along as best he can, all the while attempting to show he's an effective manager of the province's largest enterprise.
As an example, Monday's cabinet shuffle was a bit of a tweak towards economic progress and kept a team with a productive record in place. Locally, Pat Bell keeps forests, adds mines and takes on a larger resource development role, a good move for both industries and the North.
Shirley Bond keeps highways and most importantly, stays on at Treasury Board as vice-chair. It's always good to have a local MLA around when the cheques are written.
Campbell's long suit is his ability to manage the economy. This strength recently acknowledged by the Fraser Institute, which ranked Campbell as Canada's best premier when it comes to fiscal policy. Fraser Institute senior economist Niels Veldhuis said, "Of the 10 premiers we examined, Premier Campbell did a better job of managing his province public finances and pursuing long-term economic policies." A nice compliment for Campbell and the only good news he's had in some time.
As this column is being written prior to Campbell's Wednesday-night TV address, it's difficult to comment on any new directions, but suffice it to say, he will accentuate his concern for the B.C. economy and his government's ability to manage the province in the best interests of all.
Looking at the policy development pursuits of both James and Campbell, it's fair to say both leaders are working as hard as they can to develop an economic strategy for the coming decade. It would be easy, as a critic, to pass off the initiatives of both James and Campbell as simply self-preservation measures and perhaps they are. But the two leaders are taking the pulse of the province, running as hard they can to win, and putting their agendas out for all to see. A win, win for all.
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A new prescription.
Liberal MP Keith Martin, an MD, is calling on the federal government to consider a private health care system for Canadians, one that would parallel the current comprehensive private care form of health services delivery. As an aside, and given that this comment flies in the face of current Liberal policy, Dr. Martin may be returning to private practice sooner than expected.
But I digress.
Don Cayo, a Vancouver Sun business columnist, says the provincial government should be honest about charging user fees for health care. He argues that current and previous B.C. governments have been reduced to slipping user fees through the back door.
Deal with the issue head on, writes Cayo. Both critics are right.
Are Cayo and Martin two voices crying in the Canada Health Act wilderness?
Not really and get used to a whole lot more. The current federal/provincial health-care funding agreement expires in 2014. The Canada Health Act was passed in 1984 and it's time for change.
We have to look at current health-care spending the same way we look at the obesity crises and for the same reason.
