After reading the editorial by Neil Godbout on the IPG dismissal, some B.C. history came to mind.
With the list of qualified business people, their history, accomplishments, and successful ventures, they were dismissed.
Backing up some two decades, Premier Glen Clark had three qualified members on his board of advisory for his great idea to build a new fleet of ferries. Going by memory (I expect I'll be corrected where wrong) all three were successful, longtime businessmen, and one was actually in the ship building business.
But Premier Clark didn't like to hear what they were telling them, so he fired them.
He replaced them with a party hack, a fundraiser, and a union rep. The minutes of the meetings went from around sixteen to one and a half. But they said what Premier Glen Clark wanted to hear. The Premier broke a bottle of Champagne over a bow of the first, glared at the cameras and said; "and they said it couldn't be done."
Enter the infamous Fastcats of the ferry industry. I don't think the third one ever got wet, as the first two were such a disaster, as the first advisory predicted they would be. Very very expensive disaster. So I would ask you, Mr. Godbout, is this an NDP history repeat of which you speak?
Erle Martz
Prince George
