Vaughn Palmer
In Victoria
New Democratic Party MLA Harry Lali wanted to make one thing absolutely clear about his decision to seek the party leadership, so he front-end-loaded it into the official announcement.
"At the outset I would like to state that I am not the candidate of the establishment of the B.C. NDP," he declared, and he would repeat the point several more times with the same typographical emphasis in the course of a relatively brief speaking text.
"I repeat, I am not the candidate of the establishment of the B.C. NDP, nor have I sought the endorsement of the establishment of the B.C. NDP."
He got that right.
Through two decades in provincial politics, the outspoken MLA for Fraser-Nicola has been offside with the party establishment on more than one occasion.
True, he acted as if former-premier Glen Clark, who elevated him to cabinet as minister of transportation in the 1990s, could do no wrong. But he ran afoul of Carole James in her first year as party leader.
Lali had supported a rival candidate. Disregarding James's call for New Democrats to avoid personal attacks, he launched a broadside against Liberal MLA Patty Sahota - like Lali she is Indo-Canadian - saying she had "completely abdicated her responsibility to her race."
Pushed hard by James ("I won't tolerate that") he apologized. From then on he was at best a grudging supporter, and by last fall he emerged as one of the most determined baker's dozen dissidents who forced her out.
But in announcing his candidacy in his hometown of Merritt, he took issue with far more than the outgoing leader in setting the tone for his own bid to succeed her.
"We need to re-democratize the New Democratic Party," he declared. "We need to end the increasing top-down approach to policy formulation and re-engage our grassroots supporters. We need to end the increasing stage management of conventions and provincial council."
Then this: "If there is blood on the NDP convention floor due to full, honest and meaningful debate of contentious issues, then so be it - it excites youth who are intimately attracted to open debate."
Blood on the floor! Bring it on so as to excite the young folk?
You can see why many of us in the media business are inclined to be just "wild about Harry."
But it would be a mistake to conclude that Lali is a purely reckless and divisive figure.
He has a lighter side as well. Says things for effect, indulges in political theatrics, and usually remembers not to take himself too seriously.
One of the best examples of his abilities in that regard unfolded in the legislature last spring, during the otherwise turgid and often bitter debate over the harmonized sales tax. Twice in the space of one week, Lali had members on both sides of the house laughing as he twitted Finance Minister Colin Hansen about his expanding role as a collector of sales taxes on everything from marriages, to funerals, to (his best line) the tar and feathers that might be used to punish HST supporting B.C. Liberals
But it would likewise be a mistake to conclude that Lali is nothing but a renegade with a sense of humour.
He brings an important element to the contest because he represents an Interior, rural riding, one that he has won (through both name and boundary changes) four times in the last 20 years.
Though his attack on the party's affirmative-action policies, crowd-pleasing in some quarters, dominated coverage of his campaign launch, the other important theme drew on the need for the party and its leader to address the concerns of the hinterlands.
"I am that leader," declared Lali. "I was born and raised in India by parents who were proud farmers in what is now Pakistan and later in India. I moved to Merritt as a young kid and appreciate and understand the contributions of proud, hard-working rural British Columbians."
There followed pledges to do something - details to come - for forestry, agriculture, ranching, transportation and infrastructure, health care, education and aboriginals, all with a rural theme.
"We need to end the control of the party and party apparatus that is increasingly being concentrated in the urban elites of Vancouver," he added for the sake of emphasis.
The urban elites? Not going Tea Party on us, are you Harry?
Still, worth noting how that bit plays to the rural-urban fault line in both of B.C.'s major parties. Bill Bennett (Kootenay East), Blair Lekstrom (Peace River South), Bob Simpson (Cariboo North) plus Lali and six other MLAs in the baker's dozen have one thing in common: they hail from ridings outside the Vancouver-Victoria axis of power.
Which is not to say that Lali will be there for the final count in the NDP leadership race on April 17.
But he is a serious contender, representing a grassroots and a populist sentiment that both parties are struggling to reconcile with the more establishment views that have dominated provincial politics over the past decade.
vpalmer@vancouversun.com
