Well, here we go again.
According to the latest polling, by this time next year British Columbians will have once again elected an NDP government. In a recent online Angus Reid poll, 50 per cent of the 802 respondents said they would vote for the NDP led by Adrian Dix. According to Angus Reid, this is eight points higher than NDP support in the 2009 general provincial election.
The poll, conducted between May 7 and 9, shows the Liberals have dropped to 23 per cent in the polls while John Cummins' Conservatives are at 19 per cent. In an intriguing sidebar question, when the respondents were asked about a "free enterprise Liberal/Conservative coalition," 21 per cent said they would support current Finance Minister Kevin Falcon as coalition leader, 20 per cent favoured Premier Christy Clark while 17 per cent gave John Cummins the nod.
Now 802 respondents do not a government make, but the Angus Reid poll is just one more sign that the Liberals have either worn out their welcome, are simply seen as incompetent or need a massive makeover.
Although there is no doubt the current government is in trouble, so is the province if the NDP are elected as government. On three occasions, 1972, 1991 and 1996 the New Democrats formed government and in every case those terms ended in disaster.
The difficulty with an NDP government is that what you see is not what you get. The party, by virtue of its constitution, has a 19-century anti-business bias and is governed by too many non-elected factions.
In terms of its socialist bent, consider the following from the B.C. NDP Constitution.
"The New Democratic Party believes that social, economic and political progress can only be assured by the application of democratic socialist principles to government and the administration of public affairs. The principles of democratic socialism can be defined briefly as follows: a) the production of goods and services shall be directed to meeting the social and individual needs of people and not for profit. "
More troublesome is the intrusive roll the NDP executive plays in the roll of governing. Not a particular problem when the NDP is in opposition, but with an NDP government the policy apparatus is disturbingly invasive. Party procedure dictates that NDP MLAs bring questions of political clarity, applicability or feasibility to the NDP Provincial Council for decision. The Provincial Council is accountable to only to the party and is composed of labour representatives and other special-interest organizations.
As a recent example, in 2007, former NDP leader Carole James had to get direction from the NDP Provincial Council on how NDP MLAs should vote on removal of Tsawwassen farm land from the Agricultural Land Reserve.
Socialist economic policies and the constitutional dictate requiring elected MLAs to go cap in hand and toady up to a non-elected board of governors for guidance have no place in a modern democracy.
Looking at those invasive party practices it is easy to see why the NDP has consistently performed so poorly when in government. During the 10 years of the last NDP government - 1991 to 2001 - unemployment in B.C. increased to double digits and as a province we suffered multiple credit-rating downgrades. Thanks to the NDP government and its interventionist policies, B.C. became a poor place to do business. Investors were leaving the province in droves. In 1999, Finning Tractor - a B.C. company since its inception in 1933 - moved it head offices to Edmonton. With the North American economy on a rip, B.C. trailed every Canadian jurisdiction in investment activity.
If elected premier, NDP leader Adrian Dix will fail. Just as former NDP premiers Dave Barrett, Mike Harcourt, Glen Clark, Dan Miller and Ujjal Dosanjh failed before him. And it won't be the result of any of Dix's shortcomings - though he has a few - rather it will be the socialist and interventionist policies of his own party.
It's folly to repeat the same political mistake and hope for different result.
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Well duh.
The Insurance Corporation of British Columbia - commonly called Moscow Mutual by us old geezers who remember a private, competitive, cost-efficient insurance industry - is considering charging higher premiums for unsafe drivers with poor driving records.
What a concept. Penalize the bad guys in favour of the good guys. But before it seeks those changes, ICBC says it plans to conduct widespread public consultation to help vet its newest set of ideas.
Earth to ICBC, this is not a new idea. For centuries, the basis of the insurance industry has been to assess risk and use the applicant's experience record to set the premium rate.
Forget the questionnaire.
As the Nike ad says, just do it.
