My first response is “so what?!”
Remember the then activist, Kevin Falcon, as part of a so-called grassroots movement to unseat a number of NDP MLA’s in 1997? He was one of the ring leaders behind the recall efforts in 1997 and eventually became a powerful and influential MLA and cabinet minister.
The experts predicted it, as did many NDP insiders; that the three slimmest marginal seats the NDP won in 1996 would be subject to recall efforts as they might be easily toppled. The thinking was, if three seats could be flipped to the BC Liberals, then the balance of power would be 36-36-3 (instead of the 39-33-3) that the NDP was re-elected with in 1996. Then, Opposition leader Gordon Campbell could trigger a non-confidence vote and force an early election that the BC Liberals would most certainly win.
Well the recalls failed as voters weren’t about to be tricked into an early election (despite the unpopularity of the NDP at the time). While the BC Liberal party likely instructed its members and officials to play no organized part of any recall effort, you can bet your annual salary that the members of the BC Liberals and their supporters were actively helping recalls – as private individuals. Of course they did – if successful, the BC Liberals could have been in power from an election triggered in 1998 – instead of 2001. If I were a card carrying BC Liberals, I might have participated in a recall campaign too; as a private citizen…there is nothing illegal about it.
For the BC Liberals to attempt to make political hay out of this is laughable – they’re actually blaming the NDP for organizing recalls when its a known fact that the bulk of the support for recall is by conservative opposition to the BC Liberals. Making this a tactic is asinine, as it puts recalls back into the spotlight.
And, so what if NDP members and supporters hit the bricks in support of recalling BC Liberal MLA’s from office; they will be likely joined by thousands of non-political people that have no affiliation to anyone. Its not just the NDP that the BC Liberals need to fear.
