The Prince George Citizen - Monday, May 14, 2001 - 5 B.C. Election Provincial Liberals were out of the fold for 50 years Former premier Duff Pattullo warned colleagues not to form coalition back in 1941 VANCOUVER (CP) — Some say the B.C. Liberals, who could elect their first premier in 60 years this week, may have been under a “curse” for defying their leader in 1941. That’s when Duff Pattullo, the last elected Liberal premier in 1933, implored his struggling party not to form a coalition with its rival Conservatives in an attempt to stamp out the emerging Co-Operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF). The precursor to the NDP was cutting a swath across Canada’s political landscape and British Columbia was no exception. Pattullo resigned in protest over the merger and left the party with what political historian David Mitchell, a former independent member of the legislature, calls a curse. • “Duff Pattullo warned his colleagues if) the provincial Liberal party back in 1941 that if they entered into a formal alliance or coalition with the Conservative party they would be banished to the political wilderness for at least half a century.” Pattullo’s words rang true. The Liberal party was out of the spotlight after the Liberal-Conservative coalition fell apart at the helm of Liberal leader Byron Johnson, who was premier until 1952. That’s when the Social Credit party won the election in a surprising feat that would put them in power for four decades. It wasn’t until 1991 that the Liberals made a comeback as the official Opposition under the leadership of now NDP Forests Minister Gordon Wilson. But a scandal involving Wilson’s love affair with his former caucus chairwoman and current wife Judi Tyabji forced the party to hold a leadership convention in 1993 at which Gordon Campbell emerged the victor. Wilson now says he has no qualms about seeing Campbell as the premier-in-waiting for a party he resurrected. “I was trying to build a centrist pop- . .although the Liberal party led by Campbell doesn’t have much in common with traditionalist Liberals, party names have become less relevant.” —Political historian David Mitchell ulist party and I steadfastly refused to sell my soul to the corporations,” he said. Campbell’s Liberals lost to the NDP in 1996 but the party has since become a well-oiled political machine. The Liberal party began with a social agenda more in keeping with its nemesis, the NDP. Along with giving British Columbia women the vote in 1917, the Liberals introduced legislation that would give pensions to working mothers and improve workers’ conditions, said Mitchell. And like the New Democrats’ spate of scandals that will be remembered long after their decade in power, the Liberals have had a few of their own, including one that was so hot it rivalled news of the First World War. In a bid to elect two candidates in a byelection before facing the incumbent Conservatives at the polls in 1916, the struggling Liberals paid people, some from Seattle, to vote for their party, said historian Mark Leier of Simon Fraser University in suburban Burnaby. “It was called the plugging scandal of 1916 and the Tories, of course, loved it because they were in roughly in the same position the NDP appears to be today.” Leier said the Liberals hired people to compile a list of men who had either moved out of town, died or gone off to fight in the war so their identities could be used by others paid to vote for the party. “It was a huge scandal that pushed the First World War off the front pages of newspapers,” he said. The new Liberals are using a back-to-the-past coalition strategy with members formerly with other parties, including Social Credit. But this time a 50-point lead in the polls indicates the party could win most of the 79 seats in the B.C. legislature. Campbell’s Liberals have picked up where the Socreds left off with their corporate allegiance, Leier said. “Business has in fact been looking around for a party to carry its flag and with the success of the Liberals it’s not surprising that both political opportunists and money from business went into the Liberal party. Mitchell said that although the Liberal party led by Campbell doesn’t have much in common with traditionalist Liberals, party names have become less relevant. Dosanjh strives for second; Campbell takes day off VICTORIA (CP) — Premier Ujjal Dosanjh made a whirlwind tour of Vancouver Island on Sunday, hitting ridings where the embat-ded New Democrats still have a chance of being elected. With just a few days left before British Columbians cast their votes the NDP leader was appealing for left-of-centre voters to unite. “In ridings like this one with a long history of voting NDP we have a chance of winning,” Dosanjh told supporters in Courtenay. “The Greens do not.” Liberal Leader Gordon Campbell was taking a day off from campaigning Sunday. Throughout the day Dosanjh appealed to voters to put an experienced and effective opposition in Victoria to “keep Gordon Campbell honest.” He took aim at the Grfeen party but tread carefully. “The Green party has a lot to be proud of, and so does the NDP, with the best environmental record in North America,” Dosanjh said. “I’m just telling you the Green party is the wrong choice in this riding to defeat Gordon Campbell’s corporate agenda.” Dosanjh, whose party is badly trailing the Liberals and coming up par with the Greens in recent polls, said the NDP and Greens have DOSANJH worked together on the municipal level in the past. He left open the possibility of a coalition if either of the left-leaning parties manages an electoral victory. Dosanjh would not say whether he is considering such a coalition, saying he is solely focused on the Wednesday election. Joanne Banfield, who is working on the campaign for Carole James, the NDP candidate in Victoria-Beacon Hill, said the Green vote is not the threat suggested in polls. “We’re talking to people and they absolutely see the strong platform we have on environmental issues,” Banfield said. The Victoria riding is one of the most promising on the island, where New Democrats won 10 of 13 seats in 1996 but face a tough race this time around. “I’m confident that the votes will come our way,” Banfield said. Dosanjh spent Sunday making quick stops from Courtenay to Victoria, largely preaching to the converted at small rallies at candidates’ campaign offices. “There is a corporate agenda out there,” he CAMPBELL said in Lantzville. “It’s an agenda of lower wages, lower standards, and lower corporate taxes. It’s an agenda of more trees cut with less environmental protection; it’s an agenda with a blind spot for social justice.” On Thursday and Friday, Dosanjh visited the Koote-nays, where incumbent MLAs Ed Conroy and Jim Doyle are in a tight race. Noticeably absent from Dosanjh’s tour was a stop in Nelson, where his NDP leadership rival Corky Evans is running. Dosanjh owed the miss to a scheduling problem. However, some Evans supporters are sporting bumper stickers that declare support for Evans but say they don’t like the NDP. Indeed, some of the party’s best chances are in ridings where the personal popularity of New Democrat candidates outweighs public discontent about various scandals. These include the over-budget fast ferries, a charity bingo skimming scandal, a so-called fudge-it-budget and a casino licensing scandal that forced the resignation of the previous premier. The Nechako Rotary Club of PG is raffling a PT Cruiser with proceeds going to the Maternal & Child Health Services, PG Regional Hospital. Watch for it at the Pine Centre Mall and other key locations throughout Prince George. Tickets 1-$5 or 3-$10 Draw Date: August 29, 8 am, Ramada Hotel Lie. 835062 Campbell snubs Stock during Penticton swing by Canadian Press Notes, excerpts, observations and tidbits from the B.C. election campaign: ■ Liberal Leader Gordon Campbell distanced himself from the controversy surrounding Canadian Alliance Leader Stockwell Day when he campaigned in the federal leader’s Okanagan riding. He offered no advice to Day and wouldn’t even acknowledge he was on federal turf. “I thought I was actually in Bill Barisoff and Rick Thorpe territory. That’s the territory I came to tonight,” Campbell said. Barisoff and Thorpe are incumbent Penticton-area Liberal MLAs. ■ The Liberal leader, also known as Gordon Muir Campbell, affected a Scottish r-r-r-oll of his R’s as he began the second day of campaigning in the south Okanagan. The silver-haired, poll-leading Campbell strode to his high-tech campaign bus in sunny Penticton gripping a large Tim Hortons coffee. “I’m gonna rrrrroll up the rrrim to win,” he said with a big grin. Poll after poll leading up to Wednesday’s vote indicates Campbell is heading for a landslide. ■ The Liberal leader has criss-crossed the province logging thousands of kilometres in a chartered plane and state-of-the-art bus. With three days of campaigning left, the bus has logged about 20,000 kilometres. It’s generator, which only runs when campaign staff and the media are aboard, has run for 160 hours, or the equivalent of nearly seven straight days. ■ Many are called, but few... respond. That would be how the Western Canada Wilderness Committee viewed the response to its environmental poll sent to every candidate running in the provincial election. The committee sent out a 13-question survey'to each candidate. The responses are interesting. Not one Liberal candidate answered the survey, although the party sent a “party line” response to the committee. Thirty-nine of 72 Green party candidates responded. Twenty-three of 79 NDP candidates filled out the questionnaire and sent it back. Only 16 of 56 Unity B.C. candidates responded while 23 of 79 Marijuana party candidates replied. Where the leaders are Here’s a list of where the party leaders are Monday, May 14: NDP Leader Ujjal Dosanjh: Not available. Liberal Leader Gordon Campbell: Morning: No events scheduled Afternoon: North Shore and Vancouver Green Leader Adriane Carr: All day: Vancouver Unity Leader Chris Delaney: Not Available Marijuana Leader Brian Taylor: All day: Vancouver area Uphill battles nothing new for Ed Conroy CASTLEGAR (CP) — If New Democrats are, as the polls suggest, in the fight of their lives as the provincial election looms, they should be glad to have Ed Conroy on their side. The minister of agriculture knows a thing or two about fighting to stay alive. Conroy, running for a third term representing the West Kootenay-Bound-ary riding, has survived cancer and two liver transplants. Most recently he fought off a serious pancreatic attack caused by complications from the last transplant. He spent three months in bed and lost 50 pounds. “My muscles atrophied... and as a result it’s just slow coming back,” says Conroy, who is getting around with the help of a cane for now. During his first election campaign Conroy had just had a kidney removed because of a cancerous tumour. In 1996, his second tour of duty, he had just undergone a liver transplant. “I’d go from town to town and put the IV bottle on a coat hook in the car and give myself an IV between engagements,” he says lightheartedly. “I wouldn’t know how to run for office unless I had some kind of medical affliction,” he says jokingly. Liberals query voter sign-up OSOYOOS (CP) — The B.C. Liberal party has complained to Elections B.C. over the alleged signing up some voters in the Vancouver-Mt. Pleasant riding of NDP incumbent Jenny Kwan. On the campaign trail Saturday in the southern Interior, Liberal Leader Gordon Campbell was asked if his party was trying to block the signings of people who may not have a permanent address. “They weren’t doing that,” said Campbell. “I understand that what they were doing was that they believed there were some real infractions under the Elections Act.” Campbell said the party has lodged a complaint with Elections B.C., which he said was gathering evidence. He said the Liberals simply wanted to ensure that the NDP was not “breaking any of the laws.” The B.C. Liberals’ executive director, Kelly Reichert, said the issue was whether the people vouching for the newly signed up voters when they make an oath to get on the voters list legitimately know the people they are endorsing. If 79 Gordon Campbells are elected Mi will be heard. But who will speak for northern families? In our community the choice is clear. A tightly-scripted hopeful who'll be just another Gordon Campbell I i A proven, effective fighter for northern families On Wednesday, May 1 6 elect a real voice for northern families Bryan Ed Llewllyn John Todd Whitcombe Prince George Prince George Prince George North " ' Omineca Mt. Robson Today's New Democrats For Prince George Authorized by Lorna Vorheul, Financial Agent lor Bryan Llewellyn. Ed John, and Todd Whitcombe (604) 430-BS00