Mike Gurstein:
> Campbell didn't so much win the BC election (the Liberals lost the previous > BC election largely because of fear and loathing for Campbell personally) > rather, the NDP (mild Social Democrats) imploded after 8 years, with a > completely discredited Premier (under charges for corruption), an exhausted > and demoralized set of MLA's, and a party which had completely run out of > ideas and energy. > > Keith's dog running for AB-NDP (Anything But the NDP) would have won in a > similar landslide. > > What's interesting of course, is that a similar implosion destroyed the > previous right wing Government (complete with Premier under charges for > corruption) 8 years hence. The lurches from right to left to right are a > (sad) characteristic of BC politics and are a source of appalled amazement > to many (most) BC taxpayers, and in the current instance are causing very > serious concern in all political camps in the Province. (Campbell's > approval rating is currently roughly half what it was six months ago at the > time of the election.) I once worked with a former Secretary General of BC Federation of Labour whose take on BC politics was that you have to look at it as entertainment. You'll go nuts if you take it seriously. Keith Hudson: > What puzzles me is why your comments should have been triggered by the > quote of Keynes to Hayek (below). When Keynes was saying that some > politicians want planning in order to serve the devil, he was agreeing with > Hayek's apprehensions that the Labour Party in England might bring in a > sufficient level of planning which would then bring about the sort of > totalitarian society that was taking place in Stalin's Soviet Russia. I > don't understand why this should have triggered your characterisation of > Gordon Campbell's "cut, slash and burn" policies as not planning. They > sound like de-planning to me, or perhaps de-over-planning. As Mike Gurstein suggested I was commenting on Campbell as an ideologue. Much like the planners in Russia, what his government is doing is driven by a punitive and destructive ideology that makes little sense in terms of BC's present realities. It's gone beyond the norms of politics as entertainment. Ed
