B.C. government fights against odds

Re: “B.C. sues drug firms over opioids,” Aug. 30. I have just moved to British Columbia from Ontario and am gobsmacked by the types of issues each place takes political stands on. A classaction lawsuit just launched by the B.C. government against opioid producers has amazed me, in a good way.

This is not to criticize Ontario — which has a completely different power structure — but to recognize the courage of the provincial government here that often seems to see issues in terms of universal human rights rather than Ontario’s view of protecting voters’ wallets.

Launching a lawsuit against pharmaceutical companies with no (legally) unambiguous corporate wrongdoing is insane. I wouldn’t want to guess at the odds of it succeeding, but a mathematician would probably call it statistically irrelevant.

But I grew up in the 1950s in Regina, and the odds of universal health-care legislation passing into law just before I arrived kicking and screaming was also (outside the CCF government) completely insane, also statistically irrelevant and surely destined for the shredder. Look at Canada now. All governments make mistakes when trying to satisfy voters’ perceptions and expectations. Some politicians are crooks; fortunately some are saints.

Wouldn’t it be great if all B.C. residents could take pride when the provincial government says: “This is wrong, and we’re going to invest a lot of our political capital to try to stop it.”

Because that pride gives birth to hope and optimism, two perceptions that are painfully lacking in our society right now. Mike Levin Nanaimo