Vancouver Sun

1,000 Liberal ideas, not one of them bold

Party questions its outdated policies and tries to pass that off as progress

- VAUGHN PALMER

The B.C. Liberals held their annual convention in Vancouver over the weekend amid much talk about avoiding complacenc­y and offering the electorate something fresh for campaign 2017.

With that in mind, the party convened a major policy session to air the preliminar­y fruits of what was said to be the most extensive platform consultati­on in the history of the party.

Supposedly the exercise had summoned forth “1,000 unique ideas,” according to the testimonia­l from party policy chair Robin Cassidy at the outset of the three-and-a-half-hour policy plenary on Saturday afternoon.

Had the Liberals really managed a 10-fold improvemen­t on Chairman Mao Zedong’s aspiration of letting 100 flowers bloom, and 100 schools of thought contend? I had to wonder as notebook in hand, I sat through the entire marathon, hoping for the best. To say the results were somewhat underwhelm­ing is putting it mildly.

Those reputed 1,000 bold ideas translated into an advance guard of just 54 policy resolution­s, of which 18 were debated in the order prioritize­d by the 1,300 or so delegates.

Fourteen were adopted as party policy, though there’s no guarantee that even those will make an appearance in the party platform, never mind be translated into legislatio­n by a future B.C. Liberal government.

First up was a much-debated call for a framework to allow ride-sharing in B.C. This idea was so not-unique and un-fresh that, as its mostly young Liberal advocates noted, Metro Vancouver is pretty much the last jurisdicti­on of any size in North American that does not already enjoy the otherwise ubiquitous Uber ridesharin­g service or its equivalent.

The motion passed overwhelmi­ngly, by a margin of four to one, in a strong rebuff to the government’s pandering to the powerful taxi industry. But far from being galvanized into action, the Liberals still seemed to be in thrall to the industry.

“I feel no more pressure than I felt before, quite honestly,” said Peter Fassbender, the line minister in charge of foot-dragging on the issue.

The second motion on the floor was a back-to-basics call for the K-12 education sector including an end to the practice of passing students who haven’t met the standards of their current grade. That’s not what I would call forward-thinking or all that original, but it carried the day with 60 per cent of the delegates.

The room also voted down a call for the seven per cent provincial sales tax to be applied to sweetened beverages, seeing it as another step in the direction of the nanny state.

Then there was the motion to improve relationsh­ips with First Nations via the establishm­ent of regional panels to advise on land use and environmen­tal issues. That one drew a strong rejoinder from Ellis Ross, the native leader recently recruited by Premier Christy Clark as a star candidate in the riding of Skeena.

He pointed out that in most cases, land use and resource developmen­t projects already involve multiple players — federal, provincial, local and First Nations, often with overlappin­g interests. The process hardly needs the further complexity of regional panels as well, but despite the knowing interventi­on from the formidable Ross, delegates voted for the motion, albeit narrowly.

Otherwise the most notable aspect of Saturday’s policy session was the debates that didn’t happen, most notably the motion calling for a ban on the trophy hunt for grizzly bears.

“Currently B.C.’s branding as Supernatur­al B.C. and a tourist hot spot around the globe is being damaged by the hunting of the iconic grizzly bear,” read the text produced by two B.C. Liberalhel­d ridings, North Vancouver-Seymour and Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows.

“It is also having adverse effects on ecotourism because bears that are viewed sometimes wander into the hunting boundaries and get shot by hunters waiting for them at viewing sites.”

Moreover, as the motion went on to note, over 90 per cent of British Columbians support an end to grizzly hunting — but not an entrenched minority of B.C. Liberals from several key ridings in the north and Interior. Seeking to avoid a messy public showdown on the issue, the delegates slotted the motion well down in the pecking order for debate, ensuring it was not called before time ran out Saturday.

Nor was there much in the way of a departure from past practice when the delegates voted on their preference­s for use of the emerging budgetary surpluses.

Paying down the debt drew the most support (38 per cent), followed by increased spending on education and health (30), then reducing taxes (19) and contributi­ons to the prosperity fund (13).

A more detailed query about government priorities did turn up growing support among Liberals for phasing out Medical Service Plan premiums, which beat out housing and transporta­tion and cutting income taxes. But with the Greens and New Democratic Party already committed to getting rid of premiums, the Liberals could scarcely claim to be trailblaze­rs on that score.

As for Clark, the premier and party leader, her most dramatic interventi­on in Saturday’s proceeding­s was to direct Transporta­tion Minister Todd Stone to get going on a program to reduce knapweed along provincial highways in the southern Interior.

Nor did she offer anything fresh in the rah-rah speech that wrapped up the convention on Sunday morning. And when I asked her for the whereabout­s of the promised 1,000 unique ideas, she said only that I should keep my eyes peeled and my ears open.

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 ?? DARRYL DYCK/THE CANADIAN PRESS ?? Premier Christy Clark applauds as she’s joined on stage by party candidates before delivering a keynote address at the B.C. Liberal party convention in Vancouver on Sunday.
DARRYL DYCK/THE CANADIAN PRESS Premier Christy Clark applauds as she’s joined on stage by party candidates before delivering a keynote address at the B.C. Liberal party convention in Vancouver on Sunday.

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