A stimulating read for voters

VICTORIA . C. Liberal insider Martyn Brown says it was during the BC Rail corruption trial that he began thinking about the need to reform the province’s troubled political culture.

Brown, the chief of staff to premier Gordon Campbell, was the only major witness called to testify before the case was settled with guilty pleas from the two accused ex- government aides.

He spent several weeks on the stand back in 2010, most of it being cross- examined by the defence, which despite best efforts, elicited no bombshell admissions. “I don’t recall,” would appear to be the most common response, judging from the news coverage.

But as Brown tells it in an ebook published this week, those days spent on the hot seat, groping for answers, was when he began to recognize the misspent aspects of his life as a political operative. “That unpleasant experience taught me a lot about how little we truly remember or absorb of the myriad events and interactions that fill our daily lives. The blur of life passes through a gauze- filtered observation and partial perspective that, if honestly tested, yields only flashes of imperfect perception. This work was largely prompted by that learning experience.”

From that starting point emerged Towards a New Government in B. C., the title given by Brown to a call for B. C. to outgrow the petty, polarized, partisan politics that has dominated much of its history.

“Governments and parties need to reach out across the political spectrum to invite new relationships, new dialogue and new understanding,” writes Brown. “They need to usher in a more mature political environment:

Bone that respects voters’ democratic choices, that appreciates the fluid nature of coalitions, that values critical thought, and that emphasizes innovation, and open, honest discourse.”

Those urgings, coupled with a dismal appraisal of the government’s re- election chances (“it would take a miracle”) prompted some push back of the “how dare he?” variety from Liberals who recall Brown as the most polarizing player in Campbell’s inner circle. Mea culpa, concedes the author.

“This is certainly not an argument to do as I did,” he writes in one of the more disarming passages of the book. “It is an appeal to consider some of what I learned over the last quartercentury in the blood sport of B. C. politics, much of which stands in glaring contradiction to my past actions.”

He repeats the theme in calling for the end to the practice of treating politics as “war,” where every campaign is a battle between “free enterprise” and “socialism,” which he characterizes as a dialogue for “dinosaurs.”

“Sadly, I reinforced that dynamic, as a take- no- prisoners partisan who learned too late in his career that the best advice is sometimes the hardest to invite and to hear, and that no person or party holds a monopoly on good ideas, creative solutions or inspired thinking.”

As for his ex- colleagues in the governing party, they might wish to reflect on the hard- earned experience of a political operative who also served with Social Credit when it was sent to the electoral scrap heap two decades ago.

“It is sometimes only in the hindsight of electoral defeat that you come to know, there are many worse things than losing power. They include losing your sense of purpose and letting your fear of losing power utterly dictate how you use it. They include selling out your values, and hard- earned relationships, to buy back support. They include rationalizing actions that are anathema to your purpose. They include deluding yourself into believing that anyone who feels that others are more deserving of support than you are, must be deluded.”

But the most startling passage in the book is where he quotes the words that have guided his life in politics. “The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways; the point is to change it.” Yes, Karl Marx.

“Though I have spent most of my adult life fighting against much of that philosopher’s discredited ideology,” continues Brown, “those memorable words are the closest thing to a credo that has always moved me to political action.”

I was amused to think of that passage this week, when discussing the book with the provincial leader who is even less likely to cite Marx as a guiding light, namely New Democratic Party leader Adrian Dix.

Dix had not read Brown when I talked to him Tuesday. He did express “disappointment” that the author had violated the “code of silence” among former chief of staffs, Dix having served Glen Clark in that capacity. He was just kidding, of course.

But Brown did address the charge that he should have kept his views to himself, lest they damage the party and the cause.

“As a longtime advocate of that maxim, I get that,” he wrote. “The trouble is, some things, sometimes, just need to be said. At this point, I care more about putting ideas and issues on the table than I do about who or which party might choose to tackle them. My chief motive is to stimulate thought, and better yet, positive change that is grounded in principled leadership that can move B. C. boldly forward to a better future.”

As a leader who might be presiding over that future this time next year, Dix would find Brown’s book stimulating. So I expect would many voters.