RURAL NDP MAVERICK JUMPS TO B.C. UNITED
But Opposition needs to win over urban, suburban ridings to oust Eby government
As the legislature convened for the last day of the spring session, Opposition leader Kevin Falcon introduced the sharply dressed man sitting on the floor of the chamber directly behind him.
He meant Harry Lali, the former NDP MLA and cabinet minister.
“A longtime fighter for rural issues and labour issues,” as Falcon put it, “and by the way, the latest member of B.C. United.”
Falcon's office distributed a statement from Lali, explaining his decision to join a party that (under its previous B.C. Liberal name) he had often denounced.
“Today's B.C. NDP has become an urban-interest party,” wrote Lali. “They've allowed sawmills and pulp mills to shut down by the dozen, and workers have lost their livelihoods by the thousands due to inaction. Rural B.C. has no voice in this government.”
With that, the four-term NDP MLA and transportation minister under three NDP premiers pledged his assistance in making Falcon the next premier of B.C.
The New Democrats lost no time bidding “good riddance” to Lali. They'd already expelled him from the party for an alleged act of treason in the 2020 election.
Lali stood accused of supporting renegade ex-new Democrat Dennis Adamson over the party's official nominee Aaron Sumexheltza in Fraser-nicola, the riding Lali represented from 2005 to 2013. Premier John Horgan had recruited Sumexheltza, a lawyer and former chief of the Lower Nicola Indian band. Sumexheltza lost to B.C. Liberal Jackie Tegart by a mere 282 votes. Adamson won 438 votes, enough to account for the NDP margin of defeat.
Lali denied all and appealed his expulsion, insisting he'd been “a loyal card-carrying member for almost 35 years,” adding “I am committed to the NDP'S re-election in 2024.”
The party rejected the appeal and made his expulsion final at the end of 2020.
On Thursday, the NDP distributed a roundup of Lali's comments over the years about the party he was now endorsing.
From 2005: “The Liberal government continues to thumb its nose at rural British Columbia because there's nothing in the budget for rural B.C. Once again, they're being left out in the cold.”
From 2010: “We've seen the wholesale abandonment of communities like Fort St. James and Mackenzie. You look at Lytton, at Lillooet, at Quesnel. They're devastated by the policies of this Liberal government.”
One could also compile a sampler of the inflammatory things that Lali said about the NDP over the years.
Lali on why he resigned from the NDP cabinet on the eve of the 2001 election: “Many decisions are now made in the premier's office with little or no input from the caucus and the cabinet. The premier's office is reluctant to offend right-wing interests.”
On entering the 2011 race for the NDP leadership: “I am not the candidate of the establishment of the B.C. NDP.”
On quitting the race a few weeks later: “People were coming in with memberships — stacks of them — thousands of memberships and people with the money in bags and envelopes . ... They were working for the Adrian Dix campaign.”
“All those contaminated memberships ought to be thrown out to bring back the credibility of the party. If I were the leader, this kind of crap's got to stop.”
The party ignored Lali. Dix won the leadership but lost the 2013 election.
Lali, who lost his own seat, blamed Dix and the party for being out of touch.
“You can't be against Northern Gateway, you can't be against Site C, you can't be against Kinder Morgan and all that because the message from the blue-collar worker is: `those are my jobs.'”
Then again, Lali rarely curbs his tongue in any context.
He once called up Global's Keith Baldrey and me to say he'd slagged us in Punjabi on Indo-canadian radio. “I called you jackals!” he said with a laugh, supplying his own translation. He's a maverick's maverick. But a colourful one, not least for his wardrobe, which earned him the nickname of “the honourable member for Harry Rosen.” True to form, on Thursday Lali was decked out in a well-cut blue suit and a pink tie.
The New Democrats tried to plant a story that Falcon guaranteed Lali a B.C. United nomination to run in 2024.
Falcon denied all. He also emphasized that Lali's old seat of Fraser-nicola was “occupied” by B.C. United's three-term incumbent Tegart.
Lali, who turns 68 this summer, insisted he had no designs on returning to elected office.
“That's not even a thought,” he told Jas Johal on CKNW radio.
Whether Lali remains on the sidelines or not, he is right in flagging how the NDP shifted its focus way from rural, northern and Interior B.C. and toward the urban centres.
But it was a winning shift. The party is richer than ever in seats in Metro Vancouver, the Fraser Valley and Vancouver Island.
Another six seats are being added to the house before the next election, mostly from those areas.
B.C. United already holds most of the seats in the regions Lali proposes to cultivate. To form government, it has to win in the areas where the NDP has flourished.