VICTORIA — After five months of light sparring,
the political gloves came off on Tuesday. .

- With the opening of the 35th Parliament of
British Columbia, Premier Mike Harcourt and his
new generation of New Democrats stepped into the
ring heavily favoured to handle their first legislative
session without hardly breaking 4 sweat.

After all, the Premier has a lot of clout in his
corner -- not the least of which is access to 50 votes,
against only 24 from the opposition parties. (The
Speaker, Burnaby NDP MLA Joan Sawicki makes
75). .
For the next three months, we will watch from
ringside seats as the NDP tries to stick to its game
plan (1 promise, this is the last sports analogy),
whilst fending off blows from the Liberals, the
Socreds, the labour unions, its own dissatisfied

members and others. As I have stated before in this _

corner, with 49 rookies this session is sure to produce
gome surprises, some laughs, some disasters, and
some new stars as the neophyte politicians try to
impress the folks back home.

“Tuesdays Throne Speech contained few sur-
prises, because much of the government's ideas had
been included in the public positions and pronounce-
ments of the NDP over the past five years.

_ Tougher conflict-of-interest laws, and .enforce-
ment methods for them, was the number-one plank
iri the New Democrats’ 48-point election plan, so it
was hardly surprising to find it followed up.

Coming as it does in the wake of a government
which included the likes of Bill Vander Zalm,
Elwood Veitch, Bud Smith and Bill Reid, it was
the safest pre-speech bet in town.

~ “The decision to conduct a comprehensive review
of family and child services in the province is a good
one.”
"the recently-delivered report from the provincial
task force on family violence recommended such a
probe, aimed to ensure that children and women
needing help or protection, or both, receive it. |

Who knows, an end to the confusing cross-

Terrace Review — March 20, 1992

ministry snarls of red tape might just result... one
hopes...

An emphasis on the work of former Ombudsman
Stephen Owen as the new commissioner on
resources and the environment shows the importance
placed by the NDP on resolving the prolonged debate
between tree huggers and tree cutters. —

Although little actual legislation or concrete
action for equality for women is not possible just yet
because of a lack of dollars, the speech’s flowery

‘references to the need to end the unfair treatment of,

and payment to, women in both the public and
private workplace sets the tone for later action.

Among the most welcome items in the govern-
ment’s program is the establishment of an indepen-
dent body to review and to determine salaries,
benefits and pensions of the elected politicians.

For far too long these things have been deter-
mined through backroom deals and manipulation
which only adds to the public’s growing suspicion
and distaste about politicians.

_ Truth is, there are many occasions in which the
politicians actually DO deserve more, but let’s have
that decided by someone other than them.

The promise to make Crown corporations more
accountable to government, and to bring their finan-
cial proceedings under the aegis of the minister of
finance was hardly a surprise, what with former
MLA Bob Williams having been appointed the new
ezar over all Crowns, responsible not to them, but to
Cabinet.

As far as legislation recognizing the inherent
right of aboriginal people to self-government and
aboriginal title is concerned, this could be the
hardest sell.

“Even though the government insists that this
declaration poses no threat at all to private property
— and it doesn’t — the move will make a lot of
people uncomfortable. '

The NDP will have to proceed openly and honest-
ly in this arena, or there will be hell to pay.

Another storm may well erupt from among the

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