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Terrace Review — Wednesday, April 3, 1991

__EDITO

AF Hee REPORT ON WASTE IN Z
THe SENTE REACHES THE f.
SENGTE CHAMBER.

Vindicating the messengers

William Vander Zalm,
after reading the Hughes report

"The findings are not what I expected...
his is not the best of times to have a provincial

! government in a state of disintegration, There are pre-

election projects in a state of incipient realization, the
economy is wilting, and it’s budget time for everyone
fom the comer store to the school board. Bill Vander Zaim’s
resignation yesterday was necessary in view of the fact that he
was condemned roundly for conflict of interest in the Hughes
report, but what we’re left with is a government idling in
neutral while the governing party attempts to reassemble itself.

As of press time yesterday it was not known who will step in
as interim Premier, but that person, whoever it may be, should
immediately table a budget in the house. Vander Zalm’s resig-.
nation has put the electoral process back at least 60 days _
because Social Credit has to call a leadership convention, SO
that leaves the prospect of more spending warrants being
churned across the Lieutenant Governor’s desk to keep the
government solvent. The state of the provincial government’s
finances are unknown, and the uncertainty growing from that
will penetrate every comer of the land and the people.

We are in times when the status quo — a government run by
bureaucrats while the politicians sort themselves out — just
doesn’t cut it. Community agencies, resource ministries, con-
tractors of the government are all being forced to grope around
in the dark.

But before anyone starts clamouring around about a "strong
hand at the helm" and that sort of leadership claptrap, let’s
take a close look at the fingerprints left on the helm from the
steersman who so recently and reluctantly left it. In addition to
condemning Vander Zalm for not being able to distinguish
public duty and private interests, the Hughes report is an
indirect condemnation of party politics in general. His caucus
cohorts and Cabinet colleagues stuck with him until the inevit-
able end, bringing the entire government into disrepute.

And it can happen within any party when that party puts its

- own interest ahead of the public interest, a collective conflict
of interest as surely as Vander Zalm’s real estate transactions
constituted an individual conflict. The next time we witness

- caucus solidarity in the face of overwhelming controversy and

public outcry, perhaps we'll recognize it as a syndrome.
And be less quick to shoot the messengers.

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IN LEATHER. FOR
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“4
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The view from
Victoria —

by John Pifer

VICTORIA — Because of
printing deadlines and the like,
this column had to be written
before the eagerly-awaited Ted
Hughes report came down on
Tuesday.

Despite that, it is possible to
look at several probable post-
Hughes events as far as the be-
leagured Social Credit Party is
concerned.

Regardless of the response by
Premier William Vander Zalm
to the findings of conflict-of-
interest commissioner Hughes,
Social Credit as we know it will
change.

One way or the other, it has
to,
If by the time you read this,
the Premier has resigned, fine.
Then the change will start with
an attempt to return to some of
the roots which kept it in
power for most of the past
four decades.

If he hasn’t, it won’t matter
much, Social Credit will die a
death at the polls with a few
zealous hangers-on and
manipulators sticking around in
the hope of getting some ad-
vantage from it.

Everyone else will have left.

After all, as a political
liability, it doesn’t get much
worse than Bill Vander Zalm’s
status now.

Perhaps even the Premier
now acknowledges that he has
become such a liability. Per-
haps even he has accepted the
fact that what is causing the
greatest damage throughout the
B.C. constituencies is not that

_ he was involved up to his

phony smile in the sale of Fan.

‘tasyland, but that he denied,

denied and denied it. |
Too many of his own party’s

members don’t trust or believe
him any more, period. One lie
too many, perhaps?

If Mr. Vander Zalm tries to
stay in office, the outcry from
among his own people will
surely result in the decimation
of the Social Credit coalition,
and a certain election of Mike
Harcourt and the NDP.

Given what Mr. Vander
Zalm and some of his loony
friends have done to Social
Credit, maybe that’s not so bad
a prospect after all.

Mr. Vander Zalm has main-
tained for years that he is pas-
sionately opposed to the pros-
pect of an NDP government,
and that he would do anything
to prevent ‘‘the socialists”’
from gaining power.

If that ‘‘anything” should in-
clude resigning from office, it
would give a successor at least

‘gome chance for a reasonable

showing in an election.

I do not — repeat, not —
hold with pundits who suggest
that the Premier is so bitter, so
nasty, so vengeful a sociopathic
personality that he would take
the whole party and govern-
ment down to defeat with him
out of spite. .

Yes, the man is stubborn.
Yes, the man has a faith in his
own powers of persuasion and
charm greater than common
sense dictates.

But no, surely the man is not
that mean-spirited or vindic-
tive, is he?

Now, it must be stressed that
even with a transition at the
top for Social Credit, there is
no guarantee that that would
mean re-election. Far from it.

It would make the election a
bit more of a contest; but the

NDP would still have to be
considered as a clear favourite
at this stage.

They have wisely and care-
fully been preparing, province-
wide, for power for the past
three years; and based upon
their clever handling of the
two-week resumption of the
Legislature this month, they
sense that power is within their
grasp.

NDP MLAs stayed cool,
calm and collected; they put on
new suits and frocks to present
a moderate image to the televi-
sion cameras, and they re-
frained from savage rhetoric.

They gave the Socreds noth-
ing to shoot at — no fodder
for the traditional socialist-
bashing a B.C. election cam-
paign brings.

Instead, the image for
months has been of middle-
ground moderates who are this
close to being free enterprisers.

Subsequently, the New
Democrats believe, with .
justification, that their strategy
will translate into a majority of
the 75 seats:

@ Even with the sigh of relief
which will engulf the land when
Mr. Vander Zalm leaves,

e@ Even with likely having to
face the prospect of Canada’s
first woman premier (Grace
McCarthy or Rita Johnston),
and.

e@ Even with some ‘‘hot shot’
candidates emerging from the
woodwork to run for the
“new” Socreds.

Whatever process the Socreds
come up with for a democratic
change in leader, the smart
money says that he or she will
have an uphill fight just to

— Continued on page A15

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