s

$= Terrace Review — Wednesday, October 23, 1991

countdown in

NDP headquarters

The telephone bleeped at 8:25
and Gail Murray nearly jumped
out of her skin. The first poll
reporting was Cassie Hall #33, 63
votes for Giesbrecht, 16 for Hatton
and 58 for Parker.

The room remained quiet and
intense at the Helmut Giesbrecht
campaign headquarters, Everyone
knew that Giesbrecht was sup-
posed to take that poll. A volun-
teer wrote the figures by the poll
number on a gridworked yellow
sheet of cardboard taped to the
wall, one of many in the room
used to keep track of the polling
results as they came in. Murray,
Giesbrecht’s campaing manager,
prowled the room restlessly, and
as the results began coming in
more quickly, campaign worker
Frank Rowe began keeping a run-
hing total on an adding machine.
In a small adjacent office, two
other workers were keeping track
of provincial results being broad-
cast by CBC radio.

Usk, Kitsumkalum, Lakelse
Lake, Copperside and another
Cassie Hall poll came in in rapid
succession. The first real indicator
arrived with results from Thorn-
hill: two polls came down on the
New Democrats’ side, and all of
Thornhill had gone Social Credit
in 1986, Then there were whoops,
jumping and cheers when Kitwan-
cool came in: 38 of 85 votes for
Giesbrecht in a community where
one of the prominent leaders, chief
Elmer Derrick, was a known
Social Credit supporter.

With Thornhill poll #10 just after
8:45, a surprising trend was
becoming apparent , Liberal can-
didate Juanita Hatton was doing
far better than anyone would have
imagined. The Thornhill poll
showed an astonishing 83 votes
for Giesbrecht, 73 votes for Parker
. and 31 votes for Hatton. It was
rapidly becoming obvious that the
polls of high Liberal support from
a few days previous were a much
more solid vote than any pundits
had credited.

Defeated MLA’s

by John Pifer

VICTORIA — Severance pay-
ments for the one-term MLAs who
quit or were defeated in Thurs-
day’s election will total more than
three-quarters of a million dollars.

Under a 1989 agreement forged

by an all-parly committee known
as the Board of Internal Economy,

the 21 ex-MLAs — 20 Socreds (12
from Cabinet, cight backbench-
crs), and onc NDPer — automati-
cally are cligible to reccive a total
of $775,398.

The one-time severance package,
representing half of the annual
indemnity for the MLAs or Cubi-
net members, is not payable to an
MLA who is cligible for a pen-
SKM, ,

Pensions kick in for those who

Just before nine o’clock Cassie
Halt #31 called in with 100 votes
for Giesbrecht, 18 for Hatton and
eight for Parker. “We're winning,”
Frank Rowe murmured. A
moment later CBC radio declared
a majority NDP government for
the province, and seconds later
declared NDP incumbent Dan
Miller re-elected in the North
Coast riding.

After a long pause the remaining | |,

Cassie Hall and Thornhill polls
arrived. At 9:07 Kitimat reported
its totals: Giesbrecht 2,272, Hatton
696, Parker 1,212. “We've got our
good ones in... Parker's got his to
come yet,” Rowe said cautiously.
Members of the group occasional-
ly wandered by a handwritten
sheet of paper taped to a comer of
one of the walls, showing the
office pool bets on the victory
margin, They ranged from 889 to
2,000 votes, the big one being the
candidate’s bet.

Everyone waited for the polls
from Uplands and Veritas, the
Strongest areas of support for
Dave Parker in the 1986 election.

The phone bleeped, and all 10
Veritas polls came in at once,
Rowe's fingers rattled furiously on
the adding machine keys.

“That’s not enough to do it, and
that’s the best shot he’s got,”
Rowe said. “We've got an 1,100
point lead after his best polls.”

At the victory party in the base-
ment of the Terrace Inn, cheers
and hoots erupted as Rita John-
ston’s face appeared on the televi-
sion screen, conceding defeat in
her own riding. The provincial
results were staggering, an NDP
majority of at leat 50 seats out of
75... and the Liberals as the offi-
cial Opposition. Giesbrecht
arrived from Kitimat, calm and
almost subdued.

Murray, after a year and a half of
campaigning, said volunteer sup-
port was the key. In. Terrace alone
more than 200 people worked on
the Giesbrecht campaign in one
way or another,

serve six full years, or in more
than two legislative assemblies.
Onc-term wonders who were in
the Socred Cabinet on Sept. 20
when the election writ was drawn
up are eligible for a total sever-
ance package of $44,109 each.
(That represents half of the current
annual Cabinet indemnity of
$88,218).

This Cabinet group includes Pen-
ticton’s Ivan Messmer, Cowich-
an’s Graham Bruce, Chilliwack’s
John Jansen, Comox’s Stan
Hagen, Della’s John Savage,
Kelowna’s Larry Chalmers, Nel-
son’s Howard Dirks, Mission’s
Norm Jacobsen, Langley’s Carol
Gran, Burnaby's Dave Mercicr,
Skecna’s Dave Parker and Lil-

| Election 91 ae

Winning team: Skeena MLA-elect Helmut Giesbrecht gave credit to campaign
volunteers and organizers for his Oct. 17 victory.

Incumbent Parker takes
loss philosophically |

He was optimistic about the
political future of the Liberal party.

There were excited cheers in
Dave Parker’s campaign head-
quarters when the first set of num-

bers were phoned in. It was only a.

few minutes past 8 p.m. and the
results from polling station 14 at
Uplands Elementary School
favoured Parker with 84 votes,
giving Helmut Giesbrecht 50 and
Juanita Hatton 16,

Then the results of polling station
33 from Cassie Hall Elementary
arrived. Only 58 for Parker, 63 for
Giesbrecht and another 16 for Hat-
ton. A short time later, another
poll reported. It too favoured Gies-
brecht, Then another... And anoth-
er.
By about 9:30 p.m., most could
See the writing on the wall. And
what might have been a great
party turned into a very quiet
social affair where small clusters
of people theorized about the
cause of their demise,

“There are two up sides to every
election,” Parker told the media
following his arrival from Kitimat
at about 10 p.m. “One when you
get elected. One when you don’t.”

Parker elaborated on this state-
ment by explaining that politics
meant working six days a week,
and putting in long hours each and
every one of those days. And that
was something he didn't believe
he would miss. .
Parker was philosophical about
the Socred defeat. “It appears to
be a province-wide reaction,” he
said. “And that happens. It hap-

.pened in ‘75. It’tl happen again. If

the people of the province think
it's the right reaction, then proba-
bly it is. Because it’s a democratic
process,”

He was pleased with his party's
campaign effort: “Our team did a
good job in my opinion. All the
homework was done, our recipe
followed... But it didn’t cook up
well,” And he was surprised at the
number of seats won by the New
Democrats: “We thought we'd
Squeak by them. But all the best to
Helmut. He'll work out alright.

He’s been here a long time,”

leader, “I wish Gordon Wilson all
the best. He looks like a sharp
young man and should serve the
province well. As a matter of fact,
one day I hope to be able ‘to call
him premier Wilson.” Premier
Wilson? “Yes indeed. Next time
around.”
Does this statement suggest Park-
ex might be considezing switching
parties? “Tt’s not likely. The liber-
als put Canada where we are
today... In a black hole financially.
I could never support them.” In
that case, is Parker predicting that

Wilson one day consider a switch? -

“Who. knows? Anything can hap-
pen in this business.”

When questioned about the next
four or five years, Parker was a lit-
tle pessimistic... But not without a
little hope. “It’s going to be very
difficult for this province in the
next few years,” he said. “But

Continued on ..... Page 31

More post-election coverage on Page 31

get consolation in cash

looet’s Jim Rabbitt.

There also were nine one-term
Socred MLAs on the backbench at
the time of the election call, who
either quit or were defeated in the
NDP landslide.

They all arc eligible to receive a
once-only payment of half of an
MLA’s annual indemnity, or
$24,609.

Those backbenchers who rode

into office on the Vander Zalm
juggernaut of 1986, and who are
now out in the cold, include
Duane Crandall, Dan Peterson,
Cliff Michael, Harold Long, Nick
Locnen, Neil Vant, Terry Hubcris,
Mel Couvelier and Bud Smith.
The only sitting NDP member
clected for the first time in 1986,

who will not serve again is Atlin’s
Larry Guno, who also is eligible
for the $24,609,

More $$ in Pensions
Premiere Rita Johnston (who was
first elected in 1983), heads a
group of longer-serving Socred
MLAs who quit or were thrown
out by the voters last Thursday,
and who are eligible for pensions
rather than severance,
In the: Members’ Handbook
which outlines the pension formu-
la, Legislative Comptroller Ian
Fraser says it is equal to five per-
cent times the highest four-ycar
average of an MLA’s indemnity,
times the number of ycars of pen-
sionable service to a maximum of
16,

Therefore a 10-year MLA who
served in Cabinct would receive

about $40,000 annually; .05 x:

$80,000 (approx.) x 10).

Joining Premiere Johnston in the
pensions list this year are:

* From the Socreds — Bill Vander
Zalm, Jack Kempf, Elwood
Veitch, Stephen Rogers, Grace
McCarthy, Angus Rec, Bill Reid,
Austin Pelton, Claude Richmond,
Tony Brummet, Doug Mowat,
Brice Strachan, Russ Fraser, Wal-
ter Davidson and John Reynolds.

* From the NDP - Bob Williams,
Mark Rose, Gordon Hanson and

Chris D’Arcy, who all were clect-

cd before 1986, The first three quit
politics, while D’Arcy ran, and
lost, as an independent.

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