Vaughn Palmer: NDP's weekend convention largely an orderly affair
Credit to Author: Hugh Dawson| Date: Tue, 26 Nov 2019 01:57:02 +0000
VICTORIA — The mostly upbeat NDP convention held in the provincial capital this past weekend was a far cry from the tension-ridden affairs the last time the party was in government.
NDP conventions in the 1990s were cauldrons of intrigue, as the party brass struggled to contain dissent over government policies.
Even with the best of efforts back then, disputes spilled into the open over no-fault auto insurance, wage controls, and efforts to cap welfare benefits.
When all else failed in a 1998 showdown over the Six-Mile Ranch project near Kamloops, the party pressed former Premier Dave Barrett into service to shore up support for removal of the lands from the agricultural reserve.
“Let this old ghost go home and rest his weary bones,” pleaded Barrett, the father of the land reserve, in successfully making the case. (He was then only 67 and would live another 20 years before passing in 2018.)
But as he well knew from his experience in government, party conventions could be a pain in the neck that the leadership could only grin and bear.
“Where members of other parties may be content to pay an annual fee and watch the news, New Democrats are movement people, absorbed in policy and process as much as in victory,” wrote Rod Mickleburgh and Geoff Meggs in the Art of the Impossible, their study of the Barrett government.
Mickleburgh is a veteran labour reporter, Meggs a former Vancouver city councillor who is now chief of staff to Premier John Horgan. Both knew whereof they spoke.
Barrett’s own government struggled to tamp down a dispute over his refusal to establish a standalone ministry of Women’s Equality. Activists singled out the premier for their Male Chauvinist Pig award as the “most sexist” politician of 1973.
Mindful of that contentious history, the current NDP leadership moved to minimize the potential for convention showdowns during the Horgan government term of office.
At a convention in the fall of 2017, held in the wake of the euphoria over the party’s coming to office that year, the leadership put forward a constitutional amendment to reduce the convention schedule from annually to once every two years.
“We are not just a political machine, we are a political movement,” protested past president Ron Johnson, speaking on behalf of the activist base.
But speaking in favour of the switch was Carole James, deputy premier, finance minister and one of the most fondly regarded members of the new government.
Her view carried the day, with 71 per cent of delegates voting in favour of the reduction, comfortably above the necessary two-thirds to change the constitution.
As a result, the gathering on the weekend was only the second to be held during the Horgan government’s term of office. It was also the last before the scheduled Oct. 16, 2021, date for the next provincial election.
Ironically, the effort to reduce the convention schedule may not have been all that necessary, given what unfolded on the weekend.
For it was an orderly affair — although there were some protests.
“LNG — it’s a fracking disaster!,” was the theme of a demonstration on Saturday morning. Cannabis activists wreathed the entranceway in overwhelming clouds of their preferred product at noon.
Teachers shared the entranceway with both groups of demonstrators.
But all that was confined outside the hall, thanks to a combination of convention security and the noticeable presence of Victoria city police.
Inside the hall, barely a discouraging word was heard. When two delegates who were also teachers took to the floor microphones to make a pitch for more funding to be added to the current contract talks, they were met with polite applause and the convention moved on as if nothing had happened.
Actual debates on the convention floor were few and far between. Delegates did spend a bit of time fretting over daylight savings versus standard time, a proposed school lunch program, and whether individual speakers should be allowed two minutes or a full three.
Eventually, the convention resolved itself in favour of daylight savings, school lunches and a three-minute limit.
More notable were the issues given short shrift, such as the transit dispute in Metro Vancouver and the troubles in the forest industry.
The only motion dealing with the contract dispute with teachers was buried so far down in the resolutions list that it would not have been called had the convention continued for a week.
Site C, once a major point of contention among New Democrats, has become ancient history since the government decided to complete the project in the wake of the last convention.
Energy Minister Michelle Mungall, formerly an opponent, is now carrying around pictures on her mobile phone of her recent tour of the project.
All this can be interpreted positively as a sign of maturity, negatively as an indication that the NDP is becoming a party like any other.
But one check on the party activists that should not be overlooked was underscored in the closing briefing of the convention by Bob Dewar, special political adviser to Premier Horgan.
“We didn’t win the last election,” he reminded delegates. He added the current minority situation in the house could fail at any time for any number of reasons, forcing an early election.
In short, although things have gone well through 28 months and counting, the NDP’s hold on power remains precarious. Hence the party can ill afford dissension in the ranks.