Vaughn Palmer: MLA well-liked by colleagues, but not by his leaders
Credit to Author: Stephen Snelgrove| Date: Thu, 17 Oct 2019 00:10:22 +0000
VICTORIA — When B.C. Liberal MLA Ralph Sultan entered provincial politics almost two decades ago, it was after a mix of careers that had not been represented in the B.C. legislature.
Chief economist for a chartered bank. Professor of economics at Harvard University. Professional engineer. Mining company executive. Plus author of that reliable bit of bedside reading for insomniacs — a two-volume study of price fixing in the electricity industry.
Sultan was a mere 68 years old when he was first elected to represent West Vancouver in 2001. He’d reached the age of 86 when he announced this week that he would not run for a sixth term in 2021.
In between, he spent 16 years of his 18 years as MLA on the government side, but only nine months at the cabinet table.
He has one of the most impressive resumés of any B.C. politician. But rarely was he called on for more than backbench duties and the occasional committee assignment
Politics presents a steep learning curve for an outsider, even one as accomplished as Sultan.
“Here’s this top of the class of the Harvard business school sort of guy, thinking he knows it all — particularly how the world works, because I’ve travelled and had all these different jobs,” Sultan confided to Rob Shaw of The Vancouver Sun after experiencing a health scare in the house a few years back.
“But it was humbling to realize that I didn’t really understand very well society, and the human condition,” he continued. “So it was a surprise. I would never have forecast this reaction, but I thought, wow, this is great. It is something I’ve missed in my education.”
The education of Ralph Sultan also included the rough side of party politics because what mainly kept him out of cabinet was running afoul of two B.C. Liberal premiers.
Gordon Campbell was the first. Elected in a landslide in 2001, he pledged open government and an active role for all MLAs, who’d be free to speak their minds and even vote their conscience at times.
A year later, Sultan was one of the first MLAs to test those limits when he got his hands on a leaked plan for drastic cuts to health services on the North Shore.
His reaction was both angry and understandable. Sultan had explained in his initial speech in the house that he’d gone into politics in part because of the sudden death of his wife Susan, who was struck down by a seizure and denied the prompt care she needed.
The MLA fired off a seven-page letter of protest, sparing nothing in the way of scorn, but laying the blame on administrators in the health region. But when the letter surfaced in the news media, it was widely interpreted as a critique of his own government’s spending cuts.
In the aftermath, Sultan hoped that his Liberal colleagues would recognize “a private member is expected to speak out on behalf of his constituents.”
But if not: “Well, I’m in a better position in that maybe I’m not here for the next 35 years. So, perhaps I might just say ‘I call it the way it is.’ I don’t have a lot on the line. I’m here to do the best job for my constituents.”
Sultan got a second chance when Campbell appointed the former mining company executive and professional engineer to chair a task force on the mining industry.
But the task force did too good a job of identifying what needed to be done to improve the investment climate for mining in B.C.
The first draft of its report was sent back for a rewrite, the second was suppressed. When a copy was leaked to The Vancouver Sun, the mines minister of the day admitted it had stepped on too many toes to be implemented.
Thereafter Sultan, branded a troublemaker, mostly languished in Campbell’s backbench.
His career revived briefly under Premier Christy Clark.
In a bit of typecasting, Clark appointed him to a junior ministry of state for seniors, then elevated him to full cabinet rank as minister of advanced education.
Sultan was just short of his 80th birthday and as one observer put it, “you can’t get much more advanced in your education than that.”
But when Clark shuffled her cabinet after the Liberals were re-elected, Sultan was dropped from the lineup.
The likely explanation for why he was now persona non grata with a second Liberal premier was provided by Trevor Lautens, columnist for the North Shore news and a sometime lunch companion with Sultan.
“The Liberals won (but) Clark lost in her own riding. So she felt around for an MLA who would make way for her in a byelection. Step down from a safe seat. And none safer than Sultan’s. Sultan politely declined.”
Sultan returned to his duties as MLA, backbencher and gadfly member of the public accounts committee. In 2017 he won a fifth term, ending up on the Opposition side for a change.
On the occasion of his 85th birthday last year, NDP MLA Bowinn Ma, 32, delivered a tribute “from the youngest member of the house to the oldest.”
She brought him to tears and all members of the house to their feet for a standing ovation.
Sultan’s outspoken ways never endeared him to Liberal premiers. But along the way, he became one of the most well-liked and respected members of the house.