VICTORIA 鈥� Let鈥檚 assume that when everyone in B.C. gets to be finance minister for a day, a majority choose to throw a $3-billion chair through the office window to show how mad they are about the harmonized sales tax.
The cleanup will take two years, but first there will be a provincial election to decide who holds the broom and dustpan. And the choices are becoming clear.
You have who has tacked to the centre on the minimum wage and business taxes in an effort to seek forgiveness for the high-handed administration that lost the public鈥檚 trust.
And you have two opposition parties that are entirely reactionary in their approach to today鈥檚 fast-changing world.
There isn鈥檛 much to say at this point about the B.C. Conservatives under John Cummins. They are against modern treaty settlements, the carbon tax and (I think) the HST. They stand for lower taxes, but so far that doesn鈥檛 include a reduced sales tax rate.
The rest of their platform is platitudes, with enough of a whiff of protest to pave a path for an NDP government.
And the NDP manages to make the B.C. Conservatives look modern.
In January I described how the B.C. NDP constitution still formally endorses the government taking over major industries, and explicitly rejects all for-profit activity. for the convoluted Marxist language, which boils down to 鈥榮tate good, competition bad.鈥�
A reader provides a real-time example of how this principle would apply to a problem confronting the B.C. government. To prevent another riot in Vancouver, the government should supervise an orderly redistribution of Stanley Cups.
This core principle of socialism, an 80-year-old relic, was debated at the national party鈥檚 convention in Vancouver on the weekend. Socialist dead-enders rallied to keep it alive, rejecting vague new wording that favours 鈥渟ocial democratic principles鈥� to ensure 鈥渆conomic and social equality.鈥�
This isn鈥檛 just an academic discussion for party conventions. One of the last acts of the NDP opposition in the B.C. legislature this spring was to propose a legislated end to poverty.
According to their bill, B.C. should create a Ministry of Poverty Reduction with annual goals for imposing the redistribution of wealth.
The 鈥淧overty Reduction Act鈥� contains a weasel-worded definition of poverty: insufficient money to 鈥渁cquire and maintain economic self-reliance鈥� and 鈥渇acilitate integration into and participation in society.鈥�
Does this mean a guaranteed annual income? Can people achieve 鈥渆conomic self-reliance鈥� by collecting welfare? Does anyone actually believe this stuff?
If you believe unionized state monopolies are the best business model, I guess so.
I won鈥檛 elaborate on the fringe parties such as Chris Delaney鈥檚 B.C. First, a splinter from the B.C. Conservative stump.
The Green Party is the only one other than the B.C. Liberals that looks to the future. Perhaps too far in the future. The Greens want a dramatically increased carbon tax and a transition to a 鈥渟teady state鈥� economy that doesn鈥檛 try to produce and consume more. Try eliminating poverty with that program.
I frequently get letters from people who accuse me of parroting the government鈥檚 line on issues such as the HST and poverty. If there are political alternatives out there that make actual sense in today鈥檚 world, I鈥檇 love to hear about them. Until then, these are the choices.
Any day now, NDP leader Adrian Dix might start to unveil the positive alternative he has promised for an election that may come this fall. That will be something to examine closely.
Right now, he鈥檚 urging you to throw that chair.
Tom Fletcher is legislative reporter and columnist for Black Press and BCLocalnews.com
twitter.com/tomfletcherbc
