By 1990, the public's perception of Bill Vander Zalm had altered greatly since his 1986 election as Premier. His government had been plagued with scandal after scandal, even one of his top ministers Grace McCarthy, the woman who rebuilt the Social Credit Party member by member after the 1972 election resigned in protest. Finally, Mr. Vander Zalm resigned as Premier in April 1991 during a scandal involving an amusement park he owned.Rita Johnston though was closely associated with Mr. Vander Zalm. She was unable to rebuild the liberal-conservative coalition and was essentially left to remain on a sinking ship. As the Social Credit Party began to lose support, the Liberal Party led by Gordon Wilson was looking to become a prominent political party once again. Always the opportunist, he got his chance the 1991 election, and never turned back. The NDP too had a new leader, Mike Harcourt. He was a moderate in the party, and he went in with the expectation that he would lead the second social democratic government in British Columbia.
The 1991 election debate was a turning point during the campaign. As Harcourt and Johnston bickered as their predecessors had done so often for the past thirty years, Gordon Wilson stood there and appeared as the middle of the road candidate between the right-winger and the left-winger, a true centrist. He interrupted the leaders with this powerful line that guaranteed him moderate success later that month:
"This reminds me of the Legislature, and here is a classic example of why nothing ever gets done in the Legislature of British Columbia."
What do you say to that? Without surprise, the 1991 election played out with the Liberal Party having had no seats before the election, forming the Official Opposition to the majority NDP government with the SoCreds becoming the third party. The election realigned the BC political spectrum, and ended the rights dominance over the province since 1975.
The British Columbia general election of 1991
1. BC NDP - 41% (51 seats)
2. British Columbia Liberal Party - 33% (17 seats)
3. British Columbia Social Credit Party - 24% (7 seats)
4. Green Party Political Association of British Columbia - 1%
5. Independent - 1%
The night was disappointing for Mike Harcourt, who along with the party expected a larger majority and was expecting to hit the mid to upper 40's. Rita Johnston having produced one of the worst sitting governments defeat in recent memory, resigned as SoCred leader in early 1992. Not long after her resignation though Gordon Wilson was also ousted for having been involved in an extramarital affair with recently named Opposition House Leader and fellow Liberal MLA Judi Tyabji. His party grew weary of his leadership blaming it on inexperience and elected a new leader in September 1993, one Gordon Campbell who was at the time, Mayor of Vancouver. By 2001, he would become the premier and lead the province for a decade.
The NDP began to uncover the poor fiscal traditions of the previous governments, but was met with the Go-Go 1990's, a time of massive economic expansion, to which BC was not immune. The population of the province was also growing at an incredible rate with a mass amount of immigrants arriving from Asia contributing to the new found diversity among our demographics.
The BC Benefits program was introduced in response to dramatically reduced funding, which reduced the availability of welfar services. A concerted effort was underway to remove those cheating the system. The NDP truly was a "socialist hoard", as Wacky Bennett had so famously called them many years before. Mike Harcourt described our differences with socialism best.
"I am not for the redistribution of wealth; I propose the creation of wealth."
With Gordon Campbell as the newly-elected leader of the Liberal Party, he understood that to succeed he would have to position himself against the NDP. To do this he would have to displace the SoCreds. Luckily for him, that was already being achieved. As Grace McCarthy was elected leader, party infighting was widespread. The party that had shown unity so many times before was now being torn apart. By 1994, Grace McCarthy lost a by-election by fewer than 100 votes. Seeing it was the end of the road, four MLAs representing the party joined the Reform Party. The winner of the by-election was a fellow by the name of Mike de Jong. Sound familiar?
With the SoCreds dead, a new political vacuum was open. The Liberals moved to the right wing by the mid 1990's, which in part helped them to better attack the government's policy. It was here the blistering and false attacks about the state of the economy in BC were first delivered. While it was mess a politically, the economy was improving greatly with the highest minimum wage in the country, the second lowest level of debt per person in Canada, and low hydro and auto insurance rates. Lies in government? Well I never...
As 1996 approached, the NDP feared for a re-election campaign. It had never been achieved by them, and with support down among the public, due to misconception about the state of the economy, the party was right to be nervous. Unfortunately, David Stupich got involved in a political fundraising scandal, but to avoid any negative connotations with the party, Mike Harcourt resigned as Premier as well in an apparent shock to everyone. His successor was a young man from Vancouver named Glen Clark. The process of resignation from the leader of the NDP for the sake of the party was renewed once again in 2010 with the resignation of Carole James among infighting.
At the dissolution of Parliament, nearly everything had changed since 1991. Mike Harcourt was no longer Premier, Gordon Wilson was now with Judi Tyabji in his party, the Progressive Democratic Alliance, the SoCreds had one MLA, Gordon Campbell was now leading a right-wing opposition, and the Reform Party had four representatives. The 1996 election though played out oddly. It pitted businessman Campbell versus pro-labour Clark, and resulted in a much weaker NDP majority despite losing the popular vote. Campbell, rightfully angered by the results demanded electoral reform once elected Premier, while the NDP breathed a sigh of relief.
The British Columbia general election of 1996
1. BC NDP - 39% (39 seats)
2. British Columbia Liberal Party - 42% (33 seats)
3. Reform Party of British Columbia - 9% (2 seats)
4. Progressive Democratic Alliance - 6% (1 seat)
5. Green Party Political Association of British Columbia - 2%
6. Independent - 1%
The election saw the Green Party rise to 2% support, and Gordon Wilson retaining his seat while his wife lost in her re-election bid. The Reform Party lost seats in favour to the Liberals. This election brought forward many of Gordon Campbell's future Ministers, including Barry Penner, Murray Coell, Colin Hansen, Rich Coleman, Ida Chong, and Kevin Krueger. A cool and confident Glen Clark had this to say after the election:
"We are an economic engine for the country. We are doing well, we're doing things a little differently in British Columbia, and we need that recognized, and I won't stand back and not allow that to be recognized."
It was a change from his personality during the campaign. The NDP shifted its attention towards health care and education during its second term. It never once cut health care funding, reduced class sizes, built a new school on average every 19 days, hired 4,000 additional teachers, removed over half a thousand of those damn cold and damp portables (I should know, I was in one for a year), had the lowest child poverty rate second only to PEI and BC's child care was rated first among the country by the Vancouver Sun.
The Government also continued to make progress with the environment by planting 2.5 billion trees, restored salmon runs through a comprehensive plan, created 345 new park areas and was the first jurisdiction in North America to reach the UN goal of 12% protected parks and wilderness. Next and perhaps most detrimentally, Glen Clark shifted his attention to BC Ferries. Yes, the Fast Cat Ferries are coming up.
Clark viewed BC Ferries as an extension of the highways system. This coupled with the boom in population growth; Clark saw it fit to get new ferries to help accommodate the province. Unfortunately, to do this it would cost money. Money which as the Opposition pointed out, we were short of. In a turning point, the 1996/1997 budget was forecast to have a small surplus, but once the revenues were allocated it turned out we had a small deficit. The public was angry, despite the fact that we had achieved so much in face of such stiff opposition, along with the budget being the most accurate in British Columbia history at the time.
Eventually, the ferries were revealed to only be suitable in the open ocean due to the waves and as a result couldn't be used along our coast line. We attempted to fix them, but the public had lost all confidence in us. Glen Clark's political career was over. Later he had this to say about his resignation as Premier:
"I would say the problems for the NDP have not been particularly me, my leadership or even the mistakes I made. The real problem has been the psychology of the province and the sense by a lot of people that we're not doing as well as we should have."
He hit the nail on the head with that sentence. He made way for the last Premier of the 1990's: Dan Miller. Mr. Miller was an interim leader, meaning he was only intended to be leader for a few months until the NDP was ready to select a new leader. He led the party during a gradual recovery in public opinion polls. Gordon Wilson was now Finance Minister having joined the party in 1997, and dissolving the PDA. Since the 1996 election however, the Liberals had won every by-election. Even as the 2001 election emerged, left-wingers upset with the BC Benefits package turned to the Green Party. The NDP had reached its nadir or "basement" of support at 22% as the 2001 election approached.
As the decade came to a close the NDP achieved much more than many will give credit for. In advanced education, tuition fees were frozen as they appeared to rise to assist students. Three new universities were opened, with 40,000 post-secondary student spaces and the second best participation rate from students to enrol in post-secondary institutions from the worst rate before assuming office.
BC had the greatest job growth in Canada at 24% during the decade, the economy grew at a faster average then the national economy every year, income taxes were cut $800 million since 1995, we established the lowest small business tax in the country, in fact the NDP has been called the best manager of the economy in comparison to the Liberals and SoCreds. That's right, taxing big business actually helps the economy! Suck on that Liberals! With the collapse of NDP support, so too began a new era for the right-wing to control the province. The liberal-conservative coalition was now put in the hands of the BC Liberals, the spiritual successor of the Social Credit party. It went on to win the 2001 election without difficulty, easily winning 77 of 79 seats with some conservatives fearful the party would be too radical with Gordon Campbell as Premier. To this day, it continues to fight the constant pro-labour party, the NDP, which has regained its support to late 1980's levels in the low to mid 40's.
The 1990's were a time of achievement and progress. I am proud of our accomplishments, I am proud to be associated with Mike Harcourt and Glen Clark. I am proud of the New Democratic Party of British Columbia, and no one can deny our triumphs in the name of social democracy.
Political figures of the day
Bill Vander Zalm - Premier of the Province of British Columbia, 1986-1991
Rita Johnston - Premier of the Province of British Columbia, 1991
Mike Harcourt - Premier of the Province of British Columbia, 1991-1996
Glen Clark - Premier of the Province of British Columbia, 1996-1999
Gordon Campbell - Leader of the Official Opposition, 1994-2001
Gordon Wilson - Leader of the Official Opposition, 1991-1994
Mike de Jong - Member of the Legislative Assembly, 1994-Present
Note: This has been edited as of December 2011 from the original version I posted in November 2010. All that's changed is the wording of some sentences. I have issues with the awkwardness of the wording I often find in my older writing, ok?
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