Adrian Dix should avoid an easy choice for speaker and get his MLAs to appreciate the arts
With the B.C. Liberals disintegrating, it's time to cast eyes on the next B.C. NDP government.
There are several areas of concern, but I'll focus on just two: the arts and the choice of speaker of the legislature.
When it comes to the arts, the NDP caucus and the leader, Adrian Dix, rely too often on Vancouver-West End MLA Spencer Chandra Herbert to do the heavy lifting.
Most other NDP MLAs with the very notable exception of Powell River–Sunshine Coast representative Nicholas Simons have not demonstrated a great deal of interest or passion for this topic.
The biggest threat to arts and culture in this province is if Chandra Herbert or Simons don't get this responsibility in cabinet. That's because there has been no indication that any other NDP MLAs are up to the job.
Dix can alleviate any concerns about his MLAs being Philistines by ensuring that more of them start showing up at cultural events around the Lower Mainland. By doing this, these MLAs will start seeing with their own eyes how arts and culture stimulate the economy, boost employment, and enrich our society.
If Dix appoints a minister who's familiar with the Vancouver arts community, he can avoid political headaches. Cultural workers don't need another Kevin Krueger, who accused the arts community of threatening him like a needle-waving junkie.
Kwan is a poor choice for speaker
The other matter concerns the next speaker of the legislature. The NDP caucus will be tempted to choose Jenny Kwan, who represents Vancouver-Mount Pleasant.
On the surface, it's easy to justify. She would be the first speaker of Chinese descent, which would be welcomed in the Chinese-language media. She is also the senior NDP MLA in caucus with 16 years in the legislature. In addition, Kwan is familiar with the house rules.
Conveniently for Dix, choosing Kwan as speaker would also mean that she wouldn't have to sit in caucus with former leader Carole James and all of her supporters, including NDP house leader John Horgan. They probably still haven't forgiven Kwan for her role in James losing the NDP leadership.
And if former Vancouver councillor George Chow wins the NDP nomination in Vancouver-Langara and gets elected to the legislature, Dix might be tempted to give him a junior cabinet post. Then he could make a big deal about having a cabinet minister and a speaker whose first language is Cantonese.
(Forget about Cantonese- and Mandarin-speaking Vancouver-Fraserview NDP candidate Gabriel Yiu making cabinet after the 2013 election. He's too close to Kwan to make the grade with the Dix machine.)
The downside of Kwan becoming speaker is that the poorest neighbourhood in the province, the Downtown Eastside, would not have an advocate in the legislature or in the government caucus.
This is not the time to silence Kwan's voice with her peers. Gentrification of the Downtown Eastside is accelerating, thousands of tenants face the loss of single-room-occupancy hotel rooms in the coming years, and the poorest residents are ending up in shelters or on the streets.
There are alternatives to Kwan
When Dix starts looking for a speaker, there are lots of other MLAs with sufficient experience for the job. Vancouver-Hastings MLA Shane Simpson is one of the most fair-minded members of the legislature. He is a stickler for process, which is essential in a house speaker.
The caucus has already elected Simpson as chair, which demonstrates he has their respect.
Victoria-Swan Lake MLA Rob Fleming would be another good choice. He's intelligent and doesn't come across as partisan as some of his colleagues.
They're not the only ones. Norm Macdonald, Bruce Ralston, or Leonard Krog would all be capable speakers.
If Kwan ends up being offered the job, let's hope for the sake of her constituents that she turns it down. These days, perhaps more than ever before, they need an MLA in the governing caucus.
Comments
13 Comments
Anita Romaniuk
Jul 15, 2012 at 1:14am
If I remember correctly, Shane Simpson did endorse John Horgan in the last couple of weeks of the leadership race.
Graham
Jul 15, 2012 at 6:37am
If I remember correctly, the NDP destroyed this province last time they were in power.
Charlie Smith
Jul 15, 2012 at 7:06am
Hi Anita,
Thanks for mentioning that. I corrected the article. I wrote that late at night and seemed to recall Shane Simpson telling me at one point that he wouldn't be endorsing anyone because he was caucus chair. Perhaps my memory is failing me.
Regardless, we actually ran a short article about the endorsement you referred to:
http://www.straight.com/article-386119/vancouver/ndp-caucus-chair-shane-...
In my initial draft, I also neglected to mention Nicholas Simons as a caucus member with a keen interest in the arts. I fixed that, too.
You can check out Nicholas Simons playing the cello in the video below:
http://www.straight.com/article-369794/vancouver/video-nicholas-simons-t...
Charlie Smith
SPY vs SPY
Jul 15, 2012 at 8:41am
Graham, I remember clearly the destruction that NDP Governments have brought to BC in the past.
1 Not building a $1 Billion Dollar Convention Centre ( $300 Million over Budget)
2 Not building a $560 Million Dollar new roof for BC Place (aka "Gordorkios Crown" ($100 - $200 Million over budget)
3 Not bringing 45,000 guest workers from foreign countries to take jobs away from BC and Canadian citizens
4 Not contraction out electrical energy to foreign and private companies and paying 10 - 20 times the BC Hydro Rate
5 Not giving financial control of BC Hydro to an "Off Shore American Company" that was connected to the Enron Scandal
6 Not signing an Olympic contract that will cost the City of Vancouver $300 Million
7 Not closing down hundreds of senior care homes and selling the land to Greedy developers.
8 Not building the Golden Ears Bridge with Serbian Guest Workers, who walked off the job because they were not getting paid - this caused a 6 month delay in completing the bridge.
Graham, there is not one crack on the road surface of the Lions Gate Bridge or the new Pitt River Bridge.
However you cannot travel 3 feet on the "P - 3 / Out Sourced Foreign Guest Worker / Golden Ears Bridge" without driving over a large crack in the road surface. The entire cement surface of the Golden Ears Bridge is SHATTERED to use a proper term. It is a 2 -3 km spider web of cracks, how long before Golden Ears Bridge has to be closed down and resurfaced, with good old TAXPAYER Money?????
The Mayans predicted the world would end in 2012, I predict the BC Liberal (not really Liberal at all) will become extinct in 2013.
Graham, ever wonder why no one in the BC Liberal Party never mentions Gordon Campbell's name. Maybe just before the next election, the BC Liberals make Gordorkio the Campaign Chairman and put his "Oh So Accomplished Face" in every TV ad you run.
total recall
Jul 15, 2012 at 8:44am
Graham, your memory is poor and if you were to do some background checking you would find the NDP did rather well at what they do, much better than the present bunch. I wonder what ever happened to the "Golden Decade", promised to BC people, OH, not the top 1% but the rest of the people of BC. Maybe you don't care if your gov't sells your public assets to their buddies.
Durward
Jul 15, 2012 at 10:22am
SPY vs SPY
What they did close was all industry, all investment, basically all the Private sector well paying jobs which is why myself and tens of thousands of others left the province and made money and paid taxes to other provinces while the NDP ravished the economy in BC.
I wonder, are you perchance a non contributing public employee?
devils advocate
Jul 15, 2012 at 11:27am
getting ahead of yourself arent you and the rest of the dippers
RichardV
Jul 15, 2012 at 2:37pm
May 2013 can't come soon enough for me. Its overwhelming to think of just how much work the NDP will have to do to fix and repair the damage caused by the BC Liberals. The sooner they can get at it the better.
SPY vs SPY
Jul 15, 2012 at 3:44pm
Oh Durward or Bum-wad or whatever your name is.
Please be as specific as I was and list all the industries that the NDP have closed.
One Industry does come to mind and Yes the NDP did shut them down completely and the workers in that Industry did have to leave BC to find work in other Provinces.
NDP Premier Mike Harcourt put an absolute end to the use of Chlorine as a bleaching agent for Pulp and Paper Mills in all of BC.
WHY, because when the Chlorine saturated water was dumped into the Ocean, it reacted and formed "Dioxin" also known as "Agent Orange".
Union Carbide had to close its Chlorine plant in Squamish and all BC Pulp Mills had to convert to an "Oxygen Bleaching Process".
DUMN - WAD this was a great disaster wasn't it.
By the way many Pulp Mills in the rest of Canada still use Chlorine to bleach Pulp and Paper, much to the detriment of all of Canada.
Durward GFYS
Stephen
Jul 15, 2012 at 10:58pm
Charlie, Jenny Kwan didn't single-handedly depose Carole James. One-third of the caucus rebelled against her leadership--a crippling blow from which it would have been virtually impossible for her to recover. Moreover there was widespread discontent, among party members and the public at large, with James's uninspired performance as opposition leader--all boilerplate rhetoric and continual whingeing about Gordon Campbell (against whom she lost two elections, despite waging creditable campaigns). In spite of the hand-wringing of some party stalwarts in the early aftermath of James's ouster, no one today can say the NDP isn't better off for having elected Adrian Dix as leader.
So when you say John Horgan "probably" hasn't forgiven Kwan for joining the anti-James cabal, on what evidence do you base your surmise? Likewise, why would it make sense for Adrian Dix to exclude Gabriel Yiu from cabinet merely because of his association with Kwan?
By all accounts the "Dix machine" has done a first-rate job of maintaining unity in the caucus. Why would that be any different when it comes to picking a cabinet?