There are some intriguing ideas coming out of the 2024 election campaign, but they get lost in the blizzard of posts from all quarters.
It’s been an immersion course in big picture concepts, without enough time to dwell on some fascinating, smaller notions about fixing B.C.’s assorted challenges.
Like how the end of a paper straw gets all mushy and gross toward the end of your slurpy, for instance.
Conservative Leader John Rustad flagged that problem concisely during the leaders’ debate. “Paper straws suck.”
NDP Leader David Eby was forced to agree, but rejected the Conservative plan to abandon the NDP’s current phase-out of single use plastic.
The bigger question is why the single use and plastic waste prevention regulation doesn’t cover the tens of thousands of single-use plastic lawn signs the parties have posted. That sucks, too. But it was just a blip before the campaign moved on.
Here’s a random assortment of other ideas that didn’t get the attention they deserve.
• Is David Eby a Communist?
Lululemon founder Chip Wilson believes he is, so he posted a giant billboard outside his house — the most expensive home in B.C. — branding the NDP as such.
The sign got a lot of people talking and Rustad endorsed it. But the central question didn’t get answered. A check of the Communist Party of B.C.’s platform provides more context.
They advocate restricting all rents to 20 per cent of a family’s income, which goes a couple of light-years past what the NDP has imposed.
They want the right to strike expanded to include legal work stoppages over “political beliefs.”
That’s an enchanting prospect — for labour lawyers. But NDP labour policy stops well short of that.
The central Communist premise is: “It’s not enough to criticize the injustices of capitalism. We have to get rid of the private profit system and build a socialist future.”
Hard to picture Eby saying those words.
• Be happy, or else
The B.C. Green platform includes a quote: “If the government cannot create happiness for its people, there is no purpose for the government to exist.”
It’s from Bhutan’s 1729 Legal Code.
Reaching back more than 300 years and out 10,000 kilometres for inspiration is quite a stretch. But the idea boils government and politics down to its essence.
Greens have advocated some kind of happiness or well being index for years. Reducing the ballot question to: “Are you happy?” would eliminate a lot of boring economic argument and endless social issue discussions.
• The Nike approach to electoral reform: Just Do It
The NDP put a complicated change in the voting system to a confusing vote in 2018 and it was rejected. A B.C. Green government would slam proportional representation into force within 100 days of being elected. More realistically, the issue is whether they could hold an NDP or Conservative government to that stance if they wound up holding the balance of power.
They tried that last time, but the NDP insisted on putting it to the vote, rather than imposing it directly.
• Net zero on new laws
Conservatives say for every new “red tape” law that is enacted, an old one has to be repealed. It’s an exciting proposition, but it gets complicated.
The B.C. Liberal government tried that in the early 2000s and kept a running tally of how many regulations they had eliminated, under then-deregulation minister Kevin Falcon. But it started to look suspicious. They junked a heritage conservation guidebook and counted that as cutting 4000 regulations, for instance.
It eventually petered out — just like Falcon did.
• GLTTPT CSI
The NDP is promising to unify provincial enforcement teams into a single agency that would handle gambling, liquor, traffic, transit police and tobacco.
The platform said it would reduce duplication, and focus on bad actors. “This will free up RCMP to focus on crime instead of provincial regulation enforcement.”
The Surrey police fiasco showed how ideas like this can run off the rails. But if a government could unify five different agencies, it would be a glimmer of hope for people who look at Greater Victoria police departments and just shake their heads.
Just So You Know: The NDP government also apparently feels like most voters now — overwhelmed with “large amounts of data.”
So one of their promises is to explore “leveraging artificial intelligence for public benefit.”
That might end up being up to AI to decide.
