One of the most impactful and game-changing measures the NDP brought in when it first formed government in 2017 is reverberating to this day and particularly this moment.
I am referring to the legislated ban on corporate and union financial contributions to political parties.
As various political players try to put something together to replace the train wreck, otherwise known as the B.C. Conservative Party, that ban is reverberating through the political landscape.
Last week, business leaders gathered twice in downtown Vancouver to figure out an alternative path for taking on the ruling NDP. But their now-inability to simply write huge checks to a political party shows the limits on their influence and power.
During the 2017 election campaign, the NDP ran a series of devastating political attack ads against then-B.C. Liberal leader Christy Clark. They featured a beaming Clark being showered with paper money and they were effective in tying her to big business.
Well, no need for those kinds of ads anymore as big business can no longer shower any politician or party with money.
It must be frustrating for the business community leaders. They meet in secret, no longer able to use the traditionally big weapon, and so far, at least, have not come up with a game plan that is public.
Creating a new party from scratch is difficult, but doable. In fact, the B.C. Conservatives under former leader John Rustad showed just how doable: they went from nowhere to almost winning the 2024 election.
But the key for their success was twofold: they had sitting, previously elected MLAs (all former B.C. Liberals) and they caught a conservative wave that was sweeping the country as public opinion decidedly turned against then-Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau.
Well, Trudeau is long gone and so is that conservative wave. There is no “wave”, other than one perhaps associated with Prime Minister Mark Carney.
But there are a growing number of MLAs now searching for a political home and a new party. They are the keys to building an alternative to the NDP, not a now somewhat politically impotent business community.
Whether that alternative is the CentreBC Party or a different entity entirely is unclear, but it’s no longer the business community’s call on what it looks like. It will be up to elected MLAs in the B.C. legislature.
And that is the way it should be. People who were elected in a democratic system should hold the keys to the car, not unelected folks meeting in secret.
Note: some readers are no doubt expecting me to take a deep dive into the self-destruction of the B.C. Conservative Party under new leader Kerry-Lynne Findlay’s leadership but given that this is a weekly column and developments within that party seem to occur on a daily – even hourly – basis I think it best I wait a bit.
More drama surely lies ahead for a party that came within a hair of winning the last election, but which is now bleeding all over the place.
Keith Baldrey is Global BC’s legislature bureau chief.
Keith.Baldrey@globalnews.ca
