Things just got interesting...

Little more than 24 hours after yesterday’s last minute cancellation of the caucus meeting, Carole James has announced that she is resigning as the leader of the BC NDP Party as soon as the caucus selects an interim leader.

Well then.

My own personal feelings for James aside, I really do believe that this is in the best interest of British Columbians and the party. After nearly 8 years of James’ stay-the-course game plan, it’s time that we get fired up and passionate about politics again; two new party leaders within one year can do this.

British Columbians have a long standing history of being largely cynical or apathetic when it comes to politics and politicians but things have shifted over the course of this year. First we saw the first ever successful petition drive to combat the so called “Harmonized Sales Tax”. Read that again: the first ever successful petition drive. In Canada. The threshold for a successful petition drive – or rather, initiative – in Canada has long been considered impossible to achieve. ”The proponent…has 90 days to collect signatures of 10% of the registered voters in each electoral district.” BC has some pretty staunchly conservative ridings, so while getting 10% of voters to sign a petition could be easy in some of the more urban districts, it'd be pretty difficult to do so in the more rural, and thereby more conservative ridings; especially when the petition is telling your conservative Premier and Conservative Prime Minister that you believe they are wrong. Perhaps that was what some members in the BC Legislature laid their hopes on when the Fight HST movement started their initiative, so imagine their surprise when the initiative not only beat, but exceeded the minimum 10% threshold.

Then comes the recall campaign for Oak Bay-Gordon Head MLA, Ida Chong. She is the first of several Liberal MLAs who will be facing the fire squad as a result of the Liberal's botched attempts at quelling the anger people feel at the new hated sales tax. On November 25, 2010, it was announced that the petition was rejected over a word count. It seems as though the (unelected, Gordon Campbell appointee) Elections BC chief electoral officer Craig James, in his infinite wisdom has decreed that HST and MLA need to be counted as 8 words, respectively, rather than accepting the acronyms as individual words thereby bumping the word count beyond the allowed 200 words. He also rejected all 150 canvassers registrations forcing the Fight HST camp to start from scratch. Despite being furious that the rules were changed after the petition was submitted (here's proof), this proved only a small speed bump and the petition drive has been approved for Ida Chong's seat. Not only was it approved, the campaign now has more volunteers as people were angered by the stunt pulled by Elections BC.

Everywhere you turn, people are talking about what's going on in politics in BC these days. Sure, some are very cynical, but still - people are talking. I started off writing this post planning on pontificating over who the new NDP leader might be (Go, Adrian Dix!), but as I started chipping away at this whenever a free moment presented itself, I realized that that's not what's important right now. We need to keep on talking about what's happening right now. We need to show the rest of the country (heck, the world) that we're not just a bunch of bored voters who whine, piss and moan about how "all politicians are the same" and how we're always being ignored by them and start affecting change. It's easy to try and drown out a single voice, but you can't drown out a crowd that cries out in a collective voice. Get up, shout, stomp and demand that you be heard.

If you're pissed off at the humiliating child poverty, make sure your MLA and Mary Polak hear you.

If you have a firm position on the tanker ban, tell it to your MLA and to Shirley Bond.

If you're bothered by accreditation of overseas training certificates, explain your position to your MLA and (ironically) Ida Chong.

There are hundreds of people in BC who's job it is to listen to you. You hired them! But if you don't tell them what they need to listen to, you're doing them, yourself and your province a disservice.

Yes, the leaders of both major parties in BC are resigning. Yes, there's a lot of speculation as to who's going to get their jobs. Now is not the time to worry about party unity (there simply isn't any). Now is the time to unite, as a province, and tell the people in office what matters to you.

If the people of BC unite as one, then the parties might just unite with you.

You need to keep your house in order.

If you're from British Columbia and are paying even the slightest bit of attention to our fine province's current state of affairs, you know that the political landscape is a great big Gordian knot right now. Sadly it seems as if there isn't any one person with a sword sharp enough to cut through this problem and it's, quite frankly, embarrassing.

The BC Liberals are about to enter into a leadership convention with the likes of Kevin Falcon, George Abbott, Mike de Jong and Dr. Moira Stillwell throwing their collective hats in the ring. I will make no secret of the fact that I am not a BC Liberal supporter. I have never been, nor do I anticipate ever being a supporter of that party so it comes as no shock to those closest to me that I am less than enthused with all of these candidates. After nearly a decade under the thumb of the Liberals, more specifically Gordon Campbell, I find it hard to believe that any of these candidates (with perhaps the exception of Dr. Stillwell, due to her being such a rookie) will be anything other than Campbell 2.0.

Mr. Falcon has a history of broken promises in his portfolio: Residential care beds, bridge tolls (which I do not necessarily oppose. Seems to work in SF), moving NICU and a litany of others, can many people expect him to keep his word? Will he be concerned about being held accountable as a Premier the way has hasn't been as a Transportation Minister and a Health Minister?

Next is Mr. George Abbott. I have to be honest, of the four candidates, I'm less terrified by this guy. He claims he's going to restore arts funding, is more likely to reach across the aisle, and says he'd move up the HST referendum date to July 24th, 2011. He's also someone who's all about the tax cuts. This I can't support. How can you hand out tax cuts left, right and centre when we're facing a huge deficit? Where is that money going to come from? Yet moe budget cuts on education and schools, Mr Education Minister?

"Open" Mike de Jong isn't so open with the Missing Women Commission of Inquiry by picking the former Attorney-General as the head of this commission. I've met Mr. Oppal, and respect him even, but how does that speak to being open?? Mr. de Jong talks a really tough game when it comes to cracking down on drunk driving, but when the likes of Carol Berner kills Alexa Middlaer is sentenced to an insulting 30 months in prison, it all just sounds like lip service to me.

Dr. Stillwell, I'm sorry. I just don't know who you are.

Now we come to the BC NDPs. Carole James has been the leader of this party for far too long, and it seems to me that she's the only one who doesn't yet realize this. Sure there are people out there who are showing her support, and she did survive the recent emergency caucus meeting but bad things happen when you speak against your party leader, if your leader is Carole James. Given what happened to Mr. Simpson, is it any wonder that people are tying on a yellow ribbon for her?

If you have heard about the "scarf" incident, then that last sentence probably wasn't as funny (and undemocratic) as I think it is. According to Corky Evans, a former MLA, former cabinet minister and attendee at the November 20th, 2010 NDP Provincial Council meeting, "...staff members stood in the hallway outside the meeting room and gave yellow scarves to everyone EXCEPT the folks they knew had signed or delivered the letter, and a few of the rest of us they figured might support the 13 signatories.

The result was surreal. It was also the most divisive thing I have ever witnessed in our Party. The MLA's who had NOT signed the letter asking Carol to resign were identified, in front of their peers and the Press, as Loyal and Good. Thus, the folks WITHOUT yellow scarves were immediately and publically identified as Disloyal and Bad."

I understand that backroom politics has forever been a function of government, and that it will remain that way until kingdom come (I don't like it, but I understand) but this is just sick and reeks of schoolyard bullying. I was mortified when I read this. This is what passes for good politics now, Ms. James? This is how you now chose to run your party?

Now there are mumblings that Ms. James is thinking of ousting Jenny Kwan, the longest standing MLA in her party, and possibly one of the most popular politicos in BC right now. This would be a fatal mistake, Mr. James. Turning her into a martyr will only bolster the BC Liberal's efforts to endear themselves to the electorate.

I could go on at great length on this topic alone, but in the few hours I have been chipping away at this post we went from having a caucus meeting where Kwan and/or other "dissidents" being heaved from the caucus, to now James supporters rumoring to urge her to step aside.

Keep posted.