A few years ago, we lamented on this page that B.C. was in danger of losing its world-class title for goofy politics. How naïve we were.
The reputation of wackiness was well-earned. As British journalist Matthew Engel once noted, B.C. is “definitely one of God’s better ideas … its politics are vicious, corrupt, polarized and rather charmingly wacko.”
We British Columbians have long prided ourselves on being fond of, to put it mildly, political non-comformity, starting with an early premier who changed his name from William Alexander Smith to Amor De Cosmos. Then there was that series of premiers whose favoured exit from political life was through the revolving door of scandal.
But others have been treading hard on our heels: a crack-smoking, brawling mayor in Toronto, massive political upheaval in Alberta, the political situations at various levels south of the border. We have looked disappointingly dull these past few years.
But no more. We have upped our game.
We have a premier who turned her party’s platform around so abruptly, several members of her caucus are being treated for whiplash. We have the Green Party saying it wants party status, then voting it down when it was offered. We have the NDP introducing legislation several times over the years to ban union and corporate political donations, then refusing to let such legislation even get to first reading.
In the coming days and weeks, we will likely see the Greens accepting party status, the NDP implementing the donations ban they rejected and the former premier criticizing the New Democrats for stealing the platform she stole from them.
It’s more than a little confusing, but it’s delightfully wacky. We can again hold our heads high — if we’re not too dizzy from all the spinning — and be proud that British Columbia will still be known as that place where, when Canada was tipped up, all the nuts rolled to the western edge.
