Among the people looking ruefully back on the civic elections is B.C. NDP leadership candidate David Eby, who backed the wrong horse.
Why he felt the need to endorse defeated incumbent Vancouver mayor Kennedy Stewart is anyone’s guess. Stewart was considered a cinch by no one, so there was always the prospect of Eby winding up backing a loser.
With the party apparently keen to disqualify Eby’s only challenger, he could become premier at a time when a coordinated all-government approach to crime is desperately needed. But now he’s on the record as opposing the mayoralty of Vancouver mayor-elect Ken Sim.
It’s not that big a deal. Politicians work across party lines all the time. But you wonder if it crossed Eby’s mind as he spent part of Saturday door-knocking for his fellow New Democrat.
Loyalty to a fellow party member is nice, but preserving your options as a new premier is better.
Two cabinet ministers — Health Minister Adrian Dix and Environment Minister George Heyman — are in the same position. They too felt the world needed to know their views on who should be mayor of Vancouver. And it wasn’t Sim.
Opposition B.C. Liberals landed gleefully Monday on the endorsement record. The phrase “kiss of death” is in play. It looks like NDP cabinet ministers firmly supported the status quo in Vancouver at a time when voters there were keen on blowing (NDP-tending) incumbents out of the water.
B.C. Liberal Leader Kevin Falcon said it’s the status quo position on street crime, with violent prolific offenders being released over and over with no consequences, that was the biggest factor. “The public finally had their opportunity to pass judgment on the former attorney general’s failed approach to keeping our streets safe, and boy, did they ever.”
Premier John Horgan objected to the legislature being “sullied” by reading the crime issue into municipal election results.
“This [election results] is for us all to figure out. To tie it to a public policy question is absurd.”
Eby has been on trial in absentia since the legislature resumed over his law-and-order record. He’s been strikingly quiet about it. Falcon noted that it’s been 17 days since the devastating independent report on prolific offenders and random attacks on strangers dropped and Eby has still said nothing.
He was attorney general for the past five years and one day as fear and anxiety started escalating and he was the man who commissioned the report in the first place.
On a side note, the government has accepted three recommendations from the report, with more to come. One of them is to resurrect a pilot project designed to deal with prolific offenders with a more hands-on management approach.
It was started when Eby was head of the B.C. Civil Liberties Association. The Opposition cited a news report from that time suggesting he was dubious about it.
“We have serious concerns with the results of this program and are continuing to investigate the aggressive policing tactics,” Eby said.
The management program for repeat offenders was abandoned after a few years, but now the government is intent on resuming it. Solicitor General Mike Farnworth called it an important tool with a good success record and one of the key recommendations they’re going to implement quickly.
Also pulled out of the past was Attorney General Murray Rankin’s voting record as a federal MP when the changes that led to the catch-and-release system were made. He voted against them, but B.C. Liberals said he did so because he didn’t think they were lenient enough.
Rankin said it was a complex 300-page bill and the current situation with prolific offenders reflects unintended consequences from the law, and subsequent court decisions.
There was another sliver of news about crime policy Monday, as Rankin reported on his meeting with federal counterparts about the prolific offender crisis.
He said B.C. has “secured a commitment from the federal government on addressing repeat offending countrywide.” That commitment boils down to a promise that the federal government will explore financing options to better support provincial justice systems. And, as you’d expect, to hold another meeting.
Just So You Know: A column last week about the new investment Crown corporation reported that the Opposition Liberals voted in favour of the legislation that created InBC.
They did not. My apologies for the error.
