Panel data provided by Madison's Canadian Lumber Reporter.

BC Leg to people: “We hear you knockin’ but you can’t come in!”

By Peter Ewart

- by Peter Ewart

It was back in 1957 that Little Richard, the rock n’ roll star, all dolled up in sequins, jewels and glitter, rattled off his famous song: “I hear you knockin’ but you can’t come in.” Today, members of the provincial Legislature have donned wigs, slathered on makeup and are singing the same song (with a slight variation) to the people of British Columbia. “We hear you knockin’ but you can’t come in”, they sing, their voices echoing through the halls of the Legislature complete with screaming guitar riffs and loud drum rolls, as they vote themselves a 14% to 31% pay increase.

Very few people in BC will likely be joining the sing-along, especially teachers, health care workers, and a host of others who have had unfair contracts and wage freezes imposed on them going back to 2001 and before. But they will get the message. In effect, the Legislature is telling the people of this province that they don’t have power and that they “can’t come in” to the decision-making process. The Legislature trumps everyone and will make whatever decisions it pleases.

In a genuine democracy, all power of government should flow from the people, i.e., the people are sovereign. This means that government must not act as a power unto itself and for itself, but rather as an instrument of the people as a whole. And there must be political and electoral mechanisms that reflect this relationship. But this is not the case, however, in British Columbia or in Canada. In fact, sovereign power is vested in the Federal Parliament and the Provincial Legislature, and not in the people.

So the governments at both the provincial and federal levels can shamelessly tell us, the people of BC, that we must stay outside the doors of decision-making, that we “can’t come in” no matter how hard we knock. Thus MLAs from both the Liberals and NDP have secret meetings for several weeks and spring the pay increase legislation on us like a trumpet blast outside our bedroom window in the middle of the night.

The Liberals, with all the belligerence of a heavy metal band suffering from a serious hangover, deny that the Legislature has done anything wrong. But, faced with outrage across the province, their chirpy dance partner in this modern day hootenanny, the NDP, decides to end the dance between the two parties and jitterbug back to its side of the legislative floor, shouting “Goodness gracious, great balls of fire - we have made a mistake!” And so NDP leader Carole James hastily calls for an “independent” tribunal to be immediately set up that will review the pay increases.

This sounds like a better tune, but is it really so? After all, was it not the “independent” body of the BC Utilities Commission that okayed the takeover of Terasen Gas by the American multinational Kinder Morgan, despite unprecedented opposition from people all over the province?

In the cold light of morning, after the Saturday night party is over, the fact remains that the members of these “independent” bodies (whether set up to review MLA pay raises or corporate takeovers) are appointed by government. The voters have no say whatsoever. These so-called “independent” bodies serve one purpose: To lip synch whatever tune the government wants them to sing. And nowhere was that more clear than in the Terasen Gas takeover.

The people of BC need electoral and political mechanisms that empower them and through which they can express their will and exert control over government. The current system is dysfunctional and, if any political party or MLA doubts that, they should remember just how many people voted for the Single Transferable Vote electoral system last May or do a survey of what the public thinks about the MLA pay raises or the Terasen Gas affair.

People want a more direct democracy and the political parties in the Legislature are opposing this. The shenanigans around this latest pay increase are only a symptom of the deeper problem, which is that voters are disempowered, not empowered, under the current electoral process. Even if the MLAs choose to backtrack on this pay raise because of public outrage, it will not change the fact that it is the Legislature and government that has the final say, not the people.

Big change is building up in BC and in Canada as a whole – people are just plain fed up with bad bands and bad governments. Politicians who are not willing to relinquish power to the electorate should take off their wigs and costumes, put away their guitars and join Little Richard at the retirement home. Then they can sing all the off key songs they want. But at least we won’t have to listen to them.

Previous Story - Next Story



Return to Home