The road to ruin
Tony Eberts
  While the mainstream media continues to shovel away like mad to bury Premier Gordon Campbell's idiotic night of booze and crime in Maui, it's up to thinking BCers to remember the man's hypocrisy and rotten judgment at the next provincial election.
  Daily birdcage-liners such as The Vancouver Province quickly tried to trivialize the criminal actions of the premier, using words like "mishap" and "error" and crowing over Campbell's warm reception from his cabinet, his caucus and the Truck Loggers Association. But how could it have been otherwise? His mob of frustrated Tories, failed Reformers and retread Socreds in Victoria never had it so good. Are they going to risk the cushiest jobs of their lives by rocking the boat?
  And as for the truck loggers--Campbell just gave them a fabulous Christmas present by moving to cancel environmental assessments of logging plans. This puts the fox in charge of the chickenhouse and gives the logging companies virtually total control over the dwindling forests of B.C. Of course they would give a standing ovation to their red-nosed benefactor; they would cheer him even if he had T-boned a busload of nuns.
  The point that must be remembered is that Campbell, the man now devastating our natural resources in his heedless drive to balance his budget so he can hang onto power, had plenty of time and opportunity to show a spark of good judgment before deciding (well before the first drink that night) to drink and drive. So, both sober and drunk, this "leader" displayed the backbone of a jellyfish and the common sense of a weasel.
  And then, when all the shameful details are out, when BCers are made a laughing-stock, when he has added insult to injury, he doesn't even have the integrity to step aside for an investigation and an in-depth measuring of public opinion. This man would have called for the scalp of anyone who did what he did--but gives himself a free ride.
  The Vancouver Province notes that almost 60 per cent of BCers in an Ipsos-Reid poll accepted Campbell's well-staged bit of tele-crawling and "believe that he is redeemable." But the tabloid's bootlicking editorial failed to mention that some 75 per cent of poll respondents called Campbell a hypocrite. Like the logging companies, the CanWest empire of right-wing newspapers and TV continues to benefit under the B.C. Liberal campaign of robbing the poor and giving to the rich. No boat-rocking there, either.
  The bloody-minded buck-worhippers continue to blame the long-gone NDP administration for our economic troubles, despite the recent report of the B.C. Progress Board, appointed by Campbell himself to keep an eye on his expected progress. The Board report gave the B.C. Libs failing marks all down the line.
  It showed that during 2002, B.C. trailed every other province in economic growth. Vancouver had the biggest loss of corporate head offices of any Canadian city. B.C. ranked ninth among provinces in controlling government deficit. Only one other province had more people living below the poverty line. We have the highest combined personal and property crime rate in the country. Board member Jock Finlayson--chief economist of the B.C. Business Council--doubts that Campbell can fulfill his promise to balance the budget by 2004. Board chairman David Emerson said B.C. would be better off if Campbell focused on creating long-term economic stability instead of worrying about trivial targets.
  Perhaps Emerson was thinking of such cruel cuts as dropping the provincial grant of $250,000 for audio tapes for the blind. Or slashing the budgets of B.C.'s public information services, or cutting fisheries, wildlife and conservation agencies down to the point of near uselessness.
  So we are left with a premier with blatantly bad judgment, with a callous agenda of neglect for the old, the infirm and all the most vulnerable in our society; a man displaying hypocrisy and arrogance, but without even the ability to significantly improve our over-all economy.
  When Campbell took it upon himself to emulate Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, he provided a clear parallel to his personal political agenda: He is taking us all for a badly impaired ride down a winding road with no clear goal in sight, featuring too much speed and too little sound thinking. We can only hope that he can be put in handcuffs--again--before the crash comes.