BC Election Shows Futility of NDP Reformism
By Gary Porter
The October 19 provincial election in British Columbia resulted (so far) in 46 seats for the NDP, 45 for the Trumpist Conservatives and 2 seats for the Greens. Mandatory recounts in seats where the winning margin was by less than 100 votes means it is not yet clear who will form the government. The popular vote was also very close: 46% for NDP; 45% for the Tories. The Green Party got 8%. Previously, the NDP had 55 seats out of a total of 87, a big majority.
If the seat count remains the same, by tradition, the Lieutenant Governor will ask David Eby to try to form government. Eby will need the support of two Green MLAs to do so.
It was similar in 2017, when John Horgan required the support of Andrew Weaver’s Greens to form a government. The Greens and the NDP signed a confidence-and-supply agreement. But the NDP subsequently approved the Site C dam project on the Peace River to produce vast quantities of electricity, primarily to support fracking of natural gas (methane) in north-east BC. Then Eby approved the 600 km Coastal Gaslink pipeline across rivers and lakes across Indigenous territory to Kitimat on the Pacific Coast where the methane will be liquefied and shipped abroad. The NDP rank-and-file oppose this project to this very day, but the social democratic pro-capitalist leadership has never allowed a vote on the issue at party conventions.
This pipeline sparked the struggle of the Wet’suwet’en people to block construction, resulting in the brutal suppression of their peaceful efforts by the RCMP, with NDP government approval. Supporters of Indigenous people took to the streets across Canada resulting in the blockade of the Port of Vancouver, the blocking of roads and bridges, and the shutdown of the main railway between Toronto and Montreal for two weeks.
Although the BC Green Party supports inadequate reforms to fight climate change and does not challenge the capitalist drive for profit-at-any-cost, including the wrecking of the climate, they still felt betrayed by the social democratic NDP government which gave $6 billion in subsidies to the oil companies in support of the Coastal Gaslink pipeline. With good reason, the Greens may hesitate to sign a confidence agreement with David Eby’s NDP.
On the other hand, Green leader Sonia Furstenau has ghosted the Tory leader’s efforts to contact her. “There have been statements made by Conservative candidates that are truly disturbing, racist, dehumanizing, homophobic, conspiratory,” Furstenau said. “Some of these (Conservative) candidates were elected and I am yet to see a satisfactory response from John Rustad.” The Tories advocated the repeal of the BC Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous People and a policy of repression of homeless people and people suffering from addiction, cutting funds for Medicare, and privatising more medical services.
The 7 years of NDP government in BC have left workers with the highest and most unaffordable housing costs in Canada. One in 5 British Columbians have no family doctor, medical wait times are the longest in Canada, death by fentanyl is epidemic, groceries are unaffordable, and billionaires are paying virtually no tax.
The lesson of the BC election is not that the NDP needs to move to the right to win over Conservatives. The lesson is that the NDP must turn sharply to the left, tackle the ruling class head on, and implement real solutions to the serious problems facing working people in BC, solutions that include the transfer of a massive amount of the hoarded wealth of the BC rich, to workers. Forty-two per cent of the eligible voters did not vote. They reasonably felt that none of the parties represented them or their children. If the NDP begins to advocate for the urgent needs of working people, if it advocates a socialist program, it would likely win a crushing victory, or at least prepare the conditions for major change.
