FORSETH – Take B.C. politics out of the back rooms, give it back to the people

THE OTHER DAY a B.C. political acquaintance, Sean Upshaw, and I had an online / offline conversation.  This followed up on my blog post of Saturday, July 29 entitled, “Well Christy Clark never did move there — and poor Sean never had a chance to sell her a house either” (which was published on ArmchairMayor.ca as “Good-bye, Christy, let the next chapter in B.C. politics begin”).

Sean good naturedly (I hope) took exception to my title for the post and responded to me by saying:

For the record, Sean Upshaw is not poor in anyway. I would have declined to sell her a house any ways as I prefer to work with people who are sincere. Having said that I wish her luck in her next endeavour.

Maybe now the party to the right of centre can find someone who is not affiliated with Trudeau to lead them.

Hmmmm … I said to myself, ‘Is he referring to the BC Liberals being right of center?? … or …?? ‘.  And so I asked him:

“I’m interested by the wording on your comment Sean … the party to the ‘right of centre’ can find someone who is.  Would you / do you call the BC Liberals a party to centre right — and if so, is it only because there is currently no true centre right party (in name and policy) prepared at the moment to present an alternative to voters?

“I ask this because I believe that Christy and the BC Liberals have governed, despite protests to the contrary, to the centre-left.”

Back came Sean stating:

I like you consider the BC Liberals left, as you said, under Christy Clark. There are a few true Conservatives in the BC Liberals. The reference was a general one with no real party affiliation being endorsed.

Unfortunately the BC Conservatives have totally buffooned any chance of being taken serious. I think Michael Henshall (Socred candidate in May for the riding of Fraser Nicola) is on the right (pun intended) path.  I think the only Credible Hope for BC is to resurrect the Socreds.

This of course could change if a very high profile Conservative took over the helm of the BC Liberals, but then that would trigger an automatic name change.

Interesting comment about the Socreds, however I did explore that over a year ago, and so I said:

“I do not believe there is any chance of resurrecting the Socreds. I spoke with Michael a couple times, during the election, regarding the person who I will refer to as the ‘gatekeeper’ for the Social Credit party … and even offered to help / assist as well.

“I do not believe this individual truly wants to allow anyone to have a say, or role, in the party.  They are, again in my opinion, extremely protective of its past. That leaves very little room for it to have a chance, or to have a future.

“Michael has not said anything as such to me, however my own past attempts to engage the ‘gatekeeper’, on a revival of the party, led me to believe they have no intentions of a future for party.  Protecting the glory days of the past is what is most important to them, and not having the name tarnished.”

Sean came back stating:

The past that they are trying to protect is exactly what the Province needs.

Understanding the core beliefs of Social Credit philosophy, and being able to promote it properly, would be the catalyst to taking enough votes away from the BC Liberals and the GreeNDP.

I am talking about taking it back to Bible Bill and Ernest Manning’s days. Truthfully the name is not as important as the philosophy.

‘Core beliefs’ sounded interesting to me, and so I asked Sean, “How would ‘you’ describe the core beliefs of Socred philosophy?”

To which he responded:

The resources of the Province (Credit) are applied to the needs of the Citizens. (Social) this is why they created Crown Corporations.

Simple and succinct — I like that.  But I still do not believe that the Social Credit gatekeeper is going to permit the party to once again have a rebirth across the province.

Sean did add a bit more though — and I’m glad he did as it gives good context to his thoughts:

Understand that I am not a socialist in any way. I do however believe that the province, and all its assets, belong to the people not solely to corporations. So what I am proposing is 3 P partnerships where the Province is always the majority stakeholder.

What you end up with is a hybrid type of free enterprise. A corporation can come in with their money and make a profit, but the province will always have a share of it to be put towards running the province. The Government needs to be run like a business as well meaning it is lean and mean. But under this style of thinking there will always be enough revenue to make sure the province is in the black not the red.

These so-called balanced budgets have been nothing more than a tax shell game, designed to support the corruption of the BC Liberal Party.

I definitely agree with Sean’s last statement that … these so-called balanced budgets have been nothing more than a tax shell game, designed to support the corruption of the BC Liberal Party.

With that said, however, there seems to be only one other choice, with name recognition, that can possibly have a hope of returning politics to the people of B.C. — rather than having it run from the backrooms by the political elite.

And now a confession must be made because just a short time ago (prior to completing this post), I received an invitation to rejoin the BC Conservative Party … I have done so.

Those who know me will understand that my heart has always been with the BC Conservatives.  I hope that the corner has been turned on past difficulties.  Let the rebuild begin!

In Kamloops, I’m Alan Forseth.  The floor is yours now, so let’s hear from you.

Alan Forseth is a Kamloops resident and former member of the Reform Party of Canada and the B.C. Reform Party, and a past and current member of the BC Conservative Party. His blog is My Thoughts on Politics and More.