Defeating the Trojan horse

    This morning all NDP members received an email from David Eby, the new leader of the BCNDP. I thought it excellent: just the right tone and content; absolutely without any sign of triumphalism; no condemnation of either Anjali Appadurai or the people who supported her bid; apparently sincere hopes that the new members would go on to become dedicated NDPers.

That’s the good news.

The bad news is that this attempt to take over the BCNDP to make it, in effect, a clone of the Green Party was driven by a coterie of very dedicated fanatics, who will undoubtedly ensure that the smell of their attempted coup and its abrupt conclusion will linger for some time.

(Aside: for those of you still unfamiliar with the details, I recommend a Twitter feed by Rob Shaw: https://twitter.com/RobShaw_BC/status/1582548584808882176 

And for commentary, Vaughan Palmer’s column on the subject: https://vancouversun.com/opinion/columnists/vaughn-palmer-report-stuffed-with-evidence-against-anjali-appadurai-campaign)

This encounter with the Trojan Horse of radical environmentalism is not, I think, as problematic as it might be at first glance. I think I detect the problem. It’s inherent in the BCNDP’s processes and procedures. 

I make that analysis because we experienced, in North Island, something similar, so as a former activist I’m well-placed to present this illustration: 

When Colin Gabelmann retired and Glen Robertson became the MLA, the North Island locus moved up-island and became much more directly union-influenced. So some of us, me included, took the opportunity to follow Colin’s example and step back as well. That lasted also during the term of Glen’s BCLiberal successor, Rod Visser. We got seriously active again before the next election, during the drive to name a new NDP candidate to take Rod on. Brian Giles, who had been Colin’s constituency assistant, dropped out well before the vote, which left Brenda Leigh, Area D director of the Strathcona Regional District, and our candidate, Claire Trevena, a former Green who lived on Quadra Island and was new to NDP politics. 

By the time of the nominating convention, by all accounts and evidence, Brenda’s crew thought they had the nomination in the proverbial bag: they had solid union support and organization, North Island Constituency did not have a large membership, and they knew they had signed up literally hundreds of new members. 

Mostly $10 memberships, the minimum permitted by NDP rules. This fact turned out to be important in a convention nomination; they were both incredulous and indignant when Claire was declared winner. 

After Claire’s committee took over the constituency reins we discovered that North Island had acquired one of the largest memberships in BC, at around 1300. We also discovered that many were located in Area D, where Brenda was (and continued to be, until the recent election) a popular representative. When renewal time came round, almost all this new “membership” vanished; in fact, some people we knew in other contexts who had been signed up had no idea they had become NDP members: they thought they were just giving Brenda a few dollars to run her campaign.

And of course Claire beat Mr Visser, and won the next few elections until she retired in 2020.

I don’t think the Appadurai campaign would have had exactly the same problem that the Leigh campaign had; I think their new “members” were probably very motivated, and would have voted, given the chance. And they would certainly have been reminded. But they wouldn’t have been very representative of the rest of the NDP membership, and they would almost certainly have faded away shortly after, even if their candidate were successful.

So how do we prevent a future takeover event, now that Avi Lewis and his fellow-travellers have set the template?

Happily, a fix is not very difficult.

I think the world has changed, and with it the incentive to join political parties. Consequently, we need to dump the $10 minimum, which has evolved from being a socially-responsible policy to being an incentive for larceny. It doesn’t even cover the cost of administration for these new memberships! 

These days, $10 is a couple of cups of fancy coffee, and most of us think nothing of spending that much if we feel it’s worth it. So I suggest $50 be the new $10. That’s enough to make people think, not enough to dissuade the dedicated, and if anyone genuinely needs to pay the lower sum, that need is easily accommodated, just as we have always accommodated people who couldn’t pay $10.

We really admire John Horgan and the present government and, although we’re both past active participation in the Party, we have high hopes for Premier David Eby’s leadership. He has been an excellent Minister on a number of difficult files.

        Would be nice if he occasionally showed that sense of humour that he’s hidden so thoroughly, though!