April 16, 2002
Kamloops Daily News



"It's one of the most amateurish, one-sided attempts to
gauge the public will that I have seen in my professional
career" says pollster Angus Reid. He's talking about B.C.
Liberal's referendum on native treaty negotiating
principles.

Ah, Angus, did you think that weird politics was gone from
B.C. just because the Liberals are in power?  Gordon
Campbell may not be as flamboyant as former premier Vander
Zalm was, but the Liberal's referendum is a sign of bizarre
behaviour. 

Consider the musings of our Attorney General Geoff Plant in
what he apparently thinks will pass as reasonable
statements.  "If only three people vote in the referendum,"
says Plant, "and two of them vote in favour, then the
results will be binding on the government."  If two vote
against, it won't.  Doesn't that have an Alice in Wonderland
ring to it?

As chief legal counsel to the government, Plant has these
words of advice, "the referendum won't necessarily be
legally binding."  Talk about stating the obvious.  

Not even political allies of the Liberals think the results
will be legally binding.  "For starters the referendum
cannot affect minority rights," says Gordon Gibson, senior
fellow at the Fraser Institute in Canadian Studies. "And
Indian rights are doubly protected by two extra clauses in
the Charter being sections 25 and 35."

Pollster Reid and Gibson agree that the referendum questions
are flawed.  Reid calls them  "amateurish" and Gibson
calls them "somewhat confusing."

Take the first question, for example.  It breaks one of the
basic rules for writing referendum questions -- it states
the question in the negative.  Voters must vote yes if they
think that private property should not be expropriated.

Properly worded, the question should read "Private property
should be expropriated for treaty settlements."  In which
case, nervous British Columbians would reasonably answer
"no."

Never mind that the question itself suggests the improbable
(natives are not looking to expropriate private land).  
"What private lands are we talking about? It's
hypothetical," says Sabina Singh, political scientist at the
University College of the Cariboo. 

The referendum will set native back land claims at a time
that B.C. could use the billions of dollars lost in
potential land development.  So why are the Liberals
purposely making enemies out of a growing number of British
Columbians through this referendum?

Although Campbell is critical of special interest groups,
it's a right-wing special interest group that is guiding the
Liberals.  They honestly think that a yes vote in this
referendum will give them power to override native
constitutional rights.

Any lawyer, including  Attorney General Plant knows how
flawed that reasoning is.  So does lawyer Louise Mandell,
Q.C., in her study of the subject. "The Province has no
power to legislate in relation to Indians and lands reserved
for Indians, because this power is assigned exclusively to
Canada."

Under the Delgamuukw decision (1997), provinces are required
to bargain native land disputes in good faith.  Can premier
Campbell claim, without a smirk on his face, that a yes vote
to his referendum amounts to a gesture of good faith?

Campbell's small group of right-wing advisors are deluded
into thinking that natives will give up everything because a
minority of British Columbians vote "yes" in a flawed
referendum.  And in return, natives will get what - -
government assurance that they will bargain in good faith? 
We might as well insult native intelligence by offering
beads and firewater for land.

This referendum will go down as a curiosity in the history
of  B.C. politics.  "Five years from now it will seem a very
minor footnote in history," says the Fraser Institute's
Gordon Gibson.

The government slips from weirdness to fantasy as it
alienates a growing number of British Columbians.  Campbell
can no longer claim that it's just his former political
enemies lining up against him.   Not when it's lawyers,
judges, doctors, mining exploration companies and church
leaders. 

As Premier Campbell dismisses more and more British
Colombians, he becomes isolated behind walls of his own
construction.  Soon he will rattle around in the near empty
halls of his government, listening to the echo of his own
voice.  It's very reminiscent of ex-premier Vander Zalm when
he lived in theme castle in Fantasy Garden World. 

Welcome back to wacky B.C. politics.

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