Thursday, October 17, 2002
The political legacy of W.A.C. Bennett - THE COMMENTARY
By Joseph Planta
VANCOUVER -- Recently, I took custody of my very own copy of David Mitchell’s fine tome, W.A.C. Bennett and The Rise of British Columbia. It is the definitive biography on the man who was premier of this province for 20 years and who, for better or worse, defined British Columbia in those all-too important years when she was emerging and developing into the remarkable and imperfect place it is today. Where BC will go in years from now, will no doubt be buttressed in the fact Bennett’s legacy is part of it, though he did die in 1979. W.A.C. Bennett, to get the superlatives out of the way, was the Social Credit premier who served the longest in this province’s history, 1952 - 1972. After being defeated by the “socialist hoards” who were “at the gate”, his son Bill, rebuilt the party and went on to avenge his father’s defeat in 1975 serving until 1986, when he retired, as Mitchell so accurately put it “undefeated and unloved.” Then you’ll recall Bill Vander Zalm was in from 1986 to 1991. There was the brief interregnum of Rita Johnston who served in the premier’s chair, before the Social Credit party W.A.C. Bennett built, collapsed for good. The Mitchell book is a damned good read. It is necessary reading for any British Columbian who needs that primer on what this province was built on and what this province, at its essence, is.
I found the Mitchell book on sale, and slightly resisted on buying it because it was a paperback. I am not fond of paperback’s, as they get worn faster; and where possible I’ll buy one in hardcover. I’ve run across the hardcover of the Mitchell book at used bookstores, but for one reason or another have not bought it. Well, I bought the paperback for the reason that it contains a “new” afterword written by Mitchell. The original biography on Bennett was released back in the early 1980s, and this “new” afterword was penned in 1995, as Mitchell was serving out his own term in the BC Legislature as an MLA. Mitchell, a historian by trade, got access to W.A.C. Bennett back in the 1970s as he was getting his M.A. at Simon Fraser University. Then in 1991, Mitchell found himself one of the surprised BC Liberals elected under the leadership of Gordon Wilson. That landmark 1991 election saw 17 BC Liberals elected, where they hadn’t elected a single MLA since the 1970s. It also saw the Social Credit party go to ignominious defeat, and into the depths of obscurity, as the party hasn’t been seen of since. Only seven Socred MLA’s were elected in 1991, the NDP was government and out of nowhere the Liberals went to Victoria too. Then, the Liberals took up the mantle of Opposition and the Socreds themselves evaporated. Some went and joined the Liberals, whilst some joined the burgeoning Reform BC party that was created to get some of the federal Reform support that this province still carries. Reform too evaporated, some members went to the BC Liberals of Gordon Campbell, and some to that misplaced party they call Unity. In the Unity outfit headed by Chris Delaney are the five or six Socreds left in the province, including Mr. Vander Zalm. The structure of the Social Credit Party remains. It ran a handful of candidates in 2001 and I saw an ad in the Vancouver Sun a while back, proclaiming that a new head office was being opened in Richmond.
The “new” afterword by Mitchell in this edition mused about how the Bennett Sr.’s legacy affected his successors. Dave Barrett’s own misfortune in the 1970s was blamed on the fact he was trying to be so much like his foe, W.A.C. Bennett. Besides taking the finance portfolio on himself, Barrett would try and to expound Bennett’s “populist flourishes and political rhetoric.” Funny, how Barrett was trying to be like Bennett Sr. in the 1975 campaign, whilst Bill Bennett was trying to run away from his father’s all-too giant shadow. Mike Harcourt, an NDP premier from the 1990s, too tried to play the populist game. Mitchell’s proof is his behaviour during the whole Alcan Kemano completion project. To Mitchell, politics in the era of W.A.C. Bennett was the art of managing government. By the mid-1990s it had been a performance art.
The afterword also talked about the death of the Socreds and the rise of one Gordon Campbell. One interesting thing I’ve learned is that Campbell when he was leaving civic politics in 1993, considered running for the leadership of the Socreds, but elected that the Liberals would prove a better vehicle. Again, we’re confronted by another fascinating game of ‘what-if?’
What if Gordon Campbell had taken out an instant membership at the Socred party than the instant one he took out at the Liberals? Would the Liberals have stayed in the middle, rather than go to the right? Would Gordon Wilson not have been forced out? Since it’s easy to be a Monday morning quarterback, it’s clear that politics would not have been as polarised as it is currently. Perhaps Mr. Campbell would have become Premier sooner, and certainly things would be very different.
After reading this new portion of the book, I do wonder if the BC Liberal Party can survive after Gordon Campbell. Certainly, there’s no comparison to W.A.C. Bennett; but after him and his son Bill, the party generally went down the tube. The question therefore is: is what Mr. Campbell is trying to accomplish, for the good of the province in the long run; or merely an attempt at getting into power for now and only now. The BC Liberal Party is far from being liberal. It’s politics are embarrassing the hell out of the federal brand, and I doubt there’s any great future for the party post-Gordon Campbell. I think Mr. Campbell’s got at least a decade in him to serve, after that, the BC Liberal Party could go the way of the Socreds and all the strife we’re enduring now would be for nothing. The BC Liberal Party might as well be called The Gordon Campbell Party. It worries me that after him, we could be thrown looking for a new party, looking for stability yet again in the volatile province that BC is.
- 30 -
Questions and comments may be sent to: editor@thecommentary.ca
An archive of Joseph Planta's previous columns can be found by clicking HERE .