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Cover Page Tips From Employees to their Managers A "New" Day for Politics in British Columbia Apparel Shops Sued for Sweatshop Abuses
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A "New" Day for Politics 
Harbour Towers Hotel, Victoria - This morning, the leader of British Columbia's loyal opposition took media pundits by surprise, announcing his party was changing its name from the Liberal Party to the New Social Credit Party. Almost simultaneously, at the Empress Hotel in the same city, the Premier announced that the New Democratic Party of British Columbia would now be known as the New Liberal Party. In related announcements later in the day, the leader of the Green Party announced that it would now assume the moniker of Re-Newed Democrats. The leader of the newly revived Rhino Party decided to tell the world that henceforth their party would go by the name of the New Greens. Speculation was rampant regarding both the timing and causes of these disparate announcements, especially since the leader of the now New Greens was known to be a failed medical student. Other factors were not so easy to discern. Before his handlers were able to get to him, Premier Wilson was overheard to quip, "We've entered a 'New' Day for politics in British Columbia." "So Right," was the reply of the leader of the opposition.
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Think about it. The Liberals in British Columbia are funded and peopled by refugees from the ultra-right wing coalitions that fueled the once powerful Social Credit amalgam, and the heir apparent to the leadership of the New Democratic party led the Provincial Liberals to prominence from their near extinction. The New Democratic party, traditionally the party of labour, was brought to their first term in office by effective campaigning from the Teachers' Federation. Subsequently, they replaced the most progressive Educational Programme in British Columbia's history with a draconian return to the fundamentalist curriculum of thirty or more years previous. Later, they removed Labour Standards Act protection, starting with the high-tech sector; and who knows which will be the next sector so favoured, "because it's good for business." The Greens ran a campaign on fiscal responsibility, and the Rhinos ceded the ludicrous to the Natural Love Party. Doesn't it seem like somewhere, someone Very Powerful, (perhaps a whole slew of somebodies) is slowly yet forcefully twisting a huge crank, ever-tightening to the right? Wouldn't it be more appropriate if all the current parties shifted their names one paradigm in that direction? It would be like a political version of a stock split; or a monetary split. The French did it with the franc. People turned in a hundred Old Francs for one New Franc. Done here, in its paperback edition, the dime novel would be reborn. Candy bar? One penny. And so it goes - Left-wing? No, they're centrist. Radical? No, they're moderate. But hey, at least now they're all properly named. Ah, that's it. That's why this could never happen. We can't have labels that actually fit the predisposition of those in power. That would remove from them the illusion of, well, that would remove from them the illusion. And then what? Honest answers to tough questions? Go on! Next you'd be suggesting carefully thought out long-term plans, with clearly explained, definite goals. We'd never survive that. Wouldn't stand a chance. |
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Last modified, 7 June, 1999 by C.W. Petersen
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