Standing by their man

Standing by their man
By Dan Hilborn, Burnaby Now assistant editor
Published Jan. 15, 2003

Local Liberal MLAs are standing in support of embattled premier Gordon Campbell, who is facing widespread criticism after he spent last Friday night in an Hawaiian jail on charges of drunk driving.
"Everyone is human," said Burquitlam MLA Harry Bloy, echoing thoughts expressed by the four of five Burnaby and New Westminster area MLAs interviewed for this story. "The premier admitted he made a huge mistake, and he's not contesting it.
"It was a serious offence, period, and it was totally wrong. But he's also taken total responsibility for it, and he's asked for forgiveness, and I am prepared to work with him."
"I accept his apology," said Joyce Murray, the New Westminster MLA and B.C. environment minister. "He has acknowledged it was the wrong thing to do. But I also think the premier has a responsibility to the people of B.C. to carry through with the programs that he's initiated.
"I think the responsible thing for the premier to do is to continue to carry out that agenda. That, to me, is serving the public interest in a far more difficult or valuable way than he would be by resigning at this point."
"It certainly is a matter of bad judgment and the fact that he has the courage to admit it publicly and take responsibility to face the consequences, I think is a very courageous thing on his part," said John Nuraney, Burnaby-Willingdon MLA. "I certainly feel that the matter is not demanding of his resignation particularly because of the vision and the direction that he has offered British Columbians for the past several months.
"We need his leadership to take us to a fruitful conclusion."
"This is his moment of darkness and he needs to know there is an army of supporters who will work tirelessly to make sure he carries on and remains as premier," said Patty Sahota, Burnaby-Edmonds MLA.
But those kind words were a far cry from the opinion of Graeme Bowbrick, the former B.C. NDP attorney general who once called on his own party's premier, Glen Clark, to step aside while he was under investigation for the North Burnaby Inn casino affair.
"For Gordon Campbell to try and make this distinction that this is a personal matter and doesn't impact on his duties in office is wrong," said Bowbrick, a practising lawyer. "He is the leader, he appoints the attorney general and he is the senior lawmaker in the province.
"If you ask whether he has to resign from a legal or constitutional basis, the answer is probably not, but on a moral basis I guess that's up to Gordon Campbell's morality. Certainly the moral standard he's imposed on everybody else for almost a decade has been much higher than the standard he is himself living up to.
"Campbell has done more than anyone else to create an environment where very high demands are made on politicians who make any kind of mistake," Bowbrick said. "Now he has to live up to his own standards.
"There's a huge issue of hypocrisy here," Bowbrick said. "I'm not aware of any other premier who was guilty of a crime while in office. And we've seen premiers in B.C. who have resigned for much less. Mike Harcourt resigned not for anything he was personally accused of, but because of criticism towards his own political party."
Bowbrick also believes that Campbell exhibited a lack of sincerity when he made his public apology on television Sunday afternoon.
"He (Campbell) doesn't want to utter the words 'I committed a crime' because he doesn't want it thrown back at him, but it's all sophistry and spin. His remarks were carefully crafted by the spin doctors. They were not the remarks of a man who was personally devastated. Yes, I accept he feels badly. But someone who is truly devastated when asked if he committed a crime would just say 'yes.'"
Bowbrick also said that Campbell should resign because he personally kicked former Vancouver Island MLA Paul Reitsma out of the Liberal caucus when he was caught writing phony letters to the editor, and Surrey MLA Tony Bhullar was ejected because of a criminal matter that is still before the courts.
"I think that level of hypocrisy will hurt him more than anything else," said Bowbrick. "On another level this is saddening and sickening because it debases politicians in British Columbia, and I don't say that in a partisan way.
"I don't think this is going to go away anytime soon. I think Campbell is making a mistake and it's going to damage his party and that's a very selfish thing to do. I've seen this before.
"But the real test will be what the opinion polls say in about three months' time," said the former NDP cabinet minister. "Already his personal approval ratings are quite low, and they'll go down now to about the 20s and it's likely he'll pull his party down with him. If I was a Liberal MLA I'd be worried."
But the Liberal MLAs are confident that, given time, the whole affair will blow over.
"I don't share Graeme's opinion," said Murray, who defeated Bowbrick in the last provincial election.
"I want to turn this into a positive," added Bloy. "It's a wake- up call to thousands of British Columbians and I hope he (Campbell) gets together with Mothers Against Drunk Driving to become a spokesperson and possibly with ICBC or insurance groups,too."
When asked if Campbell would have called for the resignation of any political foe who spent the night in jail, Bloy said: "I can't answer that question. There could be so many other circumstances. We're lucky that nobody was hurt. He asked for forgiveness, and I'm prepared to give that to him."
The 71-member B.C. Liberal caucus is scheduled to meet Thursday morning to discuss the issue.