The Coalition of Progressive Electors (COPE) was decimated in Vancouver’s civic election on 19th November.  COPE lost both of its seats on city council, all of its seats on the parks board, and only managed to hang on to one seat on the school board.  Former city councillors Ellen Woodsworth and David Cadman were both quick to point the finger at prominent radical Tim Louis for the loss; in fact, the precise opposite is true.  It was years of tail-ending of Vision Vancouver by Woodsworth and Cadman that cost COPE the election.

It was almost 20 years ago that the story of the Montreal super-hospital began. In 1993, five hospitals came together and decided that it would be more economical to merge their facilities into a 1,100-bed “super-hospital,” which would replace aging facilities in scattered locations with a central, convenient, and state of the art institution. The plan was a straightforward one, which aside from providing better health care, also aimed to save the province money, while increasing patient services. Two decades later, there is still no hospital, and instead of providing the people of Quebec with better, more accessible health care, the hospital has turned into another weapon to make free health coverage a thing of the past.

On November 3, Gordon Campbell faced the inevitable and announced that he was stepping down as premier of British Columbia. After nearly a decade of relentless attacks on social programs, mass mobilizations, and strike actions, Mr. Campbell has played his final hand. At the end, his approval rating had fallen to single digit support. He leaves the province with the lowest minimum wage and the highest child poverty rate in the country.

The upcoming introduction of the HST is bitterly opposed by British Columbians, and is a further attack on workers' worsening living conditions.  This should be the perfect opportunity for the BC NDP to provide leadership and a different way forward for the working class.  Instead, the BC NDP leadership lurches to the right and tailends the campaign of right-wing populists.

This coming weekend sees the opening of the Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver.  Despite the images of natural beauty and pleasant ‘middle class’ life that will be broadcast to the world, Vancouver is a troubled city and B.C. is a troubled province.  Billions are being spent for a party that most of us are not being invited to.  And, the federal Tories are using the Olympics to distract workers from the real ails that are assailing us.

With the combination of growing anger over the Olympic Games and rapidly increasing pressure from the economic crisis, workers, students, and youth could be facing massive struggles in the new year. Combined with a new provincial budget being introduced in March 2010 that will likely slash public spending, workers in many different unions will also be faced with a new round of collective bargaining. Caught between a rock and a hard place, working people may be forced to fight back in a massive way; indeed, a collision that could throw the entire province into struggle against the Liberal government seems likely for 2010.

A tax revolt is brewing in British Columbia but not the kind of tax revolt you are thinking, where the population decides they are not willing to pay taxes to a government that doesn’t represent them. No, this is a tax revolt of a different type: a tax revolt of the big corporations. These corporations leech their profits from the resources and hard work of the people of this province and now they have decided they aren’t even willing to pay their share to maintain the infrastructure necessary to do that. These parasites have shown in the past that they have no respect for the basic living standards of their own workers, let alone of the wider community. Now with their economic system in crisis, they are demanding even more.

Gordon Campbell, one of the most hated premiers in British Columbia’s history, has won a third term in office.  His government is surrounded by the BC Rail scandal.  He was actually caught and convicted of driving under the influence of alcohol in his first term.  His attacks against the public sector have repeatedly brought the province to the brink of a general strike.  He has frozen the minimum wage for eight years and sold off BC’s rivers to the highest bidder.  Under Campbell’s government, BC Ferries have slashed services and jacked up prices.  He closed 300 schools and did nothing while BC’s child poverty rate slipped to the worst in the country.  The economy is in free-fall and tens of thousands of workers have lost their jobs under his watch.  Clearly, Gordon Campbell cannot be given credit for his election victory.  No; the responsibility for this defeat lies squarely on the shoulders of the leadership of the BC NDP.

With the BC election campaign kicking into high gear, the NDP again finds itself behind in the polls.  BC is being hit hard by the economic crisis with over 22,000 jobs lost in the last month alone.  Gordon Campbell is one of the most hated leaders in BC history and his approval rating sits at just 34%; but amazingly, NDP leader Carole James’ rating is even lower at 29%. Something is clearly wrong here.