Finally a champion for old white guys

We have dueling leadership races underway on the left coast as the BC Liberals and the BC NDP look to replace their leaders. I think the BC Conservatives may have a race too, but no one is paying attention.

While the BC Liberal race has seen a large field of experienced candidates discussing a wide range of policy issues and presenting plans for the future of the province, the BC NDP race has been far more interesting.

First, no one wanted to run, despite the vigour with which a group of dissidents punted former leader Carole James.

Then there was the revelation that an obscure constitutional provision requires their next leader to be a woman. With just weeks to go to sign up members, there were still no committed candidates.

Then there was the entry of Dana Larsen, best known as a semi-controversial marijuana activist, with the backing of Tommy Chong. Yes, that Tommy Chong.

After letting Larsen have the field to himself for a few days, a few more candidates have stepped-up recently. MLA Nicholas Simons has thrown his hat in the ring. One of the anti-James dissidents, I hear he's a nice enough fellow but I don't think he's seen as a contender.

And he was quickly followed by Fraser-Nicola MLA Harry Lali. He had a number of things to say during his event kick-off, but there's one that's getting more of the attention: he wants to be a champion for old white guys.

“Equity quotas are anti-democratic and discriminate, specifically against older, white males,” Harry Lali said during his kickoff speech in Merritt, B.C.

“As leader, I would welcome back older, white males into our NDP family,” he added. “I say to older, white males: ‘Don’t stand outside the tent and complain, come and join my campaign team.’”

I'm a nearing middle age white guy, but I'll be an old white guy soon enough. And I agree, old white men have been excluded from the political process and the corridors of power for far too long! Particularly old white male lawyers. Finally, old white men have a champion. We shall overcome!

Anyway, yes, I agree with Lali as far as the quotas being dumb. But geez, man. Really?

Recommend this Post on Progressive Bloggers

What do merit pay, a carbon tax and Tommy Chong have in common?

Out to British Columbia again, where the candidates for the leadership of the BC Liberal Party have been busy lately talking policy ideas.

Kevin Falcon took a controversial position this week when he argued for merit pay for teachers and cash incentives for schools and teachers that improve test scores.

If he wins the leadership contest next month, Falcon said he would create a master teacher incentive program that would recognize exceptional and innovative educators and a model school incentive program that would reward schools for improvements in student achievement.

…his plan wouldn't rely solely on test scores. Rather, he said his government would work with teachers, administrators, parents and community leaders to develop criteria for identifying innovative educators.

Falcon’s proposal sparked a firestorm of criticism. The BC Teachers Federation, predictably, called it “a cockamamie notion” and his leadership opponent, former education minister George Abbott, said it would amount to cherry-picking one element of failed U.S. experiments in education.

Mr. Abbott said he was opposed to throwing “one experimental or trick shot piece out there that is drawn from the American experience and may not be applicable to our experience,” into education policy in this province.

Still no word, by the way, on Falcon's flip-flop on lowering the voting age from 18 to 16.

Abbott made his own major policy push yesterday, and it wasn’t without its own controversial policy positions. For example, remember the carbon tax? While it helped fell Stephane Dion, BC’s own carbon tax, while controversial at its inception, remains quietly in place in BC. The BC Liberals won the last election despite a concerted effort by the BC NDP to defeat them on the carbon tax. Still, Abbott wants to revive the issue with a referendum:

The carbon tax referendum would be held June 24, which is also the date Abbott proposes for bringing forward the provincewide vote (currently set for Sept. 24) on whether to extinguish the harmonized sales tax.

Abbott said many British Columbians are rightly proud of the trail blazing carbon tax, which is scheduled to climb to seven cents a litre effective July 1, 2012. But he questioned whether the province should continue with such a tax when, as he put it, "the rest of North American is not dancing with us on this issue."

So, rather that being an environmental leader and continuing with a carbon tax, the system increasingly favoured not just by environmentalists but even by the energy industry, Abbott wants to re-open the can of worms? It’s an absolutely horrible idea. I can only surmise he seems some political advantage if he can rile up people on the issue, but it’s both bad policy and bad politics in my view. It is (was) a dead issue. I agree with Falcon on this one:

But Falcon rejected Abbott's call for a referendum, saying, "we had a referendum on the carbon tax and it was called the general election."

While it didn’t get the attention of merit pay for teachers or a carbon tax referendum, I was more disturbed by Abbott’s senate musings:

He also said the province should follow the route of Alberta and begin electing senate nominees.

When one of B.C.'s six seats in the Canadian Senate becomes vacant, a provincewide election would be held. The winner's name would then be forwarded to the prime minister for appointment to fill the vacancy.

Sounds nice in theory, but in reality it’s bad for the Senate and bad for British Columbia. I’ve blogged about this at length in the past, but in short, BC is very ill-served by the current composition of the Senate.

While the Commons is representation by population (in theory), the Senate is meant to balance that with representation by region. The problem is, the current regional make-up of the Senate is outdated, and is based on a 19^th century view of confederation-era Canada. The Maratimes are vastly over represented. Dido Upper and Lower Canada. The West, meanwhile, is lumped together as one regional group.

This inequity, while grating, is less pressing while the Senate is composed of unelected sober second thoughters that, recognizing their constitutional illegitimacy, are loathe (well, usually loathe) to circumvent the will of the elected Commons.

However, if you elect senators as Harper and Abbott favour, then those elected senators will be able to claim a democratic mandate and will not hesitate to exercise their not insubstantial constitutional powers.

Creating elected senators without addressing the regional composition of the Senate and addressing the balance of powers between the house of parliament is a bad idea, and it’s bad for BC. I’ll say to Abbott what I’ve long said (well, blogged) to Harper: you shouldn’t do senate reform half-assed. It has to be all or nothing.

Meanwhile, Christy Clark yesterday launched a series of open government initiatives aimed at increasing public confidence and public participation in the democratic process. It included a promise to, as Premier, hold a dozen town halls each year with BC residents.

“The reality is that voters feel a disconnect with their government,” said the former deputy premier and education minister.

“These proposals are designed to reconnect people with government.”

Other proposals put forward by Ms.Clark include working with all MLAs to see more private members’ bills debated and passed as well as a caucus accountability committee with the party leader as member, and cabinet accountability sessions in the regions of B.C. at regional policy conferences or other special events.

More on the specific proposals is available here. Some are more ambitious than others, but I like the monthly townhalls and more streaming video of legislative and committee meetings.

As for the BC NDP

While I don’t agree with all of their ideas, I have been impressed with the level of policy-focused debate we’ve seen in the BC Liberal leadership race. Meanwhile, over on the BC NDP side, Dana Larsen remains the only declared candidate. He has, however, secured a key endorsement:

Recommend this Post on Progressive Bloggers

B.C. leadership round-up: Dana Larsen vs NDP bosses, and a Falcon flip-flop?

While the rest of Canada may have slowed-down for the Christmas break, with two leadership races underway on the left coast the wackiness continued as per usual in Supernatural British Columbia.

The BC NDP

* We’ll start with the BC NDP, and the slow to start race to replace Carole James. With potential candidates slow to surface, we finally had someone step forward and put their name into the race over the break, and it’s a familiar name: rabble-rousing marijuana crusader Dana Larsen.

Former West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast federal NDP candidate and marijuana advocate Dana Larsen announced Wednesday that he will run for the leadership of the B.C. New Democrats.

Larsen said he had no plans of pursuing a leadership role until Carole James stepped down from the position in early December, but said he decided to throw his hat in the ring because he wanted to offer "a fresh perspective" to party members and the B.C. electorate.

In an interview with The Outlook, Larsen said he hopes to take the B.C. NDP back to "grassroots" politics and re-establish the party as "unabashedly left wing." Renewed support for low-income and seniors' housing, he said, are two issues at the top of his agenda.

As Troy McClure would say, you may remember Dana Larsen from past scandals was forced to resign as a federal candidate over video of himself driving a car while high on LSD (actually, see update below), or banned from the NDP convention in Halifax by Brad Lavigne.

Yes, we first came to know Larsen as the NDP candidate in West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast-Really Long Riding Name in the 2008 federal election. Larsen was the first of three NDP candidates to drop out of the race in BC after YouTube video surfaced of Larsen “dropping hallucinogenic drugs and driving while smoking marijuana.”

He resurfaced the next year in the lead-up to the NDP’s 2009 federal convention in Halifax, when he offered financial assistance to potential delegates as part of his campign to pass pro-legalization policy at convention. NDP executive director Brad Lavigne viewed this as improper lobbying and had him banned from the convention hall on conference eve, creating somewhat of a martyr.

It seems Larsen still doesn’t have many friends in the NDP leadership. While Larsen wants to run for the BC leadership, BC NDP boss Moe Sihota is throwing cold-water on the prospect:

But NDP provincial secretary Moe Sihota said Larsen was declared ineligible to run for the party after the 2008 federal election campaign when he had to step down as a candidate in a Vancouver-area riding after videos appeared of him smoking pot and taking LSD.

Sihota also counted Larsen out on a technicality, which he said ultimately could prevent Larsen from running provincially at all.

"He's not a member of the party," said Sihota. "He was already deemed ineligible to run for the party federally and the rules committee, which meets on Jan. 6, would have to decide whether he would be able to run provincially."

It appears some of the confusion may have been addressed, and Larsen does indeed now have a membership, although he says he had, or should have, had one all along. I was interested to read Sihota’s characterization of Larsen’s departure from the 2008 race though. Sihota said Larsen “was deemed ineligible to run for the party federally” but the news coverage at the time made clear Larsen wasn’t forced-out but stepped aside voluntarily:

Asked about Mr. Larsen’s resignation Wednesday evening in Toronto, NDP Leader Jack Layton said he didn’t know why the party hadn’t done checks to find out about some of the candidate’s activities, which are posted on the Internet. He said the candidate submitted the resignation to the B.C. campaign team and that it was accepted.

“I don’t know a lot of the details of what’s gone on there, but he’s obviously taken the decision that he’s not a suitable candidate, and we’ve accepted that decision.”

* It could all be moot anyway, barring gender-reassignment surgery. Because it appears an arcane part of the BC NDP’s constitution requires the next leader to be female:

The next leader of the B.C. NDP will have to be a woman, unless the party's male president or treasurer resigns, according to gender rules in the NDP constitution.

The unique requirement, buried within the NDP's official rulebook, adds an extra layer of complexity in the race to replace leader Carole James.

The constitution states both genders must be represented in the jobs of leader, president and treasurer.

The current president is Moe Sihota and the treasurer is Bob Smits. James is stepping down later this month, and all those who have publicly said they are considering the job are men.

This is yet another example of why I think hard quotas are a clumsy way of achieving demographic parity, and are generally a bad idea. I might add that the BC Liberals didn’t need quotas to attract two quality female candidates in Moira Stilwell and the frontrunner, Christy Clark.

BC Liberals

*Over in BC Liberal land, meanwhile, we may have our first flip-flop of the campaign, on the proposal floated a few weeks back to lower the voting age to 16. When Mike de Jong first floated the idea, and Christy Clark quickly expressed support, Kevin Falcon did as well, in a statement that’s still on his Web site:

“Lowering the voting age to 16 is an interesting idea. One I am inclined to support, in conjunction with mandatory civics courses as a part of the high school curriculum. I should add that I am proud to be a member of a party that allows 14 year olds to become full members and commence their engagement as citizens before they get to vote.

“We need to recognize however, that lowering the voting age will not solve all the problems of lack of engagement with citizens. As it is, voter turn-out is unacceptably low in BC. What I am interested in is hearing from people about what we can do collectively to make sure that more people are encouraged to exercise their vote.”

However, just a week later, in a Dec. 21 interview with Harjinder Thind on Red FM, Flacon appeared to back away from that position:

Harjinder Thind: Are you in favour of increasing the minimum wage, or, decreasing the voting age?

Kevin Falcon: I am not in favour of decreasing the voting age because I think that we already are having trouble getting 18 to 24 year olds voting. But, I am interested in reaching out to those young people the way I have done through my leadership campaign by using social media and by using our website and Flicker and facebook and Twitter to connect with young people and we're doing that very successfully.

I hope Falcon will explain his apparent 180 on this issue. And I have to say, reaching out to the kids on the Twitter is nice, but if the message you’re tweeting is I don’t think you should have the vote, you’re missing the point.

*Back to gender, Keith Baldrey analyzes recent polling data and shows a strong shift of the female vote away from the BC NDP to the BC Liberals:

The NDP has long prided itself as a champion of the interests of women, and it even implemented an affirmative action policy to ensure more female candidates in the last election. But it is now seen as the party that undemocratically turfed a female leader, and it will undoubtedly elect a man to succeed Carole James.

In fact, it will be interesting to see if any women even run for the NDP leadership. If none do, it will be a stunning commentary about the party's true commitment to the interests of women.

Meanwhile, the B.C. Liberals couldn't be happier about this. The polls show the NDP's loss in support from women is in the double-digits, as many have gone over to the B.C. Liberals.

*Lastly, Christy Clark is talking about putting families first:

UPDATE: In an e-mail, Larsen clarifies that he did not drive while under the influence of LSD. There is a video of him taking LSD, and a separate video of him driving with an unlit joint. Media coverage indicates the driving video was while under the influence of DMT (dimethyltryptamine), but he says it had worn off before he drove. Says Larsen:

"Despite the media hype, in the two videos in question I am shown to be a responsible user of psychedelics. I do regret the brief segment which shows me driving with an unlit joint in my hand. I advocate for responsible use and don't support driving impaired."

Recommend this Post on Progressive Bloggers

Bravo, Brad Lavigne: You've made Dana Larsen a martyr

Whether you agree with Dana Larsen's banishment from the NDP convention or not (personally, i think banishment is an over-reaction), I think it's fair to say that NDP executive director Brad Lavigne and the party brass have handled this whole affair very poorly.

The Larsen saga continues to dominate the #hfx09 twitter feed, as his supporters within the party voice their displeasure.

The reports from the policy prioritization session this morning, which apparently saw the floor vote to move the marijuana anti-prohibition resolution from 20th spot (where it will never reach the floor) to 2nd, and the vote then nullified and the resolution sent back down to the basement because (depending on who you talk to) of either a procedural oversight (vote was called before a speaker had spoken against it) or procedural shenanigans (party brass fiddling the rules to have time to stock the room with opponents), won't help quiet matters either.

The Larsen story hit a number of media outlets this morning, and according to Larsen's tweets there's more to come:

Metro: Turfed B.C. NDP delegate plans to stay in Halifax
CP: NDP hoping to turn provincial wins into federal seats as party meets in N.S.
North Shore Outlook: Pot activist Larsen says he was ousted from NDP convention
Macleans: What happened to you, NDP? You used to be cool

Instead of sulking at home, Larsen is hanging out on the sidewalk outside the convention centre and telling his story:



And he's finding support from within and without the party including from the youth officer for Hamilton Centre NDP MP David Christopherson, who calls the party's handling of Larsen undemocratic:



It's becoming abundantly clear that what Lavigne and the NDP have done here is create a martyr, and Dana is more than happy to climb up on that cross. All in all, I bet he's pleased as punch with the way this has all worked out.

Recommend this Post on Progressive Bloggers

NDP ban former candidate Dana Larsen from Halifax convention

After rumours swirled around Facebook and Twitter all day yesterday, it now appears clear that the NDP has banned Dana Larsen, a party member, activist and its one-time candidate for West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast-Sea to Sky Country, from attending its convention this week in Halifax.

Larsen sent the following tweet around 10am EST this morning:

I just had my observer pass taken away and was escorted out of the Convention Centre. I am banned from the convention and building! #hfx09

You may recall Larsen as the first of three NDP candidates in the last federal election from BC that were forced to resign in short succession (Kirk Tousaw in Vancouver-Quadra and Jullian West in Sannich-Gulf Islands were the others). Larsen, a long-time marijuana activist and former Marijuana Party organizer, became contreversial when news of that activism history hit the mainstream, including his authorship of the Hairy Pothead and the Marijuana Stone book and his videos for Pot-TV on YouTube.

While the party seemed bizarely taken by surprise by this history (which he never hid), it was likely survivable but what appeared to be a bridge too far was the videos Larsen produced that showed him driving under the influence of marijuana and acid. Larsen resigned his candidacy and was replaced by Bill Frost, who finished third behind Conservative John Weston.

Despite losing his nomination, Larsen has remained an active New Democrat as well as an advocate for marijuana legalization, and in the lead-up to the Halifax convention has been organizing behind a related "end prohibition" resolution to be debated at the convention.

As I wrote in February, his organization included offering assistance with transporting and lodging to delegates who were willing to support his anti-prohibition resolution:

He made the offer again in June:

It appears to be this activity that has gotten Larsen into trouble with the party brass. According to the messages posted in Facebook and Twitter by NDP activisits, NDP national director Brad Lavigne intervened to bar Larsen from the convention over allegations of vote-buying.

The decision has sparked a Facebook campaign to have Lavigne overturn the decision. Yesterday the wall of the NDP convention Facebook event page was filled with posts condemning the party's decision. Today, the wall has been disabled and is no longer viewable. However, I managed to grab some screenshots yesterday. Here's a taste:


Instead, the discussion has now moved over to the "Call Brad Lavigne to support Dana Larsen, Marijuana Legalization" event page on Facebook, as well as a lengthly Rabble thread.

Before the banning, Larsen was already complaining about moves to limit policy debate at the convention, and in July complained his attempt to purchase an ad for his "End Prohibition" group in the convention program was denied.

If Larsen did cross the "vote-buying" line then that may be legitimate grounds for his expulsion, but as many have noted in the Rabble discussion threads its a fine line that would seem to be crossed with regularity.

Even so, stepping from revoking delegate status to banning someone from the convention centre is quite a step for the potentially soon to be Democratic Party. And it seems Larsen does have a sizeable constituency within the party, given the backlash this decision has sparked.

And, to put this in the bigger-picture context, it reminds me of this story from the last election:

The NDP is denying they made an informal deal with marijuana activist Marc Emery.

Emery alleges he and NDP Leader Jack Layton had an agreement to bring Marijuana Party members to the New Democrats. In exchange, Emery claims the NDP said they would continue efforts to decriminalize pot.

Emery told CTV.ca in a phone interview from Vancouver he told Layton in 2003 that he and his supporters would bring thousands of new people to the NDP, offer up qualified candidates, and get voters excited about the party.

"We did all that. We fulfilled every obligation we had," he said Saturday.

Layton denied any sort of arrangement with Emery; the Larsen affair would seem to underline that, even if there was such an agreement, its long dead. Which makes one wonder just how much organizational heft did Emery and his followers, such as Larsen, bring to the NDP? And how much will they miss it if they leave?

UPDATE: Here's the letter from Lavigne to Larsen explaining the party's decision, and Larsen's reply.

FURTHER UPDATE: Here's Marc Emery commenting on the Larsen affair (emphasis mine):

Larsen has been active in 12 previous NDP provincial and national conventions. He considers himself to have allies in NDP MP’s Bill Siksay and Libby Davies. Davies was to introduce Larsen’s resolution that calls for the NDP to adopt a clear, detailed policy calling for non-punitive regulation of the cannabis industry and the distribution of cannabis.

Suddenly, earlier this week, the NDP party brass dispatched Davies to the Middle East as part of a parliamentary fact-finding mission, even though she was scheduled to speak at the convention this weekend.

Bill Siksay was to replace Davies in speaking to the motion at the NDP resolution prioritization meeting, which is being held on Friday morning outside the convention, as the call to order does not come into effect until Saturday morning. This decision to hold the prioritization of resolutions meeting on Friday, before the NDP delegates have arrived and been called to order is illegal. Many delegates won’t have arrived by Friday morning, and since it is not on the convention agenda, many wouldn’t even be aware of it.

The reason for this is that Dana Larsen expects over 150 delegates who are his allies to be at the convention on Saturday, and the NDP is trying desperately to sideline Larsen’s increasing clout and presence in the NDP.

UPDATE: Kirk Tousaw (former NDP candidate for Vancouver-Quadra forced to resign over marijuana issues) weighs-in as well:

What on earth is the NDP doing? Banning people from "democratic" gatherings, censoring, fighting against progressive policies?

Recommend this Post on Progressive Bloggers

Pass the bong, my favourite former NDP candidate is back

You may remember Dana Larsen as the former NDP candidate for West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast-Sea to Sky Country. He was the first of three NDP candidates in B.C. during the 2008 campaign that were forced to drop out of the race, all within about a week. The other two being, of course, Kirk Tousaw in Vancouver-Quadra and Julian West in Saanich-Gulf Islands.

To refresh your memory:

An NDP candidate has dropped out of the race after videotape surfaced showing him dropping hallucinogenic drugs and driving while smoking marijuana.

Old video surfaced showing Dana Larsen lighting a mouth stuffed full of marijuana joints, taking hallucinogenic drugs and driving while stoned. Clips shown on television news show Mr. Larsen taking hallucinogenic drugs including LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide) and DMT (dimethyltryptamine).

After taking DMT, he was shown driving a vehicle.

"We finished our psychedelic voyaging for the evening and now we're just driving home, smoking our very last joint that I rolled in advance," Mr. Larsen said on tape from the now defunct pot.tv.

Larsen stepped aside and the NDP replaced him with another candidate. I figured that was the last we’d hear of Mr. Larsen. But turns out he’s back. Or, more accurately, never really went away. The NDP is having a convention in Halifax this summer, and Dana intends to make his voice heard. And he won’t be shying away from the drug issues that cost him is candidacy either.

From Rabble:


Want to go to Halifax but can’t afford transportation or lodgings? No problem. Dana will cover the tab...as long as you vote his way. I’d just avoid being in the vehicle he’s driving though. Or anywhere around that vehicle when its on the road.

I look forward to seeing what policies Dana puts forward at the convention, and how they’re received. It will also be interesting to see if Marc Emery is at the convention, and what he has to say about Jack Layton’s characterization during the campaign of their relationship, or lack thereof.

**For the record, I have no problem with light recreational drug use, although I’d put marijuana and LSD in different categories. I support marijuana decriminalization; I’m not sold on legalization. Where you lose me though, and where Dana stepped over the line, is when he drove while using. Driving under the influence is wrong, whether its alcohol or drugs. What you do in your own home, knock yourself out. But don’t put innocent lives at risk by taking it on the road.

Recommend this Post on Progressive Bloggers

Second NDP candidate in BC resigns

NDP denies deal with pot activist Marc Emery

CTV.ca News Staff

The NDP is denying they made an informal deal with marijuana activist Marc Emery.

Emery alleges he and NDP Leader Jack Layton had an agreement to bring Marijuana Party members to the New Democrats. In exchange, Emery claims the NDP said they would continue efforts to decriminalize pot.
(more)

Recommend this Post on Progressive Bloggers