Throughout most of B.C. history the political process has been hijacked by primordial capitalists. It's always been easy to practice capitalism in B.C. --- pry out a rock here ---- massacre a forest there --- treat yourself to three or four triple scotches down at the Vancouver Club --- survival doesn't require mental fitness --- as demonstrated by the manner in which B.C.'s business "elite" has handled the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games. For the B.C. business "elite", politics has been a matter of paying third-rate politicians to turn blind eyes to the rape of the environment and the defrauding of law-abiding citizens--- and to sing to the tune of right-wing rhetoric --- the kind churned out by B.C.'s right-wing propaganda prone think-tank, the Fraser Institute. In B.C., there's always been a powerful loony right-wing political party. It's currently, and inappropriately, called the "Liberal" Party of British Columbia.

It's always been easy to organize labor unions in B.C. --- miners and mill workers, abused by their bosses, have to show up at the same place of work every day --- a great place for lazy, radical and arrogant labor leaders (often having been kicked out of the British Isles by their own kind) to wreath in righteous indignation about the evils of capitalism and drum up the benefits of unionism. These worthies, together with one or two goopy university professors and a contingent of all-around lay-abouts, have constituted the core of a loony left-wing political party. That party is currently, and, inappropriately, called the New "Democratic" Party - the NDP. So politically inept has it been that it never was elected to government until 1972.

Finally, at the end of the 20 year reign of WAC (appropriately nicknamed "Wacky") Bennett, lefty NDP goof-ball Dave Barrett managed to swing an NDP victory For three years thereafter, hoards of socialists perpetually sacked the temples of B.C. capitalism --- the Vancouver Stock Exchange --- the B.C. Labour Relations Board --- and featherbedded the B.C. job market. Spending and taxing soared out of control. By 1975, B.C. voters had had enough and elected Bill Bennett, Wacky's drunken, incompetent son, nicknamed "Mini-Wac". Mini-Wac beat up on labour and the environment and, after 10 years, turned the government over to a "fantaaaastic", born-again Christian, Bill Vander Zalm, Willy Wooden Shoes. Five years later god ordered Wooden Shoes to carry home from a Richmond hotel room a brown paper bag containing a $50,000 bribe --- his benefactor was a shrill Chinese developeress --- when Willy Wooden Shoes didn't deliver the goods on time, she blew the whistle on the blessed one. Once more, fed-up B.C. voters shoved the political pendulum in the opposite direction --- far --- far too far --- elected a carbon copy of the Barrett government. During the next eight years labor bosses and Marxist planners went on a rampage. But then NDP premier Glen Clark was caught taking yet another bribe and, in 2001, B.C. voters kicked out all but two NDP MLAs. Under a somewhat moderate, politically incompetent leader, Carol James, the NDP rebuilt but failed to unseat the "Liberals". "Rabble", the propaganda organ of the old-style loony lefties, announced this month that they are spearheading a campaign to "Take back the British Columbia NDP Party" from James. They may very well succeed.

The days of "Liberal" government are numbered. Soon after they were originally elected, the Liberals repaid a campaign contribution by turning B.C. Rail over to CN Rail's klepto-capitalist chairman, E. Hunter Harrison . The corruption has now come to light --- the "Liberals" have burned incriminating emails, stonewalled the media (and the opposition) but the scandal continues to grow ... the "parallels with Watergate become more eerie by the day," says the Globe and Mail's B.C. reporter, Gary Mason. And the 2010 Olympic Games are coming home to roost. The boosters down at the Vancouver Club who lassoed the 2010 Olympics haven't got what it takes to run them. --- the great money-sucking black hole deepens by the day. Rightly, the public identifies the Olympic fiasco with the "Liberals".

Will the B.C. government fall Into the hands of loony lefties once again? A glimmer of hope has appeared on the horizon. Last fall, former NDP MLA Gregor Robertson led "Vision Vancouver", a moderate-left alliance against the usual right-wing coalition of developers and boosters. Robertson , easily secured the mayoralty of Vancouver and Vision Vancouver secured control of Vancouver City Council. A number of moderates in the NDP and a few in the B.C. "Liberal" Party want to build Vision Vancouver into a provincial political party. I hope so. I hope that Vision B.C. will put both the NDP and "Liberal" Party out of business. In due course, I hope, a center-left Vision B.C. Party will govern B.C. Eventually, I hope, another center-right political party will form the opposition and, eventually, the government. B.C.'s greatest liability, , irrational, polarized politics, is, I hope, about to be wiped off BC's balance sheet.