Last week, I noticed Vancouver Sun columnist Vaughn Palmer praising NDP house leader Mike Farnworth as the best choice for interim party leader.
Others have suggested that Farnworth, the MLA for Port Coquitlam, could become the next NDP leader.
I must admit that I'm a bit baffled by this.
I acknowledge that Farnworth has some political skills. He is witty with the media. He can seize on populist issues. And from what I've heard, he's a good constituency politician.
But he's also remarkably right wing for a New Democrat.
I recall Farnworth's tenure as municipal affairs minister in the Glen Clark government. Farnworth did nothing to address the egregious campaign-finance law governing municipal elections.
As the minister, Farnworth didn't seem troubled that there were no campaign-spending limits and no limits on donations to municipal parties. Nor did he change the fact that a citizen has to spend huge sums on a court challenge to enforce the conflict-of-interest provisions in the Municipal Act and Vancouver Charter.
Later as the provincial minister responsible for TransLink, Farnworth played a leading role in killing the $40 to $120 annual vehicle levy. This crippled the transportation authority's finances.
After the Campbell government announced a carbon tax, Farnworth and his supporters held a demonstration to protest this measure.
As the NDP's solicitor general critic, Farnworth has adopted a harsh law-and-order approach, occasionally taking potshots at court decisions.
He also took Attorney General Wally Oppal to task over such issues as the granting of bail, even though that's something determined by judges.
Farnworth even urged Oppal to appeal a B.C. Supreme Court decision concerning police use of force in breaking down the door of a marijuana grow-op.
"Marijuana grow-ops are an epidemic and pose a serious threat to public safety, our communities and our youth," Farnworth said in an NDP news release. "This B.C. Supreme Court ruling appears to favour the rights of a person running a major grow-op at the expense of all other crucial considerations."
The media sometimes report that after the 2001 election, Farnworth worked in Bulgaria, the Balkans, and Iraq on democratic governance for the National Democratic Institute. It's chaired by former U.S. secretary of state Madeleine Albright.
It sounds good on paper, but the NDI and its funding body, the National Endowment for Democracy, have their critics. The International Endowment for Democracy was created to highlight its left-wing founders' contention that the U.S. government-funded NED is a front for U.S. imperialism.
If Farnworth becomes the next NDP leader, I wonder if he'll turn out like John Kerry, the Democratic candidate for president in 2004 who failed to inspire some members of his own party. That's because Kerry veered far to the right in his unsuccessful campaign against then-president George W. Bush.
Like Kerry, Farnworth has also veered to the right. And as a result, he could have difficulty in 2013 inspiring core NDP supporters to go to the wall to defeat incumbent premier Gordon Campbell.
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Comments
You conviently disregard Farnworth's record on progressive issues. Locally, he's known as a champion of the Coquitlam River, having fought for greater protection from big developers and gravel companies. What about his work on the Dziekanski case? Calling the RCMP to account for their actions and demanding civilian oversight of the RCMP. What about filing a complaint about the RCMP's actions with regards to the Dalde family in Richmond? Working with the Filipino community to demand answers. Just because one believs that repeat, violent offenders should spend more time in prison, doesn't make one right-wing, it makes them part of the vast majority of the public. I have watched Farnworth stand up for the victims of violent crime and their families when nobody else would. The Toner family, the DePaties and Penners and Rivets. You seem to believe that you have the sole license to decide who's right-wing and who's left-wing based on your view of the world, and where they fit into your little criteria. Your political axe-grinding against Farnworth has been noticeable for some time now and it's getting old.
James catered to the party faithful and brought in racist (middle aged white men can't run) policies which certainly turned off the voter. If the NDP ever want to win in BC, they must dump the wing-nuts who control the party and get out of the 19th century and enter the 21st century.
If there is a lesson to be learned in the last election, the electorate said "a pox on all your houses and we will not play."
If many more do not vote, our political system will crumble, hell its on the verge being illegitimate already!
A duplicate effort on the federal side is more urgent as we must try to stop the well meaning fools who somehow control the federal party before an imminent federal election.
seth
Really Charlie your disdain for Farnworth is so transparent. Don't forget he was in Glen Clark's cabinet and Clark had already decided on massive cuts and downloading to municipalities.
Were you talking to your best pal Adrian Dix again?
It's not personal. I've always tried to focus on what people do in politics and not on what they say. This was I.F. Stone's approach. Politicians are lawmakers. They're not my friends. For the vast majority of the public (unlike the reporters), all that matters is how they vote. I could be very critical of Dix while he was facilitating the removal of farmland from the Agricultural Land Reserve at the Six Mile Ranch or supporting crappy transit projects. I was also highly critical of B.C. Hydro's natural-gas strategy on Vancouver Island while Dix was on the board of B.C. Hydro. I try to focus on voting records. However, I do wonder if Farnworth played a role in the NDP's rather dismal forays into international affairs recently -- notably in the criticism of Mable Elmore and in the shameful treatment of former candidate Rollie Keith prior to the 2005 election. Maybe James did this on her own. It's possible. But Farnworth is one of the few caucus members who has spent a lot of time in the Balkans and the Middle East, so it makes me wonder if James consulted with him before condemning these candidates' statements on international affairs.
I realize the decision to kill the vehicle levy was made over 10 years ago, but I'd like to know what Farnworth would propose to do to fund increased public transit now? Is he willing to tell the public, including his mostly car-driving public in his suburban riding, that they may have to pay higher fuel taxes, or for a vehicle levy to fund public transportation? Or will he be willing to sacrifice an improved public transportation system for the sake of satisfying the anti-tax crowd? The latter will alienate the NDP's progressive base and give the Greens an opening on the NDP's environmentalist-leaning wing of support.