Wilson extols benefits of his party at DC

But no news on post secondary education

by Paul Andrew

Gordon Wilson, former leader of
the B.C. Liberal Party, and his wife Judi
Tyabji, visited Douglas College
Saturday, December 2 to encourage
undecided voters to join their new
political party, the Progressive
Democratic Alliance (PDA).

Even though Tyabji was present at
this dinner, the focus was ee on
Wilson. a

Wilson and his party seemed

press almost as much as it was in their
personal lives.

Still, Wilson and Tyabji carry on.
She as the MLA in Okanagan east, and
he as the leader of the Progressive
Democratic Alliance.

“Few people understood who I
was and what I wanted to accomplish
back in 1991 when I was leader of the
Liberal Party,” Wilson said as he began
his speech. “I have learned a lot between

 

“You've got to be slightly mad to
pursue a political career in B.C...,”

 

motivated, displaying a resilience from
the scandal that crumbled the dominant
Liberal party in 1991, partially as a result
of the romance that developed into a
marriage between Wilson and Tyabji.
And in the midst of one political
blunder after another at the hands of
whatever political party happens to be
in power, the governing of B.C. is
becoming a questionable career.
“You've got to be slightly mad to
pursue a political career in B.C.,” Wilson
admitted. “It doesn’t matter to me if I’m
the next Premier of British Columbia.”
Wilson, who was an instructor of
Resource Management when he left
Capilano College in 1991 to end a 17-
year career there, appeared to be at ease
in the Douglas College Room as he and
Tyabji posed for pictures and mingled
with the modest gathering of some thirty
people.
The amount of people seemed to
be just what Wilson expected though.
“T like to have small crowds for a
membership drive,” Wilson explained.
The PDA is Wilson’s effort at
bringing fundamental structural changes
to the governing of British Columbia.
He extols the same policies that brought
the Liberal Party huge popularity when
he was the leader in 1991, and before
any political improprieties shook the
party that he and Tyabji were
instrumental in dismantling, thanks to
the romance that was played out in the

now and then (...) we must start to do
business differently in this province,” he
continued.

Even though Wilson’s popularity as
a politician has declined in this province,
he does have a knack for putting the
political problems of B.C. in perspective.

“We cannot simply replace the
existing government with a whole bunch
of new faces and names and allow
business to continue as usual,” he said.
“That’s what’s happened federally, and
that’s what’s happened provincially.
Now we have such an enormous
cynicism in the electorate in B.C. that
they don’t believe any politicians
anymore.”

Wilson went on to talk about the
televised political debate in 1991 among
the Social Credit, the NDP and the
Liberals. He cited this occasion as the
moment British Columbian’s realized
there may be some hope that a political
party (the Liberals) was prepared to
invest in the future of the citizens of B.C.

“Maybe we’ve finally got some
politicians in B.C. who are prepared to
say ‘my job is to look out for your
interests, the people of British Columbia,
not the interests of corporate downtown,
not the interests of the off-shore
investor,” Wilson said, when he was
referring to the reaction of British
Columbian’s regarding his appearance
in the 1991 debate.

Wilson feels

the current

 

 

 

 

 

government is putting the brunt of
the provincial debt on the elderly
and the poor because of the
financial cuts to social programs,
therefore blaming these groups for
the provincial mismanagement of
social transfer payments. Instead,
he feels NDP cabinet minister
Glen Clark’s spending is suspect
and does not help the financial
difficulties in B.C.

“Do you want to know why
we’re $29 billion in debt?”
Wilson asked. “Because Glen
Clark, who is involved in some
kind of scheme to prove his
manhood, is out there spending
$800 million on an aluminum
catamaran to knock off 20

minutes in sailing time from
Horseshoe bay to Nanaimo,” he
said. “That’s why we have fiscal
mismanagement.”

Armed with knowledge that
is upsetting British Columbians
and distancing them from the
current government, it’s not
difficult to see why politicians like 3
Wilson, who do not have any
significant power in the B.C.
political picture, are coming up
with answers that seem so simple
yet so hard to implement in this
province.

“One of the main reasons I’m
still doing what I’m doing is
because I fear for this country,”
Wilson said.

“T can’t sleep at night when I
think about what’s happening to
my country.”

Wilson feels the $9.6 billion
that will be spent on social
programs for 300,000 status
aboriginal people in B.C. is not
reaching those it is intended for,
and as a result, the aboriginal
population still lives in an atmosphere
of poverty.

“Only 12 percent of that money
actually goes to the aboriginal people,”
Wilson said. “The rest is all spent on this
huge bureaucracy that is taking that
money and is putting that money into
the pockets of people who are simply

 

Gordon Wilson and wife Judi Tyabji

living off the avails of our continued
discrimination against those [aboriginal]
people.”

Even though Wilson’s speech was
taking place at Douglas College, he
offered no solutions to solving the

problems of post-secondary students in
B.C. regarding the federal reductions to
education funding in this province,
which in turn will boost the tuition in
this province considerably in the years
to come.

Douglas News Wrap-up ‘95!

We remind you of the hell that was Fall Semester

by Samuel Lapalme-Remis

New at Douglas College?
Suffering from amnesia? Can’t
remember anything before the day after
New Year’s Eve? What follows is a
quick wrap-up of important news from
DC’s greatest semester yet, Fall 1995.

Most newsworthy of all was the
threat of a faculty strike that persisted
until early November, when the
government finally came to the
negotiating table. This issue is still
unresolved and may lead to a strike this
semester. The faculty seeks a fair pay
scale and salary increases to fend off
inflation. The government, one
assumes, wants to profit from inflation
and an unfair pay scale. It’s always the
government’s fault...

Perhaps because all this craziness
was distracting them from their studies
and leaving them unprepared from
examinations, some people took it upon
themselves to distract everybody by
calling in a bomb threat four times and
pulling the fire alarm once. As a result,

students and faculty were forced out of
their classrooms and into the streets five
times. Thankfully, there was never a
bomb or a fire present at DC. The threats
may have led some students to actually
speak to each other, although these
farfetched rumours remained
unconfirmed at press time.

The government reared its ugly
head again with plans to cut funding
for post-secondary education, which
could lead to massive tuition
increases for students at DC and
everywhere else. This story is
still in progress, so the OP
encourages everyone to get
involved in the debate.

Will the next semester
be as wild and crazy as the
last? It is up to YOU, the
vast number of OP ,
readers, to decide
since you are the ones
who make the news.
Let’s make it good news.