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the other press

Barbara K. Adamski

opfeatures@telus.net

February 25, 2004

 

 

 

Right Meets Left:

JJ Sits

JJ McCollough
OP Contributor

Svend Robinson has been a member
of the Canadian Parliament for
twenty-five years, having been cho-
sen to represent his riding of
Burnaby-Douglas for seven straight
elections. He is also a prominent
member of the New Democratic
Party of Canada, a leading figure of
the Canadian left, and a staunch
advocate of gay rights. Mr.
Robinson agreed to sit down to an
interview with The Other Press.

OP: Good afternoon, Mr. Robinson,
and thank you for agreeing to this
interview. As you're no doubt aware,
there were numerous protests across
the province this month, with stu-
dents demanding an end to tuition
fee increases. Under the NDP we
had a freeze on tuition fees, which,
although popular, is now being
argued as impractical. What is your
stance on this issue?

ROBINSON: Well, I think it’s
absolutely appalling that tuition fees
have been skyrocketing in British
Columbia since the Liberal govern-
ment took over. The reason for this
rise in fees is a combination of cuts
by Paul Martin to transfer payments
to the provinces when he was

own With Svend Robinson

Finance Minister, and decisions that
have been made by the provincial
Liberals. I mean, they decided to
give a trillion-dollar tax cut to their
wealthy, corporate friends, and that
means other programs like post-sec-
ondary education are suffering. But
what it also means is that not only is
tuition going up far too high, but
there’s a lack of space for students
that are qualified, that should be
able to continue their studies.

The most recent figures that I saw
indicated that over two thousand
qualified people were denied access
to post-secondary education in the
Province of British Columbia. So
you've got a combination of huge
debt loads growing for students that
are graduating, tuition fees that are
increasing and directly affecting
accessibility, and requirements for
entrance that are in some cases total-
ly unacceptable. Now, to get into
UBC, for example—UBC
Sciences—I think you have to have
an average of something like 89 per-
cent. To get into arts at SFU it is
something like 80 percent, and
that’s not acceptable.

OP: What's your opinion on BC's
new NDP leader Carol James? Do

you realistically think she can beat
Premier Campbell?

ROBINSON: Absolutely. I support-
ed Carol in her campaign for the
leadership. Both Libby Davies and I,
the two New Democrat MPs from
British Columbia, we both support-
ed Carol James. I’m very proud of
the fact that we're the first party to
have — successfully elected an
Aboriginal woman as party leader in
Canada, but more importantly an
articulate and strong woman. |
think that more and more people are
getting disgusted with some of the
most distrusted policies of Gordon
Campbell. His cuts to health care,
closing down hospitals in New
Westminster with St. Mary’s, cut-
ting funding for school meal pro-
grams for poor kids, cutting funding
to post-secondary education, and
absolutely disastrous environmental
policies—he’s talking about lifting
the moratorium on oil and gas
exploration off the cost of British
Columbia, for example. I think we
have a real opportunity to come

back.

OP: A lot of media pundits have
been predicting that your party may
make significant gains in the next

federal election. How do you explain
this renewed optimism in a party
that many were already ready to
write off three years ago?

ROBINSON: Well, it certainly feels
good to be back on the political
map. We were in the wilderness for
far too long, and I think a great deal
of the credit has to go to Jack
Layton, the new leader of the
Federal Democrats. He’s really put
us back on the map. He’s been tire-
lessly traveling across the country,
speaking out on that
Canadians are concerned about,

issues

whether it was speaking out against
the American invasion of Iraq,
speaking out on environmental
issues like Kyoto, taking a strong,
clear stance on equal marriage rights
for gay and lesbian couples, speak-
ing out against Star Wars and
Canada’s contribution to Star Wars,
and supporting the Romanow rec-
ommendation on health care.

I think more and more we've got a
big political space opening up for
New Democrats, because the Liberal
Party has moved so far to the right
under Paul Martin that a lot of pro-
gressive Liberals are saying “this isn’t
my party anymore.” They're looking

http://www.otherpress.ca

 

Photos by Angela Blattmann

for a new home and coming to the
New Democrats. Then you've also
got Progressive Conservatives, who
see their party as now abandoning
the word “progressive” and again
becoming more right-wing. And
they're looking for another home.
And even a lot of populist British
Columbians that voted for the
Reform Party and the Canadian
Alliance Party to “take on the power
of central Canada” are now discover-
ing that their party's been taken
over.

OP: You are obviously a fairly popu-
lar figure in British Columbia, or at
least very well known. However, as
an individual member of parlia-
ment, do you feel you have any
power? From an insider’s perspec-
tive, just how serious is our govern-
ment’s “democratic deficit?”

ROBINSON: There's a huge demo-
cratic deficit, but fixing a democrat-
ic deficit isn’t tinkering around with
the powers of 301 members of par-
liament the way Paul Martin says. If
youre serious about the democratic
deficit, you look at things like our
electoral system, and you change the
electoral system to make it more

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