By Chris Beach

Northern View

#47: BC History Repeats Itself

Sep 11, 2024 | 11:58 AM

Welcome back to the Northern View. And what a summer it’s been in the political arena all over the world.

Here in BC we’ve had our own seismic shakeup. As the BC Conservatives continued their seemingly unstoppable rise up the polls, pressuring the BC United to step aside and join forces to deny the NDP a third term in Victoria.

But this is not the first time this has happened in British Columbia. In the 1940s it was the BC Liberal – BC Conservative coalition governments that worked together to defeat the NDP’s forerunner, the CCF. From 1952 to 1991, the coalition became the Socred Party, keeping the NDP out of power for all but one three-year term in the early 1970s.

From 1991 until this summer, it was the BC Liberals/BC United, spending 16 years in government and 17 years as the Official Opposition. And now, it’s the BC Conservatives again.

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So this banding together of the centre-right, anti-NDP forces under a new party is not something new. What would be drastically different, if Rustad were to win, aside from a sharp shift in policy and ideology, is that we haven’t had an elected Premier from northern BC since 1941, 83 years ago, and before that it was the late 1800s.

It’s even been 40 years since we elected a Premier from outside Vancouver or Victoria, Bill Bennet from Kelowna. John Rustad is from Prince George and represents Nechako Lakes, a riding that includes small northern towns from Houston to Vanderhoof.

If Rustad does become Premier, many might think of Game of Throne’s Ned Stark, the lord of Winterfell, descending from the North to assume leadership down in King’s Landing. But unlike Stark, whose inexperience led to his quick demise, Rustad has spent the last 20 years navigating the corridors of power and all those lessons learned will be essential to winning this upcoming BC election and keeping his job as Premier.

I’m Chris Beach and this is the Northern View.

Editors note: The views expressed in this column do not necessarily represent the views of Pattison Media.