The past year has been a fascinating one for B.C. New Democratic Party Leader Carole James. Without trying, she has watched her party’s lead over the governing Liberals skyrocket to almost historic heights.
In part, she has former B.C. premier Bill Vander Zalm to thank for the NDP’s comfy cushion over the Liberals. Ms. James has mostly watched from the sidelines while the man once jeered out of office has led his wildly successful citizens’ revolt against the HST. Wisely, the NDP leader has made it clear that she doesn’t view these types of populist uprisings as the most efficient way of setting tax policy.
Still, there remains nagging doubts about Ms. James. The sizable lead her party currently enjoys is mostly the result of the plummeting numbers of the governing party and not major growth the NDP has realized during the HST-related tumult. Many believe it could vanish in a second if Premier Gordon Campbell was to step down and someone untainted by the HST fiasco were to step into the breach.
To her credit, Ms. James has not spent the last year simply watching the implosion of Mr. Campbell’s political career. Although even she has to be incredulous at just how magnificently the Premier has blown things. Instead, Ms. James has been holding summits with various stakeholder groups throughout the province in an effort to establish her policy agenda for the next election.
The primary driver of that process has been the desire to shore up her business credentials, an area that was exposed as a debilitating weakness in the last election. Her speech last Friday at a major party fundraiser in downtown Vancouver was billed by staffers as seminal. It was going to provide unmistakable evidence that she fully comprehends the scope of the economic challenges facing the province and has a vision going forward.
While it certainly was not a speech Ms. James would have given even a year ago, she still has a ways to travel before she calms the nerves of business leaders and company presidents who remain suspicious about the NDP taking over control of the economic tiller.
For me the speech was too long on phrases such as “risk must be rewarded … innovation encouraged” – stale bromides that could have been penned by a kid in Grade 11 studying business development – and short on words that reflect a deep, authoritative awareness of the issues confronting the B.C. economy amid an increasingly competitive and rapidly changing business environment.
In other words, it betrayed a business acumen that seemed an inch deep and a mile wide.
If it did anything, it signalled to her party that business will have as prominent a place at her policy table as labour. It was not a message that pleased everyone in attendance but it was an important one to get across nonetheless. So perhaps not all was lost.
But going forward, Ms. James has work to do if she wants to convince a broad swath of British Columbians that a somewhat fragile economy will be safe in her hands. On that front Ms. James needs to be the author of what my economist friend Jock Finlayson calls “a new economic narrative,” one the current government has been unable to create.
I think it should be built around education, an area Ms. James has rightly signalled will be a key policy priority for the NDP going forward. It was good to see that “investments in human capital” was among the four pillars of her vision for the future outlined in her speech. It’s a subject that deserves a speech unto itself and certainly one that I wanted to hear Ms. James talk about in much greater detail.
Education is the main factor contributing to economic development around the world, with emerging economies investing heavily in human capital and knowledge development. Yet, B.C. continues to lag in capital investment per worker, well behind Canadian and Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development averages. The failure to invest in human capital is at the root of B.C.’s dismal productivity growth performance over the last decade.
An NDP economic strategy might well be built around an education plan that promotes prosperity and growth.
Unleashing the economic possibility of northern B.C., the critical role that immigration will play in our future financial well-being and creating a landing spot for the growing number of Asian companies wishing to establish a presence in the North American market should also be part of the new economic storyline that needs to be scripted in B.C.
If she wants to be the province’s next CEO, Ms. James should get busy writing it.
