By John Twigg
Yesterday while critiquing the B.C. Liberal government's latest Throne Speech I made some passing remarks about former B.C. Premier Bill Bennett that were less than flattering to him, which I've reproduced below, and I'm writing now to add some balance and depth to those passing remarks.
First I did know Bennett personally and in a way all too well. I remember when he was the Opposition Leader and I was then Premier Dave Barrett's then very young Press Secretary sitting behind my boss inside the Legislature chamber in the staff seats, and I still vividly remember Bennett staring daggers at me. He was an unusually tough guy.
Soon the Barrett NDP lost an election to Bennett's Socreds (in 1975) and I went off to a sojourn in Saskatchewan but I returned to Victoria in 1987 as a journalist with a membership in the Legislature's Press Gallery as an independent freelancer (where I stayed for about 15 years), and in that role I helped accelerate Mr. Bennett's premature departure from politics.
So yes I DO know quite a lot about Mr. Bennett, enough to realize that my passing remarks yesterday need to be clarified today with my acknowledgement that yes he did do some good things too, even lots of good things, albeit mainly in the realm of province-building, such as Expo 86 (which I visited) and various bridges and various Crown corporation initiatives.
But that said I don't want to downplay or disavow my statements that he was widely and deservedly hated for various reasons too, especially his anti-union stances and his miserliness towards the poor, which one could argue in retrospect were fiscally necessary at the time - but that's debatable.
Anyway I don't have time now for a long dissertation about Bill Bennett and how his record pales beside that of his father but I do want to share the tweet I recently sent and to include the full transcripts from the Hansard Blues - note that they are the preliminary unofficial transcript version, which I am NOT in the habit of publishing - of what first Premier Christy Clark and then Opposition Leader John Horgan said today in the Legislature about Bennett's recent passing, because they are both eloquent and fairly balanced commentaries of his record.
R.I.P. Bill, I admit you too were a great British Columbian despite being one whose policies I usually disagreed with strongly ! ; )
My Tweet
Must admit
My comment in yesterday's Daily Twigg blog
Finally, in 2015 we lost Bill Bennett, the 27th Premier of British Columbia.
For nearly 10 years, Bill Bennett served our province with distinction. We stand on the legacy he built every day, from the sites and facilities of Expo 86, to the Coquihalla Highway, and the expansion of our mining and clean hydro industries. Bill Bennett will be remembered for his achievements but also for the strength of his character, his principles, and an unflinching sense of duty to his fellow citizens.
[That was Christy Clark - the real author of the speech - sucking up to the Bennett family, who rescued her political career, by presenting a very one-sided version of Bill Bennett's mixed history when the truth is he was divisive, widely hated and driven from office in some disgrace before he would have been defeated. Yes it is politically incorrect to speak negatively of the dead but Clark's overly-selective history errs in the opposite direction.]
Excerpt from Hansard Blues
Ministerial Statements
BILL BENNETT
Hon. C. Clark: Last year, we
lost British Columbia's 27th Premier. I didn't have the honour of
knowing him well personally, but I know very well the example he set
for his office and for this Legislature.
I was 11 years old when he became a
Premier, and I was on the cusp of 21 when he retired from public life.
He very much set my understanding of what a leader looks like in the
time that he was the Premier of British Columbia. I became attached to
him as my Premier in the way that you can only become attached to a
Premier before you realize that they come and go at a pretty quick pace
in British Columbia.
He left us a vast legacy of cultural and
economic touchstones — the Alex Fraser Bridge, Coquihalla Highway, B.C.
Place, Expo 86, the SkyTrain. They did the initial work on Site C,
which we are now in the process of completing. But Bill Bennett's
impact on British Columbia and, I think, on British Columbians was so
much more than just the physical legacies that he left for us.
The great social reformer Jane Addams once
said that when we think of great men, it is easy to think only of their
great deeds and not think enough about their great spirit. That's what I
think about, when I think about Bill Bennett and his service to our
province.
The stories of his cabinet's loyalty…. I've
heard it said that his cabinet ministers didn't just feel respect for
him but that they loved him. He let them do their jobs, let them take
credit for their victories, and he commanded that respect from them
because he gave it.
He had such a fierce strength in his
beliefs. We all saw that. He stood up to make government smaller, not
bigger. He stood up to make sure that government spent less, not more.
He was attacked for it vigorously, and he never wavered from those
beliefs, because he had courage.
[1345]
He had an apparently endless reservoir of
will to do what he believed was right. So when all of Canada was
hurting, when it became clear that in British Columbia government was
just too big and the economy was just too small, Bill Bennett decided
that it was time to take it on. In one day, he tabled 26 bills in this
Legislature and stepped outside to confront the biggest labour
HSE - 20160210 PM 004/cgl/1345
do what he believed was
right. So when all of Canada was hurting, when it became clear that in
British Columbia government was just too big and the economy was just
too small, Bill Bennett decided it was time to take it on. In one day,
he tabled 26 bills in this Legislature and stepped outside to confront
the biggest labour disruption in this province's history. He was asking
our public servants, it's notable to say, to accept 14 percent and 8
percent increases over two years.
He loved this province, and he had a
tremendous desire to improve it. He wanted to leave it better for the
next generation, and he did that. He left us with bridges and he left
us highways. He left us a world fair, but more important, I think, was
the example that he set of the tremendous courage that he always exuded
in everything that he did. Those are the qualities of character that
are the real legacies that Bill Bennett has left, I think, for British
Columbians. Those are the things that have etched him forever into the
memory of our province.
We are honoured by his love for this place.
He didn't just make our province better, he made all of us better, and
he proved that leaders will never be remembered for doing the easy
things. Leaders are distinguished by their willingness to do the hard
things.
J. Horgan: I, on behalf of
the official opposition, want to join with the Premier and all of her
colleagues in commemorating the passing of William Bennett, Premier of
British Columbia, distinguished public servant and someone who gave
much of his life to his devotion to this province and its people.
That career paralleled another giant in our
political history, Dave Barrett, and despite their absolute
differences, the two will always be joined as giant shadows cast over
this jurisdiction, this institution, but also the province.
My political awakening, like the Premier's,
happened on Mr. Bennett's watch. I remember it vividly. I got an
envelope in the mail, and I said: "Hey, mom, what's this?" She said:
"They're your BCRIC shares. I'll give you 35 bucks for them." I
pocketed that money, and I thanked Bill Bennett for it.
Years later, I found myself on the lawns of
this Legislature, on one of my first political protests that led me
taking $5 of those $35 and joining the B.C. NDP as a result of the
policies — no, seriously — that the Premier references. But as a young
man, as someone who did not at that time see himself in a political
role, I did not understand the magnitude of his premiership and his
time served for all of us here, regardless of our political stripe.
It was later as a member of this
Legislature that a second personal moment with Bill Bennett came
forward. I was giving a tour, as I often do, of the buildings, and I
always take school groups to the library, which in my opinion is the
most important room in this facility. One of the kids from Sooke
Elementary asked me if there was a comic book in the vast collection of
the library. I quickly said, "No," to be corrected by the reference
librarian, who said there is one: Betty and Veronica go to Expo.
So Mr. Bennett did not just have an impact
in 1986 by bringing the world to Vancouver, he also brought to the good
citizens, the good students of Sooke Elementary, the knowledge — and
every student that has come since — that in the library here at the
Legislature Betty and Veronica went to Expo because of Bill Bennett.
I want to also add to the great list that
the Premier provided of Mr. Bennett's great accomplishments, B.C. Hydro
was certainly a component part of that, building Revelstoke was a
massive achievement, and also creating the B.C. Utilities Commission to
protect us from ourselves. Great achievements, a great man. He'll be
missed.
https://www.leg.bc.ca/documents-data/debate-transcripts/40th-parliament/5th-session/20160210pm-House-Blues
No comments:
Post a Comment