John Twigg, interim leader of the BC Refederation Party

Statement to Party Members by John Twigg,
Leader, BC Refederation Party [as delivered July 9, 2007]

Dear Members:

I am grateful to Dennis Shaw and Mel Garden for this opportunity to briefly communicate directly with you shortly after my acceptance of the Interim Leader role and prior to its announcement to the public, which announcement we have scheduled for this Thursday July 12 in Victoria. If you are in the vicinity we would welcome your attendance at the front steps of the Legislature around 11 a.m. If there is sufficient interest we may have an impromptu lunch afterwards too.

I also am grateful to Dennis and Mel and the other directors for this opportunity to lead BC Refed at least on this interim basis and hopefully on a permanent basis in due course too, possibly to be done soon by a mail-in ballot and/or at the latest at a general meeting in October.

To many observers it might seem to be a daunting task for anyone to take a relatively small and little-known party and try to make it become a popular government in only a few years but to me it is a challenge worth fighting to achieve because it is so important to improving the well-being of British Columbia in general and in particular to improving the quality of the lives of all of its families and individuals, from First Nations and the descendants of early arrivers to the recent immigrants of many races, creeds and languages. As well we also need better government to preserve the environment for future generations, to create a climate of equity, equal opportunities and social justice for all peoples, and to provide fairness and stability for businesses, trade unions, property owners, renters and all other players in our economy.

There is so much more I'd like to say about my visions for a new and better British Columbia but they will have to wait for coming weeks and indeed some of my unique and most creative ideas may not be rolled out until closer to the 2009 election, for strategic reasons. However many of them will be shared beforehand with you and with other party members all of whom I am counting on to review these ideas and suggest improvements to them.

I do want to note here now though that I wouldn't be joining BC Refed if I didn't agree with its core principles as well as with most if not all of the party's existing published policies and literature, which as a journalist I happen to have followed closely since the outset and indeed some of which I influenced too. That is, I support the concept of using Direct Democracy systems in B.C., I agree that B.C.'s people need to vote on a B.C. Constitution (which has never happened here before) and especially I strongly believe that British Columbia urgently needs to renegotiate its Terms of Union with Canada (because too many areas have become badly dysfunctional, especially federal-provincial tax and fiscal agreements), which happens to be an area I have taken a keen interest in for about 40 years now. (A brief description of my background can be seen in Dennis Shaw's message.)

However in order to get elected the party must blend those priorities into a broader and more populist platform, which I am proposing to do partly by adding "Good Government" and "Sustainable Environment" to those three core principles and especially by presenting and proposing a long list of creative solutions to genuine problems that concern a great many of our citizens, such as promising to repair and improve the ferry services, raise rates and reform the welfare system (e.g. improving funding for child care and dental services), shift tax burdens away from desirable activities such as enhancing B.C.'s self-sufficiency in essential foods and moving more of the tax burdens on to less desirable activities like importing unhealthy fast foods, restructure tax incentives to better encourage investments in such things as manufacturing equipment and rental properties (especially for example in energy conservation and micro-generation systems), create a B.C. Police Force and a new civil defence and public works corps, take over Fisheries and other neglected federal responsibilities, create a new and better model for negotiating and settling treaties with First Nations, reform the justice system to better protect people from dangerous and repeat offenders, and so many more innovative ideas (including some planks that already are Refed policy) that I'm sure I could make everyone's head spin if I did try to list them all now here (e.g. several ideas for creating new sources of revenue).

You'll note from that list that it is neither a "left" or "right wing" agenda but rather it is probably the radical middle, but really it's more pragmatic than radical; some of it may seem or sound unconventional but much of it is already popular and all of it can be easily defended (at least by me!) as being in the public interest.

If an objective political scientist was to compare that policy direction with the party choices in Quebec now we probably are closer to the Action Democratique du Quebec than to the Parti Quebecois because we want extensive reforms in federal-provincial affairs to restore the strong roles of the provinces rather than to completely separate from Canada, and it's quite intriguing to note that in the last Quebec election the ADQ passed the PQ to become the Official Opposition and they almost won the election!

So great things are still possible for us here in British Columbia too, and this is only the beginning of what could be a long journey, and in fact I want to take this opportunity to thank and congratulate Dennis Shaw and all of the other directors for all of their hard work over the last six years to build the base from which we are able to operate today, with a new name, a revised logo, a database of members, a website, literature, policy - even pins and things.

We still may not win many seats in May 2009, and my own chances in North Island are uphill too, but if we all work hard to build our movement then we could surprise a lot of expert doubters - especially now with the NDP proposing to appoint a significant proportion of its candidates on a non-democratic minority quotas basis! In fact B.C. already has more than a few precedents for electing Independents and candidates from small and new parties so B.C. Refed could well be the next party to do so, if not in 2009 then certainly in 2013 or so.

Furthermore, with the way B.C. politics and policy debates are evolving, I am convinced we have a ripe opportunity to have significant influences in any case because it is quite likely that more than a few of our ideas will be adopted by the other parties and probably will be implemented by the next government regardless of which party wins the next election, and that will be a victory of sorts for us too.

For example, when interest groups such as landlords and tenants or loggers and environmentalists or health care unions and regional hospital districts approach the mainstream parties for support of their particular conflicting wishes those activists now will have a viable party to go to if the NDP or the Liberals try to tell them to forget it and get lost; whereas in the past many activists had no practical choice but to vote for the NDP or for the Liberals, now they do have a viable third option: the B.C. Refederation Party. In fact merely our existence in the political pantheon will pressure the mainstream parties to listen more attentively to the entreaties from all perspectives, not listen to and act for only the ones they agree with and take donations from, and that will be a good thing too.

But really the best way for us to produce significant changes and improvements for the benefit of the B.C. public interest is to get us elected to govern and begin doing those changes ourselves (which I've been there and done once before in my life, from 1972 to 1975) and in that drive to elect local MLAs there is much that all party members can do to help - starting right now.

We need more people in every riding who are prepared to recruit new supporters and members, serve on local constituency executives, to canvass during the campaign and to serve as scrutineers on voting day.

We need to talk to our friends and relatives to sell more memberships and to solicit substantial donations, especially from those who can afford it, because people and money are the lifeblood of politics. If you're not satisfied with the way things are now you need to invest in making the changes you want.

Are you and your associates motivated enough to organize a public meeting? If so I might be able to travel and speak at it, as well as meet local supporters and do some media appearances. (I'm also open to meeting somewhere, maybe in New Westminster, on B.C. Day Aug. 6 if there is sufficient interest.)

We also need supporters who will suggest policy ideas that will be most popular with people in their communities, not merely with their own cronies in the local coffee shop but from the perspective of everyone in your community including people on the other sides of town. Remember we are trying to become popularly elected, not to force a narrow policy agenda upon the electorate as the other parties now do.

And in particular I want to ask all members to monitor their local media for mainly two things: stories that are important from the perspective of local partisan politics, and persons who would likely be supporters and potentially could be good candidates for BC Refed, such as outspoken councillors or school trustees, writers of intelligent letters to editors or other people who may be outstanding for one reason or another.

Remember we are not positioning ourselves as a far-right party or a bleeding-heart left-wing party but rather we are a new third-way down-the-middle people-first party - much like the "big tent" approach of the former B.C. Social Credit Party under W.A.C. Bennett, though hopefully we will prove to have softer hearts, smarter heads and even more willingness to put B.C. interests first in all things. In any case to have a chance to win we must occupy the middle ground in politics and be willing to address genuine problems head-on.

Times have changed, and the coming years will bring ever greater challenges, especially regarding the environment, the economy and our own social security in an increasingly troubled world. The future well-being of British Columbia could be more at risk now than ever before but the good news is it's not too late for YOU to make a positive difference in it by helping to elect B.C. Refed MLAs.

It's time for a real opposition with a strong vision for a new and better B.C. We have an excellent opportunity to become the voice of reason and conscience in a divided province. Our recipe for a renewed democracy could save B.C. from its drift ever more into the clutches of monied, outside-based and minority special interest cliques. But we say power to the people and power for the people, from direct democracy to greater prosperity. It CAN be done, and with your help it will be done.

Thank you for your interest and time and hopefully thank you for your personal support too. I welcome direct comments to me by email at jmtwigg@oberon.ark.com  .

Yours sincerely,

John Twigg.