[quote=“hitest”]
Agreed. WillyZalm did not fight the HST for altruistic reasons (although I do agree with his point of view on the HST). Your observation about his attempt to revive the right-wing coalition (SOCRED) under the Conservative banner is a good one. However, his time in the spotlight is long gone in my opinion (for public office).[/quote]
I’m not sure that Socred was a ‘right-wing coalition’, except perhaps in the sense that it swallowed up what little was left of the old conservative party decades ago (which was just a footnote). Socred was really just right wing, especally under Bennett Jr and Zalm (Bennett Sr was a different story, essentially a state capitalist).
During the Socred years there always was a viable, centrist Liberal party with about half a dozen members, for quite some time under Gordon Gibson. As Socred went into meltdown under Zalm, the Liberal party briefly flourished, still as a centrist party, under Gordon Wilson. The MLAs that served under him vanished when Campbell crafted a true coalition of the centre and the right, dominated by the latter.
The Liberals have been more moderate than the Socreds probably would have been. There has been room for a reformer like Plant. De Jong and others have done innovative work on aboriginal issues. The Liberal’s carbon tax and alternative energy initiative can be faulted, but again there has been innovation (hopefully one day the NDP will have a program that is proactive rather than reactive, something beyond ‘Axe the Tax’).
The resurgence of a Conservative party that largely displaces the Liberals would probably result in a return to the highly polarized politics of the past. Rather than moderating the right, as the centre has done under Campbell, it would probably be relegated to the sidelines, where it was in the past, as a minority within the minority when the right is in power.
Zalm’s days in elected office are long gone, I agree, but he had gotten a lot of spotlight, and I don’t think that his aspirations are limited to the HST, nor are they altruistic. He’s an experienced political tactician. I am sure that one day we will be hearing “Faaantastic” once again, although for something that a lot of us don’t wish for.