TIMES COLONIST
B.C. Conservative leader John Cummins strikes law-and-order theme
By Les Leyne, Times Colonist September 25, 2011
Conservative leader John Cummins hardened up his party's unabashedly right-wing platform Saturday with a couple of law-and-order pitches.
Ten years ago, there wouldn't have been much ground to be gained by the B.C. Conservatives.
The Liberals were the tax-slashing, government-shrinking right-wingers and everybody knew it. But they gradually drifted back into the centre, which is where the New Democratic Party has been wandering around.
Both of them have to be moderate and careful these days not to lose balance and offend anyone.
Which leaves Cummins clear to camp on the right wing and fire at will.
With sworn testimony at an inquiry now establishing that 97 per cent of salmon caught by natives for "food, social and ceremonial purposes" is actually sold illegally for cold, hard cash, Cummins advocated a provincial crackdown on a federal problem.
He said provincial wildlife officers and the police should be empowered to enforce the federal law.
"If B.C. takes that position that, 'If the feds aren't going to do the job, we're going to do it for them,' maybe we can embarrass them into doing their job."
Cummins also advocated allowing police to lay charges, rather than Crown counsel.
The process varies across Canada, but Cummins said the B.C. system lets too many people off. Overworked prosecutors choose cases with the highest chance of conviction.
Conservatives want police to make the charging decisions, and they want more prosecutors hired so more trials proceed.
More than 150 people turned out at the party's annual meeting. Cummins, approaching the four-month mark in his leadership, rallied them with some attacks on special interest groups and wasteful spending.
"Imagine a B.C. where parents and students are the clients of the education system, not the teachers union," he said.
"Where branches of government do not hand out free crack pipes . Where B.C. Ferries is part of the highway system, not an extravagant Crown corporation with vanity advertising, lavish offices and a million-dollar CEO."
He rapped Premier Christy Clark for responding to the federal rejection of Taseko's mine proposal by urging the company to "seek a new deal with the local native bands."
Cummins said that huge investment is now "being held for ransom and shaken down for more money with the active participation of our rookie Liberal premier."
He also slammed Clark's increase in the minimum wage as a job killer that will cost millions of dollars.
Cummins said there is a "realignment" underway in the province. The Liberals and NDP are growing closer together, to the point where he "can't tell the difference" between the solutions they offer.
His takeover of the Conservatives created a bubble of interest in the often-overlooked party. Most of it was based on the novel concept of a professional politician being in charge of the party. The enthusiasm was still evident at the meeting, where they boasted about membership, fundraising and the creation of 60 constituency groups so far.
Whether he can sustain it depends on whether people buy into his vision of where the province should go.
Toward the end of his speech, he referred directly to the model he has in mind.
It was the W.A.C. Bennett government of 50 years ago. Cummins worked on the Bennett dam and has fond memories of the buzz in the air at the time, when B.C. was the place to be.
It's more or less the same vision Clark spent a week trying to outline with her "Canada starts here" theme.
They're just approaching it from opposition directions.
Just So You Know: The precise road map for how to get there was thrashed out in policy discussions all day Saturday. But they were all held behind closed doors, with no media allowed. Cummins may be ready for prime time, but they're not quite ready to share their thought processes with the public yet.
lleyne@timescolonist.com
© Copyright (c) The Victoria Times Colonist
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THE PROVINCE
Cummins rallies B.C. Conservative faithful at Nanaimo AGM
By Chris Koehn, Daily News September 24, 2011
A grassroots conservative political movement that is generating interest across the province has spread to Vancouver Island.
The B.C. Conservative Party met on Saturday in Nanaimo to elect a new board and develop its policy document from which to form the basis of their political platform. The annual general meeting featured a rousing speech from party leader John Cummins who also teased his party’s platform when he announced two key conservative policies.
One rancher with land on the Island and in the Southern Interior believes that Cummins’ leadership will wrangle B.C. towards a new heyday, and their growing following has the B.C. Liberals in full attack mode.
The party has yet to bring together a full-slate of candidates and its platform isn’t set in stone, but Cummins said he is pleased with the way fundraising efforts and the party’s growth has come along.
“This is really just the beginning,” Cummins said. “The policies we’re coming up with today will be broad strokes of where we want to go.”
During his speech, Cummins was able to elaborate on two areas in the party platform, which involve expanded powers for law enforcement.
“A new B.C. Conservative government would restore the ability of the police to lay charges, which combined with more prosecutors, will allow more criminal trials to go forward,” Cummins said.
The party would also give the same powers to wildlife officers to better enforce salmon fishery laws and jail anyone profiting from fish caught under “native food, social and ceremonial licenses,” Cummins explained.
Because B.C. Liberal cuts to prosecutors in 2009 have strained the court system, Cummins said that police only recommend charges to the Crown, who then in turn choose only those cases with the highest chance of conviction. This is why there have been no convictions for the Stanley Cup Riots, Cummins said.
“Almost four months have passed and not one of these rioters that we watched on TV has been charged. Not one. ‘Christy’s Kids’ the bloggers have dubbed them,” he said. “Justice delayed is justice denied to the many victims of the riot and to the embarrased citizens of British Columbia and with each passing day, the message goes out that you can break the law in British Columbia and get away with it.”
In his speech, Cummins also described a B.C. that is friendly to families and business. He also promised a return to the province’s former glory.
Brad Chappel breeds livestock on Vancouver Island and south of Kamloops. He’s convinced that Cummins is the one who will bring an agricultural policy that can both sustain his industry and keep farmers and ranchers afloat. That alone will be enough to challenge the current regime, he said.
“I think it’s going to be a real barn-burner between the Liberals and the Conservatives,” Chappel asserted. “B.C. hasn’t had a real ‘ag’ policy for 25 years.”
He said that Cummins’ appeal to the average family is his strength and that’s why the Liberals are attacking him, Chappel said.
“They’re calling him an NDPer because they’re worried about him.”
During his speech, Cummins acknowledged the Liberals’ attack ads.
He said that the Liberals’ attack ads announced to the public and the press gallery that “we in fact had arrived” and that the Liberals see them as a threat.
The ad campaign focuses on criticism leveled by Cummins at the premier’s job creation strategy, but B.C. Liberals say that the new B.C. Conservative leader hasn’t even given the plan a chance.
“It’s a shame, really. Protecting and creating jobs shouldn’t be a partisan issue,” stated Mary Polak, MLA for Langley and Minister of Aboriginal Relations and Reconciliation.
“Most people would wait to hear the full details of the plan before condemning it. John seems like the kind of guy who walks out halfway through the movie, and then writes a bad review,” she said.
The rest of the meeting was spent in closed-doors policy-making meetings to hammer out a platform based on revamping the educational system and reviewing minimum wage laws.
The new executive was elected as follows: Reed Elley, president; Ben Besler, vice-president; Carolyn Evans, secretary and Lambert Leung, treasurer.
Members at large include: Hamish Marshall, Andrea Smith, Jeff Bridge, Al Siebring, Linda Bellamy, John Crocock, Ryan Warawa, Ian Pyper and John Martin.
ckoehn@nanaimodailynews.com
© Copyright (c) The Province
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