Timeline:1980s | BC NDP History

The by-election six pack

romarco1 — Sat, 22 Apr 1989 18:44:36 +0000

What followed was an unprecedented string of six NDP byelection victories. First up, Bill Barlee won the Boundary-Similkameen seat for the NDP in June 1988 by-election. Then Gerard Janssen won in Alberni, in the seat previously held by Bob Skelly. In March 1989, Jan Pullinger won the NDP seat of Nanaimo, and Tom Perry took Vancouver Point Grey from the Socreds. That was followed by another upset when the NDP’s David Zirnhelt won Cariboo from the Socreds in September 1989, and then Elizabeth Cull (absent from this photo) took Oak-Bay Gordon Head in December that year. Social Credit was in disarray. The scandals finally caught up with Bill VanderZalm (including his own) and he too resigned without completing his term.

The Vander Zalm years

romarco1 — Tue, 22 Dec 1987 18:18:33 +0000

You needed a program to keep track of which ministers came and – more importantly – were forced to resign during the Vander Zalm years. Most of them over conflict-of-interest concerns. Stephen Rogers, Jack Kempf, Stan Hagen, Cliff Michael, Brian Smith and Grace McCarthy (within a week of each other due to alleged interference from the Premier’s Office), Bill Reid (allegations of embezzlement), Peter Dueck, Bud Smith. Finally, in 1991, Mel Couvelier quit Cabinet in protest, saying he “couldn’t sit beside” Vander Zalm any longer while the latter was under investigation for, you guessed it, conflict of interest.

Harcourt. Unanimous.

romarco1 — Wed, 22 Apr 1987 18:10:34 +0000

The NDP needed a new approach. Bob Skelly stepped down as leader and Mike Harcourt, the highly successful former Mayor of Vancouver and newly-elected MLA for Vancouver-Mount Pleasant, was the unanimous choice to lead the party. To run the NDP’s next campaign the party brought back Hans Brown, who had managed Dave Barrett’s successful 1972 campaign. Harcourt’s team at the Legislature, together with the team at NDP headquarters, developed a tight new approach to campaign messaging. And, encouraged by Harcourt’s previous defeat of Vander Zalm for the Vancouver mayor’s chair, party fund-raising ticked up.

Restraint backfires on Bennett; Enter the Zalm

romarco1 — Tue, 19 Aug 1986 20:02:08 +0000

The NDP wasn’t the only party with a change in leadership. After Social Credit was re-elected in 1983, the government launched an unexpected, drastic new program of “restraint” attacking the union rights of teachers and public sector workers, cutting many social programs, and even firing the province’s Human Rights Commission. The union movement responded with Operation Solidarity, to defend workers’ rights, and launched something new – the Solidarity Coalition – bringing community activists and unionists together to resist the Social Credit social policy cuts. While some of the unions went on strike, huge protests were held around the province. The BC Teachers Federation and the BC Government Employees’ Union were largely successful in forcing the government to back off the attack on unions, but the community sector did not have the same success. Still, the Socred programs proved so unpopular that Premier Bill Bennett decided not to run for re-election. His successor was the charismatic populist Bill Vander Zalm.

The 1986 election brings another loss

romarco1 — Sat, 19 Apr 1986 20:53:33 +0000

Vandermania did its job. In the 1986 election Bob Skelly faced Bill Vander Zalm. After stumbling in a news conference at the opening of the campaign, Skelly fought a good campaign. NDP ads attacking the Social Credit agenda helped regain lost ground, but the swell of support for the new Socred leader proved too much. The 1986 election brought a change in electoral districting with 12 new seats added. As it happened, the Socreds won 12 additional seats for a total of 47 while the NDP stayed steady with 22 seats. Combined, the two parties took 92% of the vote.

A new leader emerges

romarco1 — Thu, 19 Apr 1984 19:55:10 +0000

So, in 1984 an era ended when Dave Barrett stepped down a provincial leader. He went on in 1988 to serve as MP for Esquimalt-Juan de Fuca. The BC party hosted a lively 6-way leadership contest for his replacement. Bill King, the former labour minister represented those closest to Dave Barrett, while a newcomer David Vickers had the backing of those associated with Tom Berger whose legacy was represented by MLA Dennis Cocke and former party secretary and president Yvonne Cocke. However, in a surprising upset, neither of these two front-runners was successful. In a classic come-from-behind success story, Bob Skelly, the MLA from Alberni, overtook David Vickers on the final ballot.

The Socred restraint years

romarco1 — Tue, 19 Apr 1983 19:46:42 +0000

By 1983 unemployment had become the most important issue on voters’ minds. The NDP decided to run on its jobs plan “Let’s Get to Work”. Social Credit had been following the restraint policies popular with Margaret Thatcher and other conservative parties around the world, holding down wages and cutting services. Barrett rightly said, from an NDP perspective, that if he was elected ‘restraint is gone’. He meant the program, not all restraint on everything, but Social Credit had a field day and the clip was repeated endlessly on TV news. Most observers say the statement likely cost the NDP the election. Tied in the polls going into the campaign, Social Credit once again eked out a win.