Gordon Campbell

The Honourable Gordon Campbell (b. 1947) is the current Premier of British Columbia. He is the leader of the BC Liberal Party, which holds a substantial majority in the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia.

Rise to power

From 1986 to 1993, Campbell served as the Mayor of Vancouver, British Columbia for three terms. He was also a secondary school teacher, basketball and track coach in Yola, Nigeria, working under the auspices of CUSO. He and his family climbed Mount Kilimanjaro as a fundraiser for Alzheimer's, raising $130,000.

Campbell became leader of the British Columbia Liberal Party in 1993. His party failed to be elected to power in the 1996 Provincial election despite winning a plurality of the vote. He remained opposition leader under NDP Premiers Glen Clark, Dan Miller and Ujjal Dosanjh. Under Clark, the government presided over recurring budget deficits, a stagnant provincial economy and a scandal related to the issuing of permits to casinos, and the NDP's approval rating dropped into the low teens and stayed there under Clark's successors. In the election of 2001 Campbell's Liberals defeated Premier Dosanjh and the NDP, taking 77 of 79 seats in the legislature.

Premier

Though leader of a nominally Liberal party, Campbell is usually identified as being a small-c conservative, especially in matters of business and economics. The Liberals presented a detailed program of campaign commitments in 2001, but Campbell's main message to voters was that B.C. needed lower taxes and a smaller, streamlined provincial government in order to attract investment and grow its economy. As a first step in government, Campbell announced a 25 per cent reduction in personal income taxes, and predicted that the measure would soon pay for itself. In the ensuing months, the government reduced the staff complement in its ministries by more than 20 per cent, and announced a plan to eliminate one-third of all regulations than in force. By 2004, British Columbia's economic growth rate ranked fourth among the ten provinces, rather than tenth.

Campbell has demonstrated an ongoing interest in political reform. Early in its term, his administration introduced fixed-term elections for B.C., departing from the standard British parliamentary procedure, so that political parties and the public can plan for the next election, as in the USA. British Columbians are slated to go to the polls in May 2005, exactly four years after the last election.

Campbell also founded a "citizens' assembly" composed of random British Columbians from around the province. The assembly is currently debating how to reform BC's electoral system, and may advise the government to adopt proportional representation voting in future elections.

Another major policy initiative was Campbell's removal of an 8-year long tuition freeze that was placed on the B.C. universities and colleges by the NDP government. The tuition freeze had made B.C. tuition rates the lowest in Canada, and post-secondary institutions argued that this was forcing them to cut services and reduce the quality of education. In 2002, Campbell also introduced the "double the opportunity" initiative, whose goal was to double enrollment in electrical and computer engineering, computer science, and medicine in the next four years.

On January 9, 2003, Campbell became the first premier in Canadian history to be arrested while in office when he was caught by police in Maui, Hawaii speeding while under the influence of alcohol. He later apologized to the people of Maui and British Columbia, and swore to abstain from alcohol. His critics attacked him for not resigning his position, since he earlier established a rule that any cabinet minister under criminal investigation must resign.

The controversy surrounding this matter was intense, complete with the widespread sale of T-shirts and other souvenirs bearing Campbell's mug shots. Friends of the Premier testified that he is not a heavy drinker, having lost his alcoholic father to suicide when he was 13 years old. Political analysts suggested that the personal attacks on Campbell by the NDP were a form of revenge for his behaviour as opposition leader in the 1990s, when he repeatedly called on the government or individual ministers to resign over errors or apparent conflicts.

Premier Campbell was a key figure in Vancouver's successful bid to host the 2010 Winter Olympic Games, and he led British Columbians in celebration when the International Olympic Committee announced the selection of Vancouver/Whistler in July 2003. Even so, the popularity of his government declined steadily through late 2003 and early 2004. In spring 2003, surveys showed the Liberals trailing the NDP in public opinion for the first time since 1996. What Campbell has called "tough decisions" appear to have alienated many voters; these decisions have resulted in public service layoffs, strikes, hospital closures, courthouse closures and other service cuts. An agreement to lease the Crown-owned BC Rail property to a private operator has also been controversial. The 2001 tax cuts have not yet paid for themselves, and the government ran a large deficit in 2003, although the Liberals insist this is temporary. Campbell has consistently been less popular than his party; one damaging survey result suggested that only a minority of voters believe that the Premier cares about them personally.

Campbell has continually scored substantially lower poll ratings than his opponent the NDP's Carole James. The latest polls have Campbell's Liberals adrift and trailing by as much as 12% behind the BC NDP. The 2005 provincial election may thus be a closer battle than many would have expected.

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