A Modest Proposal

SockingItToThem
MovingToCenterVille

So, how's he going to do it?

How is B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell going to handle all those way right ideologues in his caucus and his party that are ready to pounce?

Is he going to play along to get along and just use the newly elected centrists like Ms. Taylor and Mr. Oppal as spin deflectors?

Maybe.

But even if he was able to hold off the redmeaters for his entire term Mr. Campbell must know that he will very likely be in even worse real trouble if he cedes the middle to Carole James.

So, what if he were to go the other way?

And if he wanted to, how could he do it?

Well, as a strong first step, we would like to suggest that Mr. Campbell could initially declare the turnaround of ICBC to be a great victory which demonstrates beyond a shadow of a doubt that his vaunted best practices management approach really does work. After all, no matter how much the private industry shills whine, it is very clear that our auto insurance premiums are significantly lower than those in Ontario even after the McGuinty government moved in to try and reign in skyrocketing rates.

And this has been done while generating profits that some have estimated are approaching a billion dollars a year.

So, given all this success, Mr. Campbell could then take concrete steps to demonstrate that ICBC will absolutely, positively not be privatized. And he could score even more points with all the citizens of B.C. by dividing the profits evenly between policy holders (ie. giving us all truly significant rebates) and government programs that require a significant influx of one time funding (ie. how does $500 million for parks and longterm care beds in the first year sound?).

It would be one of those crazy W3's (ie.Win/Win/Win) situations for the Premier, his government's approach, and all of the people of British Columbia.

Which means that it should be a pretty easy thing for Mr. Campbell to do it, right?

Well, there is that little matter of the private multinational insurance companies who are waiting for their promised windfall in the wings (which is another W3 of a very different kind).

So, when it gets right down to it, the real nut-cutter might not be whether Mr. Campbell can stand up to the redmeaters but instead whether he can say no to his corporate backers?

Only time, and perhaps how the polls respond to the damaging revelations that are sure emerge from the Basi/Virk trial, will tell if he can do it.

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Heck, if things went the way of our modest proposal ICBC could even come completely clean and stop selling our liscensing information to the small guys too.
Update: Get ready for more of these modest proposal type deals to be posted at Rick Barnes' Politics in B.C. so that we can keep this place running on total immodesty (fully clothed variety, of course).

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