ELECTION CAMPAIGN GIVING DISTINCT TREATMENT TO B.C.

Though many pundits had expected a slow start to the 2006 election
campaign, British Columbians have already been visited once by
Conservative Leader Stephen Harper and twice by the NDP's Jack
Layton. Mr. Martin has been spending most of his time in Quebec, but
you can bet he'll be crossing the Rockies before too long.

Most observers also predicted that the Liberals would be waging one
campaign in that province and another in the rest of Canada. However,
it looks as though it's British Columbia that will be on the
receiving end of distinct treatment.

In Ontario, desperate for voters to forget the seamier side of the
Liberal record, Mr. Martin will be campaigning on the one issue that
can trump scandal and waste -- national unity. That approach is
likely to enrage westerners -- particularly the "let them go crowd"
in Alberta. Even in more temperate B.C., where the Liberals have some
hope of making gains, it's unlikely to be a winning strategy.

In the National Post on Saturday, Martin-adviser John Duffy wrote
that the Liberals will be offering us "political normalization."
Perhaps Mr. Duffy, who earns his living as a lobbyist, views
corruption and the culture of entitlement in Ottawa as normal, but I
doubt that a majority of British Columbians will.

Over the next seven weeks, the three party leaders will be telling us
how much they love us and how much we matter. However, we should not
forget that Paul Martin is the first Prime Minister in Canadian
history not to have resolved the softwood lumber dispute -- a dispute
with the Americans that has reared up intermittently for nearly a
century. Nor, it must be said, have the Conservative and New Democrat
positions enhanced the prospect of an agreement.

In Ontario last week, Mr. Layton made it clear that assistance for
the auto industry will be his bottom line for working with any other
party in the minority parliament everyone is expecting in January.
Here in B.C., in contrast, he continued to play politics with our No.
1 industry. If implemented, his proposed tax on energy exports would
virtually guarantee Alberta's separation from Canada; moreover,
linkage of this sort would inevitably lead to a trade war in which
all Canadians would be the big losers.

In Victoria, Mr. Harper essentially aped the Liberal Leader's
overheated, and unhelpful, rhetoric on softwood. More productively,
he outlined Conservative policies on enhancing accountability in
Ottawa, shortening wait times in the health system and reducing the
GST. Earlier in the day in Vancouver, which has one of the highest
crime rates in Canada, he stressed a get-tough approach, particularly
to drug crimes.

For his part, Mr. Layton spoke of the need "to get to the root causes
- -- despair, poverty, addiction . . . an equal emphasis on the
prevention of crime . . . [and] on the results of crime . . ."

He provided no details, and it's worth noting that in Toronto --
where Mr. Layton used to be a city councillor and where his wife was
also a city councillor until last week when she stepped aside to run
for the NDP -- there have been 74 homicides this year.

Moreover, while appealing for votes, Mr. Layton has repeatedly
vaunted his drug-friendly approach. For example, a couple of years
ago on POT TV, he agreed with the interviewer -- B.C.'s "Prince of
Pot," Marc Emery -- that nobody should go to jail "for having
anything to do with marijuana, whether it's selling, or buying, or growing."

Mr. Emery says he paid $5,000 to buy two tables at dinner for Mr.
Layton, printed 100,000 brochures outlining Mr. Layton's position on
marijuana, and donated between $500 and $1,000 to eight different NDP
candidates in the last election. Mr. Emery claims his efforts
resulted in 3,000 new members and 150,000 NDP votes. Who knows for sure?

Allegations by U.S. authorities that his activities have generated
nearly $5-million a year in profits are just that -- unproven
allegations. And, though a study reported in the British Medical
Journal last week found that driving under the influence of cannabis
doubles the risk of fatal traffic accidents, more research is needed
before definitive conclusions are drawn.

One thing is indisputable, however. On Nov. 26, Mr. Emery attended
the NDP's Celebration 2005 fundraising dinner at the Westin Bayshore
in Vancouver, which means that the party is still prepared to take his money.