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rod mickleburgh

You gotta love the voters of Vancouver Point-Grey. Told that NDP candidate David Eby supports the legalization of hard drugs, polygamy and access to porn on BC Ferries, they almost elected him.

While Premier Christy Clark's margin of victory widened at the end, the by-election count was an all-night toe-twister. For a time, it appeared Mr. Eby might actually topple the chirpy Ms. Clark.

Oh for a microphone hidden inside the Premier's "war room," as Mr. Eby clung to his narrow lead, with not that many polls left to be tabulated.

When Ms. Clark finally did prevail, the explosion of sound from relieved supporters rivalled the greeting of Alex Burrows' overtime goal that brought the Blackhawks down in that tense, seventh-game showdown.

Christy Clark should have won this race in a strudel stroll. A new, fresh-faced Premier, a good communicator, some popular announcements, and a riding that her predecessor, "Where's Gordo?" Campbell, had held since 1996. What, her worry?

But the by-election revealed some disconcerting tendencies in the Clark brand of premiership.

Refusing to attend a single all-candidates meeting, including one on her old station CKNW, was bad enough. Worse was her blithe excuse that she didn't have time, an insult to the intelligence of anyone who might have noticed Ms. Clark having time for all sorts of other campaign activities of her own choosing.

Instead of debating Mr. Eby, Ms. Clark opted for the cowardly alternative of distributing a personal attack pamphlet on her NDP rival.

Using selective quotes from Mr. Eby's time as head of the B.C. Civil Liberties Association, it warned voters that he supports legalization and regulation of illicit drugs, opposes anti-polygamy laws and, most outrageous of all, that he is against BC Ferries blocking Internet access to "sexually explicit material." (In fact, Mr. Eby's point was that sites on abortion and sex education were also being blocked.)

The leaflet characterizing Mr. Eby as "out of touch and way too extreme" was so crude I first thought it was put out by some crank. But no. In small print at the bottom were the words: "Authorized by [the agent]for the Christy Clark Campaign."

It's likely that few, including myself, agree with the B.C. Civil Liberties Association on every issue, but they have a proper, well-earned place in our society. Their role is to safeguard civil liberties and remind governments of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

For those views to be demonized as representing some sort of sinister force is a page right out of a certain majority federal government's book of tapping into the lowest common denominator of voter fears. It implies that no one from the BCCLA is fit for public office because they are "out of touch [and] extreme."

If Christy Clark felt so strongly about Mr. Eby's opinions, one wonders why she didn't attend one of those all-candidate gatherings and take him on. So much for her new way of doing things.

Bhangra dancing at the CLC

I drifted "under the sails" at the Vancouver convention centre on Monday morning, and a labour convention broke out, the 26th gathering of the Canadian Labour Congress, no less.

But my oh my, how things have changed. Bhangra dancing opened the afternoon session, tireless Art Kube of Operation Solidarity fame nudged me accidentally on purpose with his walker, and legendary IWA leader Jack Munro, hale and hearty at 80, was confined to the observer section, about four light years from the main podium.

With labour reporters having gone the way of the Kyoto Protocol in Canada, there was not even a media table for your humble, working-class correspondent. So I was stuck back there with Brother Munro and a handful of other observers.

Actually, it wasn't so bad. Using my binoculars, I could actually see CLC president Ken Georgetti tell union representatives to abandon their 8-tracks and get with the social media program, organizing workers who listen to podcasts on their iPhones.

No one dreamed they saw Joe Hill that night. Maybe if he'd been on YouTube. …

Afterwards, Brother Munro reflected on the winds of the old days: "We used to make a lot of noise. It's not that the news media was sympathetic, but they paid attention and people knew what we were scrapping about. That's all gone. I don't know what happened to it."

Anthem tweaked

One more CLC note, so to speak. O Canada was performed by the Ottawa-based acoustic duo, Healy and Juravich. They changed one line: "Our home on native land." Subtle. Very subtle.

A minstrel turns 70

Finally, Bob Dylan, the Shakespeare of our age, turns 70 in a week. He was so much older then, he's younger than that now. My list of Bob's 100 best songs is available, via e-mail.

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