Dave Barrett

    Last night Joan called up to me that Dave Barrett had died.  If you don’t live in British Columbia or Canada, you probably have never heard of him.  It was late in 1972 , and I was living down in the United States that I had first heard of Dave Barrett.

    I was very discouraged at the time.  The US was killing off its sons in Vietnam, Nixon had just trounced George McGovern, the Democratic candidate and peace candidate for president, and I had pretty much lost hope in my native country.  I had finished off my two years as a conscientious objector, working in the Goodwill Store, so my future was open.  After the Nixon landslide, I didn’t have much faith in the citizens of the US to determine the future for me, so I started looking around for an alternative country to call home.

    Canada had always been on my radar as a possibility and I took a special interest in learning about it.  It was at this time that was sitting in the waiting room of a dentist office and was leafing through a news magazine and came upon an article about how a socialist had just been elected Premier of British Columbia.  His name was Dave Barrett.  I was a socialist, so I was immediately interested.

    The article told a bit about his political views and mentioned that he had won the cow patty throwing contest at the Williams Lake Stampede.  I didn’t know anything about the Williams Lake Stampede, but I liked the fact that a politician was human enough to pick up and throw a cow patty.   The article made me realize that there were people in BC that had actually elected a socialist, so I researched how to immigrate to Canada and shortly after, began to fill out the papers that were required.  Joan and I  were accepted as landed immigrants to Canada in 1973, one of the best decisions I have made in my life.

    Dave Barrett’s government only lasted a few years in BC, but it made some notable accomplishments.  It introduced Question Period in the legislature, were representatives could ask questions, and get answers from the government, he reformed the welfare system, and it was under his government that the civil service and teachers were allowed to unionize, (something else I benefitted from).  

    Probably his biggest achievements were the A.L.R, (Agricultural Land Reserve) that prevented BC’s farmland from being subdivided and used for non-agricultural purposes, and he created ICBC, which is the government-run auto insurance company.  These two things still exist in BC.

    Barrett was a bigger-than-life politician with a wonderful sense of humor.  I owe him big time for setting my sights toward BC, even if it was only through reading that magazine article about him.

You can view my paintings at:  davidmarchant.ca