Has Gordon Campbell gone soft?

We're seeing an odd yet vaguely familiar transformation in British Columbian premier Gordon Campbell.

After years of "tough love" economic policies that stripped significant funding away from "social justice" causes in order to balance the province's finances, Campbell now seems to be having a change of heart. Suddenly he seems significantly more concerned for the well-being of his province's most down-trodden, and some gains in environmental protection.

Changes have gradually appeared over the past year or so, culminating in the recent announcement that the de-institutionalization of mental health care has been a failure and will be addressed, and that shelter rates for welfare recipients will be increased.

There have also been some mildly promising signs on the environment - money promised for Victoria sewage treatment infrastructure; promises to build more bike paths, walkways, green ways, and improved access for people with disabilities, a "LocalMotion" fund aimed at getting British Columbians out of their vehicles, and that all new cars leased or purchased by the B.C. government will be hybrids.

British Columbia, and Vancouver in particular, has witnessed such an incredible change in persona in one of its key public officials in recent years - former Vancouver mayor Philip Owen. Owen had been at the helm of the right-wing (and misnomered) Non-Partisan Association for three terms - but part-way into his final term, he became obsessed with helping the Downtown Eastside and its impovrished residents, culminating in a progressive drug and harm reduction strategy that still in place today.

So is BC premier Campbell going through a similarly miraculous change as Owen had several years ago?

It's difficult to say. On one hand, "social justice" (and to a lesser degree, the environment) is becoming much more prominent in the BC Liberal government's rhetoric these days. However, there is still significant evidence to suggest that the BC Liberals are still the same neo-conservative group that swept into power in 2001 after the collapse of the BC NDP, and that their primary objective of minimizing government through mass privatization of public service remains a key tenant of their policy agenda, and that economic policies will continue to subjugate recent announcements towards "social justice" and the environment.

For example, the Campbell Liberals still seem to be cheerleading the Asia Pacific Gateway and Corridor, a sexy-sounding plan that will simply expanding the width of roads and highways in BC, likely causing a considerable increasing in automobile usage, and thus greatly increase smog levels and BC's contribution to global climate change.

Much worse, the BC Liberals seem committed to privatizing British Columbia's hydro-electricity production, giving the profits of production over to private corporations, rather than putting such funds back into provincial purse to pay for government services. This unprecedented sell-off of BC's public water system is being conducted in an alarmingly clandestine manner, with no legislative debate (after all, the entire fall session has been cancelled) nor public consultation. In fact, municipal control of such supplies will likely be overridden in order to smoothen the provincial government's agenda.

This planned hydro sell-off is apparently just the tip of the iceberg, with the infamous "Partnerships BC" being set up by the provincial government to facilitate the many more planned privatizations of BC's public assets and services. One such example is the partial privatization of Vancouver General Hospital two weeks ago, which was announced not long after the creation of a farcical "Conservation on Health" public consultation, the result of which seems already decided by the provincial government.

With all this evidence in mind, perhaps Gordon Campbell's recent "softening" is not so much a radical personality shift, but rather a clever public relations stunt to ensure a third electoral victory for the BC Liberals in 2009. The Liberals are perceived as the primary champions of economic issues, the NDP for social justice, and the Greens for the environment. If the Liberals feel they are losing ground to their opposition, it makes sense for them to attempt to address the two areas that the NDP and Greens are seen to specialize in. Hence many "green" announcements, and sudden concern for British Columbians who have been neglected by Victoria for the past five years.

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As a side note, the Green Party of British Columbia is not inherently against public-private partnerships, but such ventures should only be contracted into with the consent of the majority of British Columbians, with the certainty British Columbians retain the ultimate majority control over their public resources and any related profits, and that British Columbians will have the most to gain from such new relationships.

Partnerships BC has been set up without public consultation, and seems to be ideologically driven - which is most alarming of all. Have such public-private partnerships been proven to work in other Western democracies, such as northern Europe? Or are we having our province used by the BC Liberals as guinea pigs for an ideological agenda?

If these private-public partnerships work, then great - bring 'em on. However, we should not be venturing into legally-binding contracts worth billions of dollars and jeopardizing the ownership of BC's tremendous public assets if such arrangements have not already been tried and tested in other jurisdictions. Just ask the UK Conservative Party, who are now regretting much of the privatization of the former Margaret Thatcher regime.

This debate should not be ideological - it should be factual, and should deliver results that are in the best interests of British Columbians. Anything less is a betrayal of our province.