BC NDP MLA David Chudnovsky’s final speech included an impassioned criticism of party discipline. But it certainly wasn’t the first time such words had been spoken in the legislature.
In 1991, Social Credit MLA Nick Loenen also took on that subject. I included a clip of that speech in Whipped: the secret world of party discipline.
But here’s the uncut footage, in which Loenen states, “I believe that no leader can go to the people and regain the people’s confidence without addressing - in a very dramatic way - this whole question of the function and role of our governing institutions, namely this provincial legislature.”
Indeed, according to Loenen, “unless a leader is willing to do that, that person does not deserve the trust of the people of this province.”
However, 22 years later, our governing institutions haven’t fundamentally changed, with proposals to reform British Columbia’s voting system having been defeated at the ballot box.
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