The NDP, a social democratic party with ties to the unions, received 21.6 percent of the vote compared to 39.5 percent in the 1996 election. It won only two of 79 seats, well below its previous low in 1963 of 27.8 percent and seven seats in the provincial legislature. A party is required to win at least four seats to have official party status.

The vote for the capitalist Liberal Party rose to 57.5 percent, up from 41.8 percent at the last election, giving them 77 seats. The provincial Liberals are a coalition of big business forces whose aim has been to drive the NDP from office. The right-wing Unity Party received 3.3 percent of the vote; the liberal Green Party 12.4 percent, up 10 points over the last election but not enough to win a seat in the legislature; and the Marijuana Party, which did not campaign in 1996, got 3.2 percent.

In part, the vote reflects increasing disillusionment with the NDP among working people, who face deteriorating economic conditions, cutbacks in basic services such as health care, and attacks on their unions. Adding to the overall squeeze resulting from the world capitalist economic crisis, industry in British Columbia has been hard hit by the fall in world commodity prices for many raw materials--including wood, pulp and paper, and minerals--that dominate exports from the province.

For example, the NDP government attacked the right to strike when it ordered public school workers who are members of the Canadian Union of Public Employees back to work. In 1998 the government only allowed miserly wage increases for public service workers in contract negotiations.

The Liberals focused their campaign on carrying out a big tax cut. They proposed making education and ferry routes essential services, thereby limiting the right of workers to strike. The Liberals hope to make union recognition more difficult by reinstituting the use of secret ballots in representation elections. They also seek to outlaw bargaining on an industrywide basis.

One proposal that has sparked widespread opposition, especially among Native people, is to hold a referendum on the principles guiding land claims negotiations. This is a big issue because the vast majority of the province was never ceded by Native people. In recent history only one treaty has been signed with the Nisga’a people.

Chief Vern Jacks of the Tseycum Nation urged his people to vote for the NDP: "I think it will be all negative if [Liberal Party leader Gordon] Campbell gets in. He’ll be starting an uproar. There’ll be more roadblocks than anything else."

The Liberal government took office June 7. Among the challenges it will face are the transit strike in the Vancouver area, which is into its third month with no settlement in sight, and the campaign by nurses and hospital workers for new contracts.  
 
 
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