Right, Left and Centre: The Politics of Some Canadians. Chapter 18, Part Three. by Dave Jaffe

    25 Years in the N.D.P. Part Three. by Dave Jaffe


    Ted Jasper had some bad  experiences when he was in the N.D.P., but  as he said after leaving the party, "Being in the N.D.P. overall was a growth experience." He learned all about elections and how they were run. He saw how B.C.'ers voted and that helped him know more about the province. He helped elect some fine candidates and the N.D.P. did win three provincial elections during the time he was active in the party. All the three N.D.P. governments did do many good things, especially the government led by premier Dave Barrett. Barrett was the first N.D.P. premier of British Columbia and he and his government introduced many fine programs.
    At the same time that Jasper helped the N.D.P., he also joined a few anti-poverty groups and enjoyed working with these groups also movements too.
     Yet then in the 1990's, the Canadian political system shifted to the right. The new federal Liberal government of Prime Minister Jean Chretien and his Finance Minister Paul Martin cut social programs to the bone. As a result, the N.D.P. provincial government, led by premier Mike Harcourt, scaled back welfare payments.
    Tommy Douglas, the legendary C.C.F. premier of Saskatchewan, once said of his longtime Liberal rival Jimmy Gardiner, "The man had but one passion and that was power itself." Suddenly Ted Jasper woke up. He realized he'd been seeing the N.D.P. through a hazy golden screen as a perfect party. Now he realized that the N.D.P. party leaders were obsessed with power too. How else to explain the N.D.P .lowering the boom on the poorest of the poor? Yet Jasper may have overreacted here. Under the short time period when Ujjal Dosanjh was premier of B.C., the N.D.P. reversed some of the welfare cuts that the Harcourt government had made.
      Back then, the minister responsible for social services Moe Sihota put 20,000 welfare recipients on  disability allowance. They then received quite a bit more money every month. This was definitely a change for the better for the poorest British Columbians. Yet by then Jasper had left the N.D.P. He also walked out of the anti-poverty group that he volunteered for. Here too he had caused quite a few problems.
    In any case in 1995 and 1996, Jasper left behind a commitment that had swallowed up many years of his life. He started to study subjects that he knew nothing about, like economics, biology, statistics and political science. "I was ignorant of these things," he said later. "I wasn't stupid but I knew little about these important subjects." Edward Jasper freed himself from his political illusions, although he still saw himself as a progressive. In his later years he did find happiness but not in the world of politics   
     In the spring of 1997 a then middle aged man sat on a bench in the small town of Hope. Here the mighty Fraser River swings west towards the Salish Sea, a few hundred kilometres to the west. This 55 year old man was happy. "I'm finished with politics," Ted Jasper told himself. "I caused many problems in the N.D.P. and the anti-poverty movement. "
    Political parties and anti-poverty work, Jasper realized, brought out the bad sides of his character. "But that was my fault," Jasper said to others later on. "It wasn't the fault of the organizations I belonged to. Still and all I'm glad to be on my own again." And he was definitely a happier man.