Experts reflect on British Columbia’s reputation for political eccentricity
VANCOUVER — It was a memorable way for British Columbia’s female legislators to reprimand one of their male colleagues for his time-consuming political speeches.
The B.C. legislature was being televised live in 1996 when New Democrat Joy MacPhail sent a wind-up toy penis skittering across the desk of the forestry minister. A cross-partisan cohort of women legislators had decided to award the politician top honours as “dick of the year.”
The incident is just one of a litany of events, characters and scandals that have earned B.C. its notorious reputation for colourful politics that is often built on larger-than-life personalities like newspaperman William Smith, the province’s second premier who changed his name to Amor de Cosmos, or Lover of the Universe.
In the mid-1900s, Phil Gaglardi earned the nickname “Flying Phil” thanks in part to the number of speeding tickets he racked up during his time as highways minister. Gaglardi served during the decades-long leadership of Social Credit premier W.A.C. Bennett, whose sobriquet of “Wacky” Bennett didn’t prevent him from winning seven consecutive provincial elections.