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Norm Macdonald has been a force
e-KNOW Editorial
By Ian Cobb
Norm Macdonald has been a Member of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia for 11 years. It will be a dozen when he steps away from Victoria as Columbia River-Revelstoke MLA next year.
Macdonald announced last week that he will not seek re-election for a fourth time. His original calling, the same as his father’s, is beckoning again and Norm is going to return to teaching.
His time in office has all been spent on the opposite side of provincial power – as a member of the Official Opposition NDP.
In 2005 Norm defeated incumbent MLA Wendy McMahon, of Fairmont Hot Springs, who had held a cabinet seat with Gordon Campbell’s Liberal government. Four years later he defeated popular former Revelstoke Mayor Mark McKee and in 2013 he out-paced another Fairmont resident, Doug Clovechok, who was recently again anointed as the BC Liberal Party’s Columbia River-Revelstoke candidate for 2017.
During his time in office, Norm often squared off against neighbouring riding MLA Bill Bennett, who has spent all 15 of years in office as a member of the ruling party.
To-the-point, sometimes acerbic and scrappy, Bennett is a stark contrast to Norm’s quiet, thoughtful and calculated style.
I have had the pleasure of watching both these MLAs work over their entire political careers. Bennett, wielding the big stick called ‘access to government funds,’ has lavished his riding with many infrastructure upgrades. In the long run, that is called ‘doing a good job’ as a MLA. Norm, on the other hand, has had to fight tooth, fang and claw for every morsel he could wrest out of the Liberal-ruled Victoria.
He’s held tight to issues such as the ever-more-farcical and pathetic Jumbo Glacier Resort debacle, oftentimes engaging in spirited téte-a-tétes with Bennett in the Legislature.
Norm did everything he could, along with Nelson-Creston MLA Michelle Mungall, to cast light on the bizarre love affair the Liberal government has had with Jumbo and the oftentimes embarrassingly silly things they’ve done to help clearly cash-strapped proponents get their way.
Like another Golden resident and former riding MLA, Jim Doyle, Norm has always considered his constituents’ thoughts and feelings on issues while working within his party’s parameters.
In closing, I am going to miss Norm Macdonald being Columbia River-Revelstoke MLA. Speaking as a newspaper editor, he has always been readily available to comment on any number of issues and I have watched him treat everyone fairly, squarely and more importantly, sincerely, during his time in office.
It must have been one thunderous punch in the gut for Norm when Christy Clark’s Liberals pulled off the stunning 2013 election victory. A poor campaign by then-NDP leader Adrian Dix, who seemed too assured that his party was going to stomp on the floundering and fading Liberals’ necks, cost Norm a shot at being on the ‘right side’ of the Legislature.
Norm, thanks to experience and steadfast loyalty to his party, would also have likely been a cabinet member. He would have made an excellent Minister of Education.
During his time in office, Norm has been the Official Opposition’s critic on municipal affairs; tourism; sport and arts; Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations; and education. The former Mayor of Golden and principal of Nicholson Elementary School has also been chair of the Rural caucus.
Norm has never been in a ‘position of power’ but he has always served his riding powerfully.
Now it is up to NDP members in Columbia River-Revelstoke to find someone who can try and fill Norm Macdonald’s shoes.
Good luck with that.
Lead image: Norm outside the Legislature. Images courtesy Joy Orr
