A recent Vancouver Sun editorial contends that legislative recalls in the late1990s were "a waste of time and money." ("Recall legislation: Fix it or scrap it," November 17, 2001.) The same editorial labeled the involvement of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation in 1997 pre-recall activities as "troubling" and noted that the help of the CTF in two recall campaigns up north "looked suspiciously like an attempt to whittle away the government's razor-thin majority."

Let's be clear: Troy Lanigan, the CTF's B.C. director at the time, said publicly and repeatedly that this was indeed the aim. There was nothing cloak-and-dagger about the CTF's intentions or goals. We argued that because of the government's lies over the 1996 "fudge it" budget, the government should be held to account by voters as soon as possible. While the two recall attempts the CTF was involved in were unsuccessful - in large measure because of an outdated voter's list the Chief Electoral Officer refused to update - the Canadian Taxpayers Federation considers the $22,895 spent to be the best investment ever made in making a shoddy government accountable for its budget lies.

On that topic, citizen involvement in making governments accountable is preferable to other methods. For example - and this might surprise some - the Canadian Taxpayers Federation turned down an earlier request from David Stockell to help pursue the budget lies in court. That happened because the Federation felt that court action was a poor substitute for direct action by voters to make politicians accountable.

As for claim that all the recall campaigns were ineffective - which, ironically, is a result the Sun should thus applaud if it decides it does not endorse recall - the assertion is incorrect. There was a recall campaign that proved effective in removing a Member of the Legislative Assembly from office, and that was the one organized to turf Liberal MLA Paul Reitsma. The Sun notes that Mr. Reitsma resigned in 1998 after a dirty tricks scandal. Yes he did, but only after it was clear that the recall campaign in his riding would succeed. Recall organizers gathered 25,599 names, about 8,000 more than needed to force a recall by-election to remove Mr. Reitsma. Score one for the recall law and for voters, without which the disgraced MLA would have collected a paycheque from taxpayers for another three years.

The Sun seems unsure about whether it likes recall, but anyway argues that the legislation "should be a rarely used instrument for getting rid of scoundrels, bounders and incompetents." Funny, but that sounds like an apt description of both Paul Reitsma and the former government, and a search of the Sun's editorial files might reveal similar language if not even harsher descriptions of the same.

Regardless, the working definition of what constitutes scoundrels et al - insofar as whether the recall lever ought to be pulled - ought not to be up to the Vancouver Sun. Nor should the definition be up to the province's Chief Electoral Officer given that he threatened to make the name of recall signers public, a threat akin to opening up the ballot box after someone voted and finding out who they voted for. And it certainly cannot be MLAs on either side of the aisle who decide what is a "proper" recall campaign given the inherent conflict of interest.

The only proper judge of what constitutes a "proper" recall attempt are individual British Columbians, just as they retain the sole right to decide why they will or will not vote for a politician in the first place. Moreover, recall laws have a built-in check against abuse: if constant recall attempts are made and the majority of the public thinks such campaigns are indeed frivolous, fewer and fewer people will sign a recall petition. But at least the recall option will always exist if needed.

In 1991, 80 percent of British Columbians voted for the right to recall their MLA on terms they choose and define. The Canadian Taxpayers Federation supports strengthening the recall law, i.e. - lowering the ridiculously high threshold of signatures needed to begin a recall by-election. And the provincial Liberals and Premier Gordon Campbell many times said they would strengthen the law. The Federation's members expect Premier Campbell and his colleagues will be men and women of their word and do precisely that.