Vaughan Palmer: Calm and methodical Bob Skelly nearly closed the gap on Bill Vander Salm

Victoria — Longtime New Democrat Rep. Bob Skelly at his 79th In his brief but dramatic, B.C. NDP, on Saturday, who died in

Skelly was selected at his 1984 convention convened to select a successor to retired leader Dave Barrett.

The convention was old-fashioned, with 1,000 delegates voting directly each round until one of the six candidates won a majority.

His Skelly, who is lesser known in his MLA for his four seasons from Port Alberni, in the first ballot he received less than 200 votes.

However, the convention got him bogged down between two opposing sides.

His Skelly, the least contested choice, quietly garnered support until he emerged as the winner in the fifth and final ballot.

At first, the 41-year-old seemed like a fitting break with his past.

Barrett, who led his NDP in four elections and lost his three times, was charismatic and polarizing.

Skelly was neither.

Rather, he was mild-mannered and methodical, and his leadership was like his campaign.

He also had a wicked sense of humor.

When someone said he celebrated his birthday with Prime Minister Bill Bennett on April 14, Skelly replied that it was also the anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic.

The New Democrats, led by Skelly, planned an election against Bennett over the government's hardline social credit response (“restraint”) to the recession of the 1980s.

Bennett had other plans and announced that he would step down at the end of his ten-year term.

The resulting social leadership convention in his credit was even more dramatic than the one that chose Skelly.

Converging in Whistler in the middle of the summer of 1986, 1,300 delegates, 12 candidates, and news impossible in an era of limited budgets and staff cutbacks for his media. It was the presence.

In four ballots, a rebel former minister, Bill Vander, who was not on Bennett's preferred successor list, won his Zalm.

Both Vander Zalm and Skelly established themselves as candidates for change from the Bennett era.

But the photogenic and populist he Vander Zalm had an advantage over his cautious, introverted Skelly.

In an unguarded moment, Skelly admitted to reporter Lisa Fitterman that she could not match Vander Salm's "charm and charisma."

Some distraught New Democrats tried to persuade Skelly to step down in support of Vancouver Mayor Mike Harcourt, who was running for his NDP in the Vancouver elections.

"I think I was the leader of the group who thought I had to let Bob go. Years.

"I was near Mike Harcourt I checked with the people who were there and asked if they were ready to take the role if they kicked Bob out immediately."[79][80]According to Williams, the answer was "yes, without the fingerprints."

Anti-Skelly groups believed they had won votes to pass a no-confidence motion at a caucus held weeks before the expected election conference call.

"But some of the people who agreed didn't come to the meeting," Williams said, naming MLA's Alex McDonald and Frank Mitchell. "So I couldn't vote."

Another member of the MLA's anti-Skelly group was the late Rosemary Brown.

In his memoir (“Being Brown”), published in 1989, Brown wrote, “Our challenge was weak and futile. I may have actually hurt my destiny," he admitted. "Political parties that bleed inside rarely win elections." It was not made public until reported by Terry Glavine in .

However, internal turmoil surrounding the failed deletion may have contributed to the shaky start of the NDP campaign.

On September 24, Vanderhe stumbled in front of the camera on the day Zarum called for elections. His throat contracted and he lost his voice.

"Can I stop?" he begged, rolling the camera.

As Skelly himself later admitted, what happened was not entirely unprecedented.

He got stuck at times in what he called "artificial situations."

I covered his 1986 election, and he, along with many others, grimaced when Skelly's voice failed.

However, a veteran NDP organizer, he also found that Skelly improved throughout the campaign, despite hands-on help from Cliff Scotton.

In his first one-week poll, the New Democrat trailed Socredd by 21 percent of him.

They finished him by less than seven points, exposing what was called Vandermania as a flash of pot.

Vander Zalm won with slightly fewer votes than the less charismatic and divisive Bennett won in the last state election.

Shortly after, Skelly announced that he would step down from leadership and make way for Harcourt.

He was then elected as MP for his one term.

He last visited Columbia, British Columbia. Last fall, he attended Congress with his wife Alex, his son Rob, daughter Susan, and two grandchildren.

At a government-sponsored reception, he guided his life by quoting Thomas Paine: "The world is my country, all mankind is my brother, doing good is my The Religion of ''

Politics can be a brutal and unforgiving business, as Skelly's time in the leadership spotlight has shown.

But Bob Skelly's name was never given either of these qualities.

vpalmer@postmedia.com

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