With Donald Trump’s trial (the first of four potential criminal trials) starting this week, it seems like a good time to take a look back at B.C.’s own history of senior elected officials who ran afoul of the law – or nearly did so.
The three most famous British Columbia politicians to face police investigations are doubtless the NDP’s Glen Clark, the Social Credit Party’s Bill Vander Zalm, and the Liberals’ Gordon Campbell. All three found themselves in legal trouble at various points in their tenure.
Vander Zalm, our most eccentric premier since Amor de Cosmos in the 19th century, lived for a time in Fantasy Gardens, a Netherlands-themed tourist attraction in Richmond.
But when he sold his empire of windmills and tulip bulbs to Taiwanese billionaire Tan Yu, a conflict of interest investigation found Vander Zalm had used his position as premier to grease the wheels of the deal.
The Zalm was later acquitted of breach of trust – but only after he had been forced to resign, and after the scandal had caused a lethal wound to the Socred movement in B.C.
Clark’s scandal came in the spring of 1999. Already rocked by the Fast Ferry boondoggle, Clark was investigated over a $10,000 deck he’d had built onto his Vancouver home. The contractor – a neighbour of the premier’s – was a shady character who was angling for a gambling licence. The theory was that the deck, or at least a sweet deal on it, was a bribe.
Like Vander Zalm, Clark was acquitted at trial, the judge saying his actions amounted to an “act of folly” rather than criminality. Also like Vander Zalm, Clark’s actions blew up his own party, which staggered on for another couple of years before being reduced to two seats in the legislature.
Then there’s Gordon Campbell, the simplest of the cases – the sitting premier blew over the limit after being pulled over while on vacation in Hawaii. Luckily for him, his crime was mere misdemeanour there, and he suffered only a fine and a brief suspension of his driver’s licence.
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B.C.’s top political criminal scandal, at least in the last 100 years, did not involve a premier. Instead, that distinction lay with Robert “Honest Bob” Sommers.
Sommers, who had been a school principal before hitching his wagon to the then-new Socred party in the 1952 election, had put his hard-drinking, gambling days behind him. At least, that’s what he told Premier W.A.C. Bennett.
But pretty soon, the newly-minted forests minister was in financial trouble. And all these big lumber companies were desperately competing for forest tenures, which Sommers had the power to distribute.
Accusations dogged him for two years before charges were laid in 1957. Sommers skipped town for a while, hiding out in the U.S., before slinking back across the border to go on trial. He was convicted of accepting $6,500 in cash and bonds, as well as a rug, as bribes.
Sommers actually spent time in prison – 28 months of a five-year sentence, during which he learned to be a piano tuner.