By Lloyd Mackey

LAST WEEK, we were left with the fond wish that, by whatever means, Stephen Harper and Michael Ignatieff would be able to consider being collaborators, rather than competitors.

Along with that wish was the promise to briefly explore 70 years of collaborative governance in British Columbia, land of my birth.

Not too long after that aforementioned birth, an 'after-an-election' government came into power -- a coalition of Liberals and Conservatives. It held together until the early 1950s, when the cracks in the arrangement became too great to paper over. Liberal premier, Byron (Boss) Johnson fired his Conservative finance minister, Herb Anscomb, and went to the people with a cumbersome transferable ballot ostensibly designed to keep the socialists out of power.

It did that, all right, electing, not the Liberals or Conservatives, but the upstart Social Credit, inspired by the success of its namesake in Alberta, led by Ernest Manning, father of Preston.

The leaderless Socreds beat the CCF (predecessors to the NDP) 19 seats to 18, with the rest of the MLAs drawn from the 'old line' parties.

The Socreds chose W.A.C. Bennett as their leader. He led them, a year later, to a majority government. The Bennett Socreds never looked back, staying in power until 1972. But, always, there was a small rump of Liberals, drawn mostly from city ridings not comfortable with what they felt to be either the flaming socialists or the Bible-thumping Alberta yahoos.

In 1972, the aging Socreds were defeated by the Dave Barrett NDPers, who held power for just three years. On my birthday, December 11, 1975, Bill Bennett, son of W.A.C., led the Socreds in defeating Barrett.

One of the striking events of Bennett Jr.'s tenure was his success in bringing that small Liberal rump into his caucus. Some of his best cabinet ministers, as it happened, were seasoned former Liberals.

He held power for just under 12 years, turning it over to Bill Vander Zalm, a genial fellow with an erratic governance approach that created all sorts of mayhem.

Rita Johnston succeeded the Zalm as premier and led the Socreds to defeat in 1991. The NDP took over for close to a decade.

Meanwhile, after failed attempts to restart the Socreds or replace them with a new BC Reform party, Gordon Campbell pulled together a blending of former Reformers, Conservatives and blue Liberals, inside the shell of the Liberal party.

So that people would understand that the BC Liberals were not federal Liberals, he ensured that the branding would remain 'BC Liberal.'

Campbell won a third term as premier this past May 12, with not much change in the balance between the BC Liberals and NDP.

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From the vantage spot of Ottawa, the Campbell government has been a successful amalgam of Conservatives, populists of a Socred or Reform variety and blue Liberals.

True, I hear from Christian social conservatives who believe that the BC government has been a tad too socially liberal. Their main complaint is illustrated by what is called the 'Corren agreement.' That is an arrangement by which, as I understand it, a gay teacher couple whose surname is Corren, gets to vet all curriculum decisions to ensure that they are 'gay friendly.'

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Those particular critics would be inclined to support a much more clearly-conservative party, especially one that would espouse social conservative values exclusively.

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But, on balance, I think the BC centre-right governance history, with short interludes of NDP rule, is worth studying and understanding in a historical context.

There are two points on which I will provide a wrap, and leave the subject for further thought.

One is that a centre-right coalition enables people on different parts of the political spectrum, from blue Liberal to deep social conservative, to work together, rather than tear each other apart.

The other is particularly for Christians seriously interested in helping to shape the body politic.

One of Bill Vander Zalm's difficulties was his penchant, unintended perhaps, to vault his conservative Catholicism into a triumphal theocratic perspective. It conveyed the idea that it was God's way or the highway, with God's way somehow lining up with the Zalm's way.

Under the Bennetts and Campbell, serious Christians have always had a hearing. And they have been respected on the basis of their skills and persistence in putting forward their own views in the context of a pluralistic community.

At the same time, they have been challenged by those who had other perspectives -- in the words of a biblical phrase -- "to give a reason for the hope that is within you."

Stan Hagen, a long time cabinet minister under both the Socreds and BC Liberals, who died suddenly a few months before the May 12 election, was a faithful Christian believer in the BC Liberal context.

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In transmigrating the above thoughts into the federal setting, in line with last week's discussion about the future roles of Stephen Harper and Michael Ignatieff, I leave this thought -- only tentatively, of course.

It is that the future for a centre-right governance approach is already in the present, as the minority limps from month-to-month. The 'hawks' call for an election and the 'doves' urging collaboration. So far, the doves have prevailed.

Further down the road, an 'after-the-election' coalition might be one alternative to consider, if minority parliaments continue. Such coalitions might take the shape of what happened, pre-Socred in BC.

Ultimately, who knows? The idea of a centre-right party might emerge, in much the same way that the Progressive Conservatives and Canadian Alliance got together under Stephen Harper and Peter MacKay.

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Lloyd Mackey is a member of the Canadian Parliamentary Press Gallery in Ottawa and author of Stephen Harper: The Case for Collaborative Governance (ECW Press, 2006), More Faithful Than We Think: Stories and Insights on Canadian Leaders Doing Politics Christianly (BayRidge Books, 2005) and Like Father, Like Son: Ernest Manning and Preston Manning (ECW Press, 1997). Lloyd can be reached at lmackey@canadianchristianity.com.

May 28/2009