Ian Tootill is actually a Nice Guy! #bcpoli #webelieveinbc

The big question people keeping asking me since it happened is this ” Was it really necessary to fire Ian Tootill for the comments in the caption above?”

In reflection and hindsight no it wasn’t and I goofed.

Read that again please: I goofed.

The media is relentless and I should have handled them better. I learned and I will next time.

What I should have said to all concerned was this: Ian was merely asking a question and the intent of that question was blown out of proportion. If you don’t like what he said ( I am not a fan of invoking the H word) then don’t vote for him.

Instead in the heat of the moment I canned him. Wrong decision. I let him down and the party.

He went through this whole period with class supporting the party all the way. He is a nice guy.

The next question to be asked of me was/is yes but you were pretty quick to fire the candidate who had the personal problem you know the one alleged to be drinking and driving.

Actually I was right to do that but not necessarily for the reason you think.

He was terminated not just for those allegations but because he never bothered to check in and tell me there was a problem. In fact,to this day I have never heard from him. He just disappeared.

So,I ask how can you tell the world that you are going to be a responsible government if one of your own candidates won’t even pick up the phone and tell you he screwed up? You can’t and he was done.

Next you fired Mischa Popoff didn’t you? Yes and he took no bull from that. He shouldn’t have either because I goofed there too!

The comments that he made, although I disagreed with what he said, were already fit to print in a Kelowna Daily newspaper. If they were good enough for that family newspaper to run than they should have been good enough for me.

Okay but you fired one more didn’t you, you know that guy that referred to the premier and the Madam Justice as a bitch.

I did and if that was all he said I could have dealt with it. But of course it wasn’t.

You see further down the list on the same Twitter account where those two things were said were some terribly nasty things that both invoked the “H’ word and made a mockery of the Picton case.

They were inexcusable and while I have no doubt not representative of the character of the person who said them, I could not stand behind them, nor could I allow the party too either.

So you were right on two and wrong on two, why bother with the explanation?

The answer would be two fold namely that Tootill and Popoff deserve an apology from the guy that led the campaign and fired them . This is my way of doing that.

Secondly and perhaps more importantly ( especially in Tootill’s case) their name needs to get cleaned up on the internet.

If my SEO works out than Ian Tootill is a nice guy will replace some of the crap about him getting fired.

He deserves as much!

The BC Liberals: One of the First Things they should do! #bcpoli #canpoli #@christyclark

Official Party Status?

Now that the numbers are settling in and the future looks fixed for the next 4.5 years with a BC Liberal majority (I say looks because this is BC and things can change in a heartbeat) what should the BC Liberals do?

They should run out and find a safe BC Liberal seat for their leader to run and try to regain entry into the legislature with right?

Not necessarily because there is no guarantee that she would win or that a new MLA in a safe seat would want to step down. (Do you really think Andrew Wilkinson or Gordon Hogg would want to fall on their sword for Clark?)

I think one of the first things they should do, now that the Green party of BC has won a seat, is to grant them official party status. It’s within the rules of the house to do that and would be the nice thing to do right?

Yes but they should do it but not because it’s nice or right, right. The BC Liberals should grant official party status because it would all but guarantee them election victory in 2017.

How?

If you believe as a lot of people do that the Green vote split caused the NDP to lose a number of seats they should have won, then granting them that status will allow them to get even stronger and split the vote in even more seats in the future.

It would allow Premier Clark to further distance herself from Gordon Campbell who refused the BCNDP Official party status after they were thrashed in the polls and reduced to 2 seats in 2001.( This staement assumes that Clark does not get 801’d by her own party even though she won an election)

Thirdly and just as important; is that this election was one the NDP should have won, not just because of the polls but because of all the scandals and mayhem caused by the Liberal party. It was BCNDP’s to lose and lose they did.

Furthermore, with the rise of the Green party, this election was probably the NDP’s best and last chance to win an election in this province.

Granting first party status to the Greens would make the turmoil that was seen in the NDP with the beheading of Carol James seem like a walk in the park.

That turmoil, if you believe the BCNDP is a provincial arm of their Federal party, would also extend itself into the next federal election in 2015.

That would benefit either of the forces in the BC Liberals, Conservative or Liberal.

Extending an olive branch to the Greens and granting them first party status would be a win win for a party who likes quick wins.

BC Election 2013: The Aftermath #bcpoli

Which BC Conservative would you throw under the bus? My answer my surprise you!

What a night!

The people have spoken loud and clear ( evidently not loud enough for the pollsters to hear) and unbelievably the BC Liberals are returned to power.

The shocking result of the night?

For me it was Jag Brar losing his seat. Never saw that coming. Politics aside he is as nice a guy as you will meet.

So what happened? Christy Clark and Mike McDonald ran a great campaign ( I give credit where its due)

Adrian Dix and the NDP spent far too much time keeping quiet and yes trying to prop up the BC Conservatives rather than concentrating on winning their campaign.

They played not to lose and as happens so often in sports when you play that way you usually do lose.

I would expect at some point soon he will leave and some of his handlers will get canned too. ( Marcella Munro might be free lancing )

They should have come out swinging and hammered the Liberals on their record. They didn’t and showed weak leadership.

I had heard later in the campaign that some of their supporters were so upset at Dix that they were going to stay home or vote Liberal to do him in.

Given the result and the low voter turnout maybe thats what happened.

What else happened? The Greens won a seat and that means Jane will leave ( she said she would ) and I would expect Andrew Weaver will become leader. He won his seat and by all accounts he is great so why shouldn’t he.

I haven’t done the math yet but by all quick accounts the green split in the vote cost the NDP seats. ( you might want to check the Conservative vote, I noticed we split with the NDP in a few areas costing them seats too!).

The Green win is more interesting in that if they can build on it, the NDP may have blown their only chance to win in the foreseeable future.

It’s not all roses for Clark as she lost her seat and must now look for somebody to step down to run in another expansive by-election.

Where? Already talk of Richmond or North Vancouver.

She likely deserves a chance to run again but her party is fickle and believe me the 801 club is no figment of any reporters imagination.

Chief Soap Box orator Stockwell Day will likely be the saddest of the BC Liberal crew today. Despite his blustery rhetoric during the election about vote splitting, I think he actually wants to lead the Tomorrow’s BC Liberals and last nights result ( barring a late appearance by team 801) might have ended that.

If it has I say good riddance. If you are that scared of a vote split you should move any ways.

What about the BC Conservatives?

Who knows but one thing for sure is that this result is more of a reflection of people wanting to drive the vote out than anything we did.

What stands out in my mind? Our line from the debate: yiu are thinking that premier Clark and The BC Liberals are going to lose the election and you tuned in tonight to see what kind of Premier Adrian Dix would make.

Kinda backfired eh! They didn’t like what they saw and it hit them that the Libs were going to lose.

So if you are looking for a BC Conservative to throw under the bus than look no further than here.

After all I ran the campaign.

BC Conservative Chad Eros: I’d like to thank my Speech Writer John Martin! #bcpoli

I am not worried,When I lose this I will run for the NDP next time!

As BC Conservative Chad Eros finished a speech recently, he rose to thank his speech writer BC Liberal candidate and likely 2 time 3rd place finisher John Martin for the help in writing his speeches.

As a former BC Conservative candidate who blew the by-election last April and finished third Martin had such attributable quotes as “a vote for the BC Conservatives is vote to send Christy Clark’s Liberal government a message that people are tired of failed Liberal policies.”

Of course Martin also said ” the Christy Clark Liberals are trying to use the education system for their own political gain, at expense of parents, teachers & students.” and ” accused criminals had drug charges dropped due to court delays – they were thrown out because of the BC Liberal governments negligence of the justice system.”

There are a plethora of other quotes that Martin has said in the past that leave him in this race as the last place candidate that he is.

It’s why Conservative blogger Alan Forseth says” Now for a word from our sponsor” when quoting Martin.

In other news:

This past Friday Martin had fellow opportunist and coward Stockwell Day out to a Rotary meeting in Chilliwack.

Previous to this meeting,Eros had challenged Day to a debate via You Tube.

At that meeting Conservative Eros reminded Day of the challenge. This sent Stockwell ( A political titan?) heading for the exits.

Once again,the Christy Clark Liberals prove they don’t have the courage of their convictions.

What next?