Tomorrow is the day Conservatives in BC have been waiting for for a long time.
It is the occasion of the final BC Conservative AGM before the May 2013 election,maybe.
For that to happen John Cummins has to win the leadership handily and the BC Liberals have to keep their word and actually have the election in May and not pull some legislative shenanigans in early 2013 and change the date to the fall.
What will happen at the AGM tomorrow? Will there be winners and losers?
I believe that question is a lot more complicated than you think.
Read on.
John Cummins can win and hold onto his leadership tomorrow but still lose the war.
This would happen if John Van Dongen uses the occasion of the Cummins victory speech to declare that he is running as an independent. Stranger things have happened in politics. ( This is not easy for Van Dongen either)
John Cummins could lose his leadership tomorrow ( I don’t think so) and open the whole party up to more infighting and a nasty leadership vote.
This leadership vote ,should it occur has the potential to be even nastier the the goings on lately because there could be more than 1 other party involved.
If you are reading this and you say that’s right,they could enter negotiations with the BC Liberals to unify the so-called free enterprise vote you are only partially correct.
Partially because if you have been watching the news lately you would have seen the dormant BC First party slowly arising from hibernation in the form of an endorsement from Bill Vander Zalm.
I am not one to believe in coincidences and have read the accounts in the MSM about Vander Zalm friends Ben Besler and John Crocock building a slate to take on the rest of the folks running for the provincial board under the guise of wanted to do politics different.
I have seen and heard motions from one or the other and seconded by one or the other that reek of more old style politics than most other amateur politicians I can think of.
To wit: Besler introduces a motion to give away memberships for free and is seconded by Crocock. This of course is shot down in flames as scandalous by the sane people on the board.
This is old school politics and so is telling potential nomination candidates that certain ridings are unavailable to run in because they are reserved for board members. ( I will let you use your imagination to figure out which one of these guys did that)
Not only is that old school politics but it also is a form of empire building at a time when most political parties, Conservatives included are tying to clean that up.
The instigator slate has not yet registered for the AGM and no that does not mean they have had a change of heart. It just means more of the old school type of politics.
So when they say they stand for something different don’t believe it for a minute.
In the last week and by the latest poll, the BC Conservative Party has gone down about 7% in the polls and a good part of this has been brought on by the instigator slate.
Chris Delaney,Bill Vander Zalm,Sal Vetro and the BC First team must be having a good laugh.
So are the inept Christy Clark led BC Liberals who today siphoned off former by-election candidate and third place finisher John Martin.
At a time when Conservatives should be attacking the opposition, Besler, Crocock and Co. have been busy attacking themselves and shooting their own party in the foot.
What this does is leave the door wide open for the BC Liberals and now the BC First Crew to tussle over the vote.
What do you think. What will happen tomorrow and do you care?