blogger | Political Insider

BC Conservative Leader ? Dan Brooks-Hiding Under a Rock? #bcpoli #canpoli #bcconservatives

There is a total vacuum at the top of the BC Conservative Party.

The Leader, Dan Brooks, is AWOL. No media presence. No visits to Party members. No profile.

Only two news releases in the past six months.

Almost every director elected to the Party board last November, including the president, resigned only weeks into their mandate.

There is no fundraising, no money, no momentum. What’s up?

Here’s maybe a clue as to why Brooks has walked away from the Party.

One year from now, in November of 2016, he’s scheduled to be in BC Supreme Court along with his former leadership campaign manager, Barry Sikora. Sikora is listed on the Party website as a regional director from Surrey.

In the 2014 BC Conservative leadership campaign, two anonymous smear letters against Brook’s leadership rival, Rick Peterson, were sent out to all 4,000 members of the BC Conservative Party across the province.

Following a Vancouver Police Department investigation and an internal Party report, Peterson filed a defamation claim against Brooks, Sikora and Sikora’s printing company, Classic Impressions Inc., alleging that the three parties were responsible for the production and dissemination of the anonymous letters, which attacked Peterson’s personal, political and professional reputation.

A November 2016 court date before a judge and 12-member jury is locked into place. Sources tell me that Kristy Fredericks, elected Party president in November of last year, abruptly resigned her post weeks after assuming her duties, along with every member of the board that she brought with her on the “Dan Brooks youth slate” at the November AGM, when she learned about the extent of the allegations.

Nothing has been proven yet, and it is only in court that the full details will be released.

It could get ugly. How ugly? Check out the current political defamation case playing out right now in BC Supreme Court, involving former Liberal MP Blair Wilson, who claims that anonymous claims against him amounted to “character assassination” . Here’s the link:

And here’s a quote from that story – bold italics are mine:

“The named defendants in the case include Bill Lougheed, former MLA Judi Tyabji, political strategist Mark Marissen, who is the former husband of Premier Christy Clark and political blogger Steve Janke, who published an anonymous letter detailing allegations against Wilson and forwarded to Elections Canada. Tyabji, who had conversations with Lougheed and O’Connor and was allegedly motivated by an ambition to remove Wilson from his MP’s job, was in court Wednesday representing herself.”

Sound familiar? I’m no legal expert, but part of this Blair Wilson case seems very similar to charges currently levied against Brooks and Sikora.

It’s clear to me that the fortunes of the BC Conservative Party under Dan Brooks’ leadership are on hold until this gets cleared up. If Brooks or his campaign manager were found to have a role in the anonymous smear letters against Peterson, it’s lights out for the Party in 2017.

And maybe this is why the Party Leader has decided to hide under a rock, hoping this all blows over.

Good luck with that.

The Transit Referendum-Another Reason to Vote NO! #bcpoli #notranslinktax #enoughisenough#

As if we need another reason to Vote NO in the upcoming transit referendum, rumors are filtering down that if people vote NO in the upcoming referendum the government will step away and do nothing about the transit problem affecting the Lower mainland.

Nothing could be further than the truth unless you think the BC Liberal government is prepared to walk away from a number of seats they hold in the area.

A NO vote will force the government to act before the 2017 election and perhaps rewrite legislation so that they can reorganize the Translink board and get this whole thing done right.

A NO vote will wrap the whole issue like an Albatross around the governments neck and force them to act.

Don’t let the Yes side convince you other wise.

Any organization that tosses their so called top guy aside and keeps him around at a salary of $35,000 per month needs reorganizing. If you weren’t convinced of that before that happened it’s a no brainer now.

So Vote NO and tell your government to get the job done right!

John Ibbitson,Election 2015 and the polls! #bcpoli #canpoli #canada #election2015

Which Emery will give Trudeau the most Grief?

It’s the Economy Stupid!

Doesn’t matter what election or where; all elections are fought on the economy.

In 2015, assuming we have not had a visit from Mad Max by then, the Canadian federal election will be fought on the economy and as John Ibbitson quite rightly says world events will influence that election as never before.

What nobody can tell you today is what the world will look like in October 2015 and that includes pollsters.

I don’t recall a time, in my generation anyways, when the world was as close to boiling over and going to war as it seems they are now.

I remember reading about friend being pitted against friend in the referendums that were held in Quebec. That will be nothing compared to what will happen here if the middle east crisis worsens.You just need to scan Facebook for the stands that people are taking already.

The pollsters would have you think the coming Apocalypse is all about the death of the Conservative party,how they will be relegated to third place. The NDP will rise from the Ashes they say and lo and behold people are polling in favor of the Liberals not because they want Trudeau but because they want to be Liberal.

Pulease…

Between the coming Emery Circus,( you can choose which Emery will give Trudeau the most grief) the Trudeau memoirs and events on the world stage, how would any sane person know what is going to happen in 2015?

The Only pollster in my mind worth his salt is Dimitri Pantazopoulos who recently said “At this point, I won’t say who will win the next election. But only because the question is completely irrelevant.
Let’s see what the next 400 days hold in store for the government and opposition parties.”

I would add and lets see what is in store for the world.

What do you think?