As crazy as it sounds,today,at the weekend conference of blame the BCNDP is holding to determine what went wrong during the May election,Adrian Dix blamed a large part of the loss on those folks who are blue collar workers and NDP supporters who lost their jobs and moved on .
This is a totally illogical statement coming from the man who, without warning, changed his position on the Kinder Morgan project which surely cost them the election. In fact it still has not occurred to Adrian that by opposing this project it would result in the loss of more of those blue collar jobs he has accused the BC Liberals of scaring off.
In fact if the BCNDP wants some hindsight into why they lost they should simply read Gary Mason’s excellent column in the Globe. It details for the most part why the Liberals won and how they came back from the dead.
From my work in the field during the election,Mason only left out one part of the NDP defeat and it was it important and it was this : After the Kinder Morgan fiasco which led to Dix’s lousy performance at the debate, my field operatives started reporting to me that Dix’s people has told them that Dix was such a wimpster they were staying home and were not prepared to vote for him.
The NDP,instead of putting the election on cruise control,should have been hammering the Liberals on their record and their litany of scandals.
As for the debate, BC Conservative leader John Cummin’s first line had a prophetic vision attached to it, just not in the way we thought. If you recall he said: You are tuned in tonight because you know Christy Clark and the BC Liberals are going to lose the election and you want to see what kind of premier Adrian Dix will make.
The people saw alright and what resulted was a BC Liberal majority!
I have been listening to discussions a lot lately about what issue or issues the BC 2013 election will be fought over.
One pundit says the economy ( I guess that’s fashionable since James Carville coined the phrase ‘it’s the Economy Stupid!”),another says the election will be fought over BC Rail,another says it will be all about getting rid of the BC Liberals.
Some people even say that this election will revolve around the environment or post secondary education.
What about fracking?
One thing they all seem to agree on is that the government should be framing the ballot box issue.
In truth and in fact they are all wrong.
These are not issues they are files within a mandate.
Elections are about Leadership!
You don’t vote on the economy you vote on who best to lead you through a rough patch or who to lead and manage a good economy.
BC Rail? You are not voting on that, you are voting on who best to lead the legislature to make sure that never happens again?
The environment? Post secondary education? Those are not issues; the issue is who best to lead the province in the right direction and manage those two files.
The pipeline? Just another file. You vote on who best to handle the file.
The Government frames the issue right?
They should be. Gordon Campbell ( no matter what you think of him) was very good at framing the leadership issue. He won three elections. He also left when he realised he could no longer frame this as his issue.
Today the government is no longer setting the pace on the main issue for the upcoming general election.
If you believe the polls the BCNDP are framing the issue of leadership for the government.
Adrian Dix is waging a very calculated and to this point successful campaign showing himself to be the best leader.
He is including everybody in the discussion and is not afraid to release bits of his platform.
A case in point: His recent speech at the Vancouver Board of Trade. he told a largely pro business audience that if successful in the election he would raise corporate taxes back to levels of 2008.
He is showing extreme confidence and speaks with out emotion.
He lays claim to wanting to do politics differently and backs it up with statements like” If the Federal government changes their mind and does not close the Vancouver Coast Guard I will be the first one to issue a press release applauding the government and that decision.
Contrast that with the premier who, when asked on a radio show ( Bill Good to give credit where it’s due),to comment on the polls showing the women’s vote is going to the NDP said after a few callers phoned in, it’s early,people are not paying attention and I plan to run on my record.
What the premier should have said was’ those polls are on me, I am the leader and I have seven months to work hard and prove that I am the right person for the job.
So as of right now the she is right, she will be running on her record.It is a record of not taking simple leadership of a simple question.
Likewise the optics from the recent BC Conservative AGM and dissident fiasco were not good for the party and when contrasted against the backdrop of Adrian Dix’s handling of George’s Heyman’s position on fracking ( George is entitled to his opinion we welcome discussion here) once again gave the voting public something to compare them to.
There are seven months to go until the election.
To be successful the BCNDP needs to continue what they are doing, the other parties have to catch up.
1115 BC Conservatives cast ballots. This is a huge number of people who got involved.
788 BC Conservatives ( 71%) said John Cummins should not be subject to a leadership review!
Conservatives in the hall united in applause,as the party pledges to move forward and capture seats in the upcoming May election.
On the heels of this historic win Cummins and team proposed via a news release major changes to the rules governing sittings in the Victoria legislature.
Most notably the fall sitting, under a BC Conservative Government,will be used as a means to scrutinize expenditures relating to taxpayers dollars.
Deputy Ministers, Crown Corporation executives and the like will be called to face committees not only to account for expenditures for the previous years but also to answer for projections for the upcoming year.
A novel concept, the house being used for serious government business.
The May 2013 election just got interesting. The electorate now has a chance to vote for real change !
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?
Repeatedly BC Conservative Party Leader John Cummins has stated that the party has no intention to marge with the failing BC Liberal Government.
For one thing a lot of people in the BC Conservative Party are not just disaffected Federal Conservatives looking for a home but the party is also made up of people who have had enough with the current political system.
The BC Liberals ( We are not Liberals folks) would like to think that the Conservatives are the sole reason for their defeat in the by-elections and are the main reason the corrupt governing party will lose the next election.
If the truth be known,if the BC Conservatives did not exist and there was no other alternative, the BC Liberals would still get wiped out in the May 2013 election.
The only vote splitting that will happen will be by the downward trending BC Liberals and that issue was addressed recently by Rick Peterson in an excellent op=ed piece in the Vancouver Sun and redistributed on this blog.
Today the inept BC Liberals and their supporters attempted to once again ” Reach Out” board members and supporters via a letter from the desk of Peter Brown :
This letter insults all Conservative people under the BC Conservative Umbrella. It as if it is our fault that the supposed coalition has split apart.
Mr. Brown, Inept Premier Clark and the BC Liberal Crew need to take a good solid look in the mirror.
What the will see is their former leader hammered on a Hawaiian vacation, their new inept leader tee heeing her way through photo ops the whole time up to her arm pits in BC Rail,sleazily introducing and dragging out the HST and other assorted and sundry bull shit too numerous to name in this blog piece.
The BC Liberals had 11 years in government and they blew it. They will go out in infamy,their legacy will be corruption and sleaze.
They had a wonderful opportunity when first elected in 2001 and they have flushed it down the toilet.
The BC Conservatives on the other hand stand for honesty, integrity and accountability.They stand for reduced taxes and increased employment.
Why on earth would any BC Conservative in his or her right mind want to join a party like the BC Liberals?
Even Dalton McGuinty is more politically astute than Clark.
Last year in an election campaign that was very close he took advantage of the Goderich tornado to give that area some badly needed help.He went on to win the election,the optics of this were that good.
You would have thought Christy ( Miss Photo-Op) Clark would have been front and center outside the Science Center renewing the contract or at least in a canoe in the Okanogan region offering help.
You would have thought these two would have been no-brainers for the family first agenda.
Over the next days and weeks there will be countless discussions on the Liberal brand both federally and with the British Colombian election eleven months away provincially.
Lots will be said about who will want to run for the Federal Liberals when the question should probably be what will the eventual winner actually be leading.
Here in BC the discussion will be centered around the BC Liberals changing their name, Christy Clark’s leadership and the horror of a Dix led NDP win.
Prompted by Michael Smyth’s eight handy hints for Clark, I thought I would kick off discussion today with a look at the hints and reasons why Clark and the Liberals are doomed to lose.
Smyth’s article presupposes that people ( like MLA van Dongen and volunteer campaign workers like me) are malcontents because we left the party.
Nothing could be further than the truth.
I left because I had enough. I heard a Campbell speech in 1999 that started with I want to be Premier because I want BC to be a place my kids can grow up in,work here and live here.
In 2009 Campbell made a speech at his nomination that said I want to be Premier to build a province that my Grandchildren can live here and work here.
Same Speech 10 years later meant to me they had done nothing in the first 10 years of their mandate.
What life the BC Liberal party had for me died that night.
That combined with HST,Basi Virk etc. was and is a party that I no longer wanted to be associated with.
For John,the BC liberal Brand died later,but died it did.
When he left( that took courage), as you have heard van Dongen says countless times, it was because he wanted open honest accountable government. He has added that he wants to work in a government that both he and the electorate can trust.
This is not happening now and will not happen under the BC Liberals, Clark and the smoke and mirrors of a name change now.
People like John and I want to build a better BC that all of us can be proud of and that includes the people we elect to government.
We can’t do it under the Liberals and we cant do it with the same people under a different name.
People do not trust her government and they won’t no matter what she does between now and next May.
Scaling back her holidays to 4 weeks as Bob Plecas suggests probably throws most British Columbians for a loop as well. Lets face it,when most people start a new job they only get 2 weeks after year one.
Add to that, the more times she is snapped smiling at summer barbeques the more her poll results will drop. With the house out, people will just assume she is on one long summer vacation.
I believe that most people live by the old adage that he or she who lives in a glass house shouldn’t throw stones.
For the Clark government to throw stones at Dix will endanger what little bit of a glass house the Liberal team has left.
Clark has not shown leadership since she was chosen to be Premier by the Liberal Party. An example of which is her stance on the pipeline.
Whatever she decides to do with this now will look like an act of a desperate politician . ( She is)
Finally, the handy hints and most discussion regarding re-branding and the fate of the Liberal party in BC leaves out is this: Dix’s poll results could be rising because the left leaning liberals have left the Clark tent.
Every time she pretends to be a Conservative more lefties leave the Liberal party, driving her poll numbers down even further.
What’s ahead? Certain electoral defeat for Clark and her team.
John van Dongen was granted intervenor status in the Basi-Virk indemnity review case.
This is unique in that John is an elected MLA representing British Columbians. Our voice will now be heard!
Maybe now we can get to the bottom of this charade.
Perhaps we will find out why two government lackeys were allowed to write of $6 million in legal fees, well over their defined limit of $100,000. ( how do you say cover up?)
Scared of the Western Premiers Meeting Christy Clark hides out with Richard Branson!
The big smoke screen, better known as L’affaire Branson gave the Chicken Premier Christy Clark something to hide behind as she evaded discussing energy with the Western Premiers.
As you may know by now, Clark sent in her place, her favorite whipping boy Minister Pat Bell.
You may recall Bell as the guy that took the heat for Telus Gate ( the scrapping of the Telus/BC Place stadium name deal) after Clark was not invited to a major jobs announcement.
To date now that the Premiers summit has been completed , I have not found one quote from him outlining what he brought to the table on behalf of leaderless BC.
So much for BC Having a voice on this vitally important issue!
Clark as you will recall has failed to take a position on the pipeline issue. Both BC Conservative Leader John Cummins ( for) and BC NDP leader Adrian Dix (against) have shown leadership on this issue.
So there we sit, our GDP low enough to keep us out of trouble but close enough ( 90% or higher) would get us going down a lane we don’t want to go.
This gives cause for thought in that we ( The country) are facing 3 major provincial elections in the next year and a bit.They would occur in British Columbia, Quebec and Ontario.
I have lumped Ontario in the group because although they have just come through a provincial election, it resulted in a minority of tenuous proportions.
With pollsters releasing numbers here at home in BC and 48% of people saying they would vote NDP, the chart above gives me cause to wonder why anybody would even answer that question at this point in time.
With all the problems in the world’s economic situation, why would anybody say they would vote one way or another without reviewing a parties economic platform and seeing how it would affect them?
Why would almost half of the polled people say they would vote BCNDP when history speaks of all the economic mismanagement and mayhem they caused as recently as the 1990’s?
( I know you are thinking the BC Liberals have made such a mess of things we need to give them the boot! We do, but there are other options than the BCNDP) )
In these coming elections, voters need to be better educated than ever. They should review the policies and platforms each of the 3 main parties lists on their web sites.
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