As rumored in this blog last week, Dan Brooks is out as leader of the provincial BC Conservative party
What will the party do next? How will it get ready for the election expected early next year?
Or will it?
Stay tuned….
As rumored in this blog last week, Dan Brooks is out as leader of the provincial BC Conservative party
What will the party do next? How will it get ready for the election expected early next year?
Or will it?
Stay tuned….
Dan Brooks Leadership
Mr. Dan Brooks continues to be the Leader of the
BC Conservative Party.
There is some confusion surrounding the Leadership
and we are sorting the issues out.
If there are any changes in this regard
we will let everyone know.
From Corbin Mitchell, President
British Columbia Conservative Party
bccpletters@gmail.com
That my friends is the official press release from the BC Conservatives regarding the leadership situation with Dan Brooks.
They ( The Board it seems) is confused with the leadership or Not of Dan Brooks.
He is the leader except they are confused about it.
They go on to say that if they ever become unconfused they will tell you about it.
Are you confused? Why not take out a membership in the BC Conservatives and join like minded people.
They would have been better off to say nothing.
Don’t you think?
With the recent announcement by Dan Brooks of his intention to re-seek the the leadership of the BC Conservative Party, my readers have asked me a number of questions . They deserve answers.
To Wit:
One reader asked : Since Brooks quit and then announced his intention to run again, will he have to pay the $5000 entry fee? ( Why wouldn’t he, he quit the job causing the party to incur the cost of the leadership convention in the first place. )
Another reader asked: Since Brooks quit citing the lawsuit as one of the main reasons for stepping away does this mean the lawsuit is behind him and if it’s not will he quit again if it doesn’t go his way? ( I have no idea except to say that the whole thing is supposedly set for trial in November of 2016 and if things do not go his way quitting again would really leave the party in a lurch? Oh right. That’s happened once before.)
Another reader asked : If Brooks was implying that a settlement of his lawsuit was near, would he be so quick to give away his negotiating position in that lawsuit by announcing that the law suit didn’t bother him anymore and by extrapolation would he be so quick to give away the party’s in the event he was successful in the leadership race should he have to negotiate on their behalf for any reason? ( Who knows, you would have to ask Dan?)
A further reader asked : There are emails being sent out that contain Brooks endorsements. Does this mean Brooks has been vetted and given the green light? ( I don’t know, I don’t sit on the board.I have no have no idea where he got his email list. )
Finally a reader asked : The emails that have been sent out by the Brooks group ( including a news release) don’t give me an opportunity to unsubscribe. Doesn’t this violate Canada’s anti-spam legislation? ( I don’t know I am not a lawyer but the fines for breaching this are huge)
So it seems the Brooks candidacy has more questions than answers at this point from both the BC Conservative board and Dan Brooks.
I would imagine the answers will be forth coming soon.
Or maybe not.
Stay tuned.
Most likely fearing the byelections that the Premier called moments ago and that have been discussed as recently as last week in the mainstream media , BC Conservative Leader resigned his position yesterday.
Brooks resignation follows his thumping in the previous provincial election, several resignations on the provincial board, lack of funds raised by his team and most notably the recent lawsuit launched against him and certain member’s of his leadership contest team for smear letters written against candidate Rick Peterson.
The allegations have yet to be proven in court and come up for trial in November of 2016.
The board in the announcement of his resignation applauds Brooks for staying on at least until the Party`s February AGM.
There are a lot of us who think he should leave now and the harder the door hits him in the rear on the way out the better.
The party is not dead. Brooks resignation opens the doors for some exciting candidates to step forward.
I have heard a lot of chatter about new leaders in the last 24 hours.
It will be an interesting to see who steps up.
That discussion is for another day.
Today is for Dan Brooks.
Good riddance!
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!
The first week of June is shaping up to be an interesting week in BC politics what with the official election results being finalized on June 5.
Premier Christy Clark has some interesting choices to make given she has said that she will name a cabinet later this week ( June 7) and decide what riding she wants to run in to attempt to get entry in the house. Astute political junkies will recall Clark lost her seat in the recent provincial election this past May 14th.
The most likely day for her to call the by-election would be Thursday June 6. Given Clark’s penchant for photo ops that day also happens to coincide with the 69th anniversary of DDay and would make a wonderful opportunity for her to call the election and claim in her heart she is a DDay vet.
She has to win this and of course she will. They will choose the easiest possible seat to run her in despite all the bravado from the NDP about running a candidate against them. (Actually they don’t all say that just some of them).
It is rumoured to be Fort Langley Aldergrove where current MLA Rich Coleman is purporting to be offering to step down. If true, Coleman will still have Peter Fassbender on the inside to watch over things while he gets ready to run for the leadership when Clark is dumped.
What about the BC Conservatives? That decision has not been made yet and will probably be made at an upcoming board meeting later this week. My take, shockingly, is that we should respect the mandate that the premier and her party have received from the people. That means I don’t think we should run a candidate. The party has a wonderful chance to hold this government accountable over the next few years. The NDP won’t,they will be to busy looking for ways to dump Dix and rebuild their own party.
The Premier has demonstrated over the past 2 years that while she is a good campaigner she is a terrible governor. ( Her pipeline announcement this week is an example of that,declaring opposition to the project even though all the tests haven’t been done)
You can bet at some point down the road the Premier and her team will come on board with the pipeline. It will happen about the same time as they come to the realization their balanced budget ( 2013 edition) is not really balanced and they need the revenue to save face. ( How do you spell HST anybody?)
For Clark, The bigger minefield lies with the choosing of her new cabinet. Usually the cabinet that is chosen gives you an idea of which direction the government is going.
In this case I would think that even though Clark has won a majority, the party will keep her on a short leash.( Remember she still has no seat and is a left leaning liberal in a caucus full of right leaning conservatives).
Think also to various gaffes Clark has made over the past few months. She ran a red light that was disclosed during the election. Caucus member and MLA Moira Stilwell spoke up against this. Stillwell is one of the brightest MLAs the party has. What will become of her?
Gordon Hogg took on Rich Coleman over the mess during the botched casino affair. What will happen to Him?
How many of the new MLA’s will be content to thank their lucky stars Adrian Dix and crew screwed up so badly and they got elected.
What if Clark decides to follow her Liberal ways and take the government even more left?( Remember they now agree with the NDP on the pipeline) What will become of the Conservative hopefuls in that BC Liberal Caucus?
Those who are not thrilled can always take out membership in the 8:01 club can’t they?
The week ahead in BC Politics is shaping up to be very interesting and the decisions made will shape the province for the next 4.5 years. ( Assuming the next election is in the fall to allow for proper budget debate)
Stay tuned, I will be here to dissect the different events as they unfold and thank you for reading!
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!
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.
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?
Today,Special Guest Jesse Donovan joins us for a discussion that asks the question :
Why do Young British Columbians Veer Left?
In 2010, after nearly a decade of BC Liberal rule, the youth unemployment rate in British Columbia had reached a staggering 13.8 percent. This was the highest it had been in the past seven years.
Under the BC Liberal Government, young British Columbians have faced many obstacles to their economic success. High unemployment, slow wage growth, and a disproportionate amount of part-time labour are some of the severe threats to the financial well-being of young British Columbians.
Under the BC Liberal government, young British Columbians have not only had to deal with high unemployment, but also incredibly slow wage growth. Between 2007 and 2010, the weekly wages of BC Youth have grown around 20 times slower than the weekly wages of British Columbians aged 25-54.
British Columbia is the anomaly among the successful Western Provinces. Young Canadians from Alberta and Saskatchewan have fared relatively well under their Conservative governments. While all Western Provinces experienced rising youth unemployment from 2008 to 2010, BC’s was by far the highest. Between 2008 and 2010, British Columbia’s youth unemployment rate increased by 5.8%. This is over twice as much as Manitoba’s increase and almost three times more than Saskatchewan in the same period.
Many young British Columbians are concerned and angry about their seemingly bleak economic future. They are right to be concerned and their anger is justified. There is, however, a worrying trend in how young people are directing these emotions.
Instead of demanding that governments remove impediments to success such as high taxes and cumbersome overregulation of business, young Canadians are responding to their economic insecurity by demanding extreme left-wing reforms to our economic system. Such reforms include levying enormous taxes on successful individuals and placing crippling regulatory measures on British Columbia’s businesses.
The misdirection of their anger was visible during the ‘Occupy Vancouver’ protests. These protests were led by youth who were concerned about their financial well-being and the future of their Nation. However, instead of putting the blame on the high taxes created by left-wing governments and regulatory red tape that impedes job creation, the protesters blamed successful Canadians and corporations.
The latest Provincial polling provides another example of a significant portion of young British Columbians favouring risky, left-wing economics. The most recent Angus Reid poll shows that the BC New Democratic Party will capture one out of every two voters between the ages of 18-34.
The future of our Province lies in the hands of BC’s youth. Will young British Columbians realize that a combination of low taxes and small government is the only path to economic freedom and success or will BC continue its path to becoming a left-wing economic basket-case like Spain or even Greece?
Hope is not lost for the future of conservatism in British Columbia. Fostering youth involvement in conservative politics will energize the current conservative movement as well as prepare the future conservative leaders of our Province and our Nation. The BC Conservative Youth Association has been created to accomplish these two goals. The movement is gaining in strength and support and will seek to counter the influence of the political left in British Columbia in the long-term future.
What do you think?
Bio
Jesse Donovan is a Political Science student at the University of Toronto. He was born and raised in North and West Vancouver. Jesse has served in the Canadian Armed Forces since 2010. Currently, he works as a Summer Intern for the BC Conservative Party. Jesse is also the President and Founder of the BC Conservative Youth Association, a grassroots organization for young conservatives in BC.