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.
There is no way around it!
What do you think?
You can’t have good governance from the middle. That’s the fundamental problem with so called “liberal” “centrist” parties.
That would be because in the middle lies the fence.If you are forever sitting on it you can’t provide leadership.
Thank you for your comment.
I totally agree that the Liberals have to go and will be gone but they will only be gone in my mind if Coleman, Falcon, Hanson, Bond, Polak are not re-elected. Cannot see Shepard’s crusade helping out at all. I think the Conservatives would have a better chance and image if John Cummins were to be replaced with a newer person such as Rick Peterson. I find John to be not the best speaker and think that his age is definitely a deterrent. He comes from the federal Conservatives and we know where they are standing now.
I agree the liberals need to be washed away!
Thanks for reading and commenting!
crissy is desperate agreed but by no stretch of the imagination can she be called a politician,unless it’s because of the constant lies,it sure wasn’t for leadership.
I to joined the conservatives and am looking closely at the green part. BC will still need an opposition no matter who wins and this may be the best start for the conservative party to prove themselves to the voters.
We do not want the liebrals who believe that crissy can do more than talk while her handler is drinking water without moving his lips. John van Dongen
may work out to be the exception and if so welcome John.b
How right you are!
Thanks again for the comment.
I’m so happy what has happened to the Liberals and that most of it was done by their own hand. I can not how ever support the off shoot party BC conservatives because like the Fiberals they are just a bunch of old retread Socruds who also once thought drunk Gordo was god. Early next spring it’s good bye to the lot of you. Praise be to God!
Most of the good folk in the Bc Conservatives are people that had nothing to do with politics before.
You wont be singing hosannas and hail Mary’s when Dix rams your taxes through he roof.
Thank you for reading and commenting.
PS
I get jacked listening to this as I read your blog tonight. We can do it. Take the BCNDP to the mat. Win, baby, win!!
it always good when my readers get jacked!
Thanks for this Robbie!
I am a member of the BC Conservative Party and although I do really wish we would form the next government I think the NDP will do so. Unfortunately that means BC will sink to new depths and our economy will be dealt a major blow. By the time we do get in the province will be on life support. As dismal as this may seem it isn’t what really scares me. What I do find scary is that British Columbians would seriously consider the NDP as being a realistic alternative to Liberals.
There’s nothing like BC politics to make one scratch one’s head in wonder.
Consider yes, vote for we will soon see.
The BC Conservatives will surprise.
Dear Bob and Mike: Let us focus on how and where the wounds occurred that led to the massive bleeding off of support. Blunt force trauma from the 2008 recession aside – I am still stuck in RCH’s Timmy Hortons awaiting treatment – the BC Liberal wounds are largely self-induced, created by an obsession to finance Olympics we could not afford in the first place.
Campaign 2001 election promise: no sale of BC Rail. Was that kept? No, we’re still suffering concussion-like symptoms 13 years later.
Campaign 2009 election promise: no HST for you and me. We still have the tax until April 2013, despite the express will of the people exercised in a democratic referendum vote last year.
At some point the spouse of a serial cheater realizes there is nothing they can do to salvage the relationship or change their partner’s self destructive choices. Decisions have to made, and the danger of loving too much recognized for what it is. Despite a willingness to mend fences through counseling, mediation, aroma therapy and intervention, there comes a day of reckoning where it is no longer healthy to stay. The continued disrespect, frequent infidelities, reckless behaviour, and demeaning public actions have to end.
Did the BC Conservatives cause the break up? Are right of centre voters to blame for vote splitting? Not at all. If the BC Liberals had remained faithful to their commitments, would there really be an appetite or desire for change? Would there be a need for a viable alternative?
Malcontent In The Middle
The Liberals screwed up,BIG TIME,when they chose a cheerleader over two solid experienced politicians,Falcon and Abbott. BC’ers,including me, felt insulted that they would try to foist this lightweight off as a serious person to run the Province.
The economy is NOT in good shape,but where ‘s Christy on eliminating the carbon tax,thus lowering the costs of everything that moves by truck? Why is BC still tilting at windmills when all over the world they’ve been proven inefficient?
I don’t know who I’ll be voting for next election, but it sure won’t be the Christy Clark led Liberals.
Thank you for this.
There are a lot of people that feel the way you do.
That’s one reason it’s over fr them.
John Cummins and the BC Conservatives are front and center on eliminating the carbon tax. II stand tall on that!
Interesting scenarios you’ve posted. The name change thingy is so cynical and insulting, not to mention desperate… I’m not entirely sure if the polling numbers for the NDP are accurate or whether they are simply a reflection of the continuing disappointment with the tired corrupt BC Liberals and their idiotic choice of leader. There is eleven months to go before the next election and there is only one party declaring an intention to lower taxes and get rid of the hated thievery of the carbon tax. The BC Conservatives have to hammer this difference home at every stop, along with a promise to conduct an inquiry into Basi-Virk payoff and the whole BC Rail fiasco. No matter what the BC Liberals decide to call themselves they will be turfed, that much is for sure.
You are right .They do!
Thank you for reading and commenting!