06.14.2012 05:48 AM

BC-related question

So, how’s that clever strategy – you know, transforming the BC Liberals into a branch plant operation of Harper’s government – working out for y’all, anyway?

20 Comments

  1. Robbie says:

    In 2009, voters believed Gordon Campbell’s election promise that he would do nothing to bring about an implementation of the HST unless there was public consultation. Months into his mandate, though, he broke his promise. Christy replaced him and promised renewal. She was to be a fresh face for the party, and lead differently than her predecessor. Well, she hasn’t.

    Under Christy Clark’s leadership, the BC Liberals, and not the BC Conservatives, have permanently fractured the centre/right of centre coalition. Despite the outcome of a provincial referendum last summer that determined the HST had to go, under her watch, the tax will not be removed until April 2013, one month before a scheduled election. In a nutshell, that explains her poor poll numbers.

    Iron Snowbird moniker notwithstanding, her growing unpopularity has little to do with her shift to the right. I wouldn’t pin this on Harper Tories or the influence of right wing staffers. She could’ve just as easily turned Victoria into a branch plant operation of the federal Liberal party; and held BC to the centre. Instead, she failed to adequately address the profound feelings of alienation, betrayal, mistrust, anger, and frustration many BC voters feel toward the party they believed would manage the public purse better than the BCNDP.

    Rather than settle in to good governance, her administration has been marked by numerous photo-ops, policy gaffes, miscues, flip-flops and poor media messaging. The BC press has been largely sympathetic to her, and given her fairly smooth sailing. That is changing, though.

    Doubtless Christy is an able campaigner, but at some point she has to leave the campaign trail behind and lead, follow, or get out of the way. And, yes, full disclosure, I am a BC Conservative.

  2. Anne Peterson says:

    Everybody out west has learned that when the conservatives sink as one party they rise again as another – they will even rise as liberals if they get desperate enough which doesn’t do much for the liberal brand, does it?

    I heard her interviewed on the radio last night and I have never heard such a bunch of contradictions in my life. She want the tar sands to roar ahead and she wants pipelines which she has faith will never spill on the BC coast. Very handy parallel universe she inhabits.

  3. JamesHalifax says:

    I lived in BC for years.

    If Christie Clark want’s to stay Premier…tell her to campaign on having the Feds legalize pot.

    Given the number of pot-heads in that province…she’d be a shoe-in.

    • Ted H says:

      James, not only would this make political sense as you suggest, legalization of pot is long overdue. The comprehensive Indian Hemp Drugs Commission of 1894 undertaken by the British Colonial Government in India reported that there should be no prohibition on the use of the substance. As with tobacco and alcohol there are substantial tax opportunities for the government and official control of sales, as with those other two far more addictive legal drugs, would take distribution out of the hands of criminals. I hope you are serious, this would be a totally enlightened policy to advance.

      • JamesHalifax says:

        I am serious Ted, H…..

        Legalize it, tax the hell out of it like cigarettes, and treat it like booze. Have the appropriate warnings for folks to know that it is NOT harmless, don’t drive if you’ve been smoking it, and don’t work when stoned.

        I think most people who smoke pot are recreational. Sure, you get some serious pot-heads, but we have them now any way. Same as alcoholics….society will always have them. I just don’t want a Government telling people what to do, how to do it, or how to live their lives if they aren’t hurting anyone else. I think we keep the harder drugs illegal, but pot is not a reason to be given a criminal record or thrown in jail. I know quite a few pot-smokers (I’m not one myself…it just made me sleepy when I tried it) and for the most part they are normal folks who like to relax in a different way than I choose.

        Besides….imagine the effect on the debt and deficit if the revenue raised when into General Revenues and not to the Hells Angels or other organized crime groups.

        Long overdue to de-criminalize it at least in my view.

        All that being said, I still wouldn’t want my kids to become regular users, but I’m sure a day will come when they start to experiment. I just don’t want them to have a record if they get caught.

  4. dave says:

    3 or so decades ago, fellow NDP offered that there are two parties in BC: NDP, and Anti-NDP. It doesn’t matter what the latter calls itself.

  5. KP says:

    I’ve voted BC Liberal all my life as a sensible alternative to the BCNDP. I’m a firmly centrist voter but a decade of NDP incompetence forced me to go centre-right provincially. No longer. Since Campbell left and Clark came along – particularly in the past six months or so – there’s been a pronounced shift to the right from the party, which I suspect was partially – and foolishly – to combat the growing influence of the BC Conservatives.

    Hiring a bunch of federal Conservatives to her staff – particularly Harper’s incompetent ex-communications director – has done even more damage to her image and her recent attempt to rebrand the liberals as a ‘free enterprise alternative’ have been laughable. Not quite as laughable as wheezing old backbencher – and BC Conservatives leader – John Cummins getting [i]any[/i] support, but close.

    It shouldn’t come as a shock to small-c conservatives that their brand and level of discourse isn’t popular in British Columbia. Turning the BC Liberals into a satellite Conservative party has pissed off a lot of moderate, urban voters like myself. And we’re not coming back.

    That said, I wouldn’t vote for the BC Conservatives and their backward leader if my life depended on it. John Cummins and his party are nothing more than a revamped Reform Party and the candidates they’ve put forward in by-elections – I’ll be impressed if they get half their candidates under the age of 60 in 2013 – and the last provincial election support my statement. The NDP have a lot of work to do if they plan on getting my vote and I haven’t been impressed with them either.

    We’re looking at an interesting year in BC politics.

    • Robbie says:

      NDP pulls further ahead of B.C. Liberals in new survey

      By Kelly Sinoski, Vancouver Sun June 14, 2012 8:02 PM

      7

      Story
      Photos ( 1 )

      The provincial New Democrats continue to expand their lead over the B.C. Liberals, with more British Columbians for the first time believing Adrian Dix would make a better premier than Christy Clark, according to a new poll. The online Ipsos Reid poll, which surveyed 1,026 adults June 5-11 for Global BC, shows support for the NDP has moved up four points since February, giving the party a 19-point lead over the Liberals with 48 per cent of decided voters. The Liberals, in comparison, have 29 per cent support, with the Conservatives at 16 per cent.

      The provincial New Democrats continue to expand their lead over the B.C. Liberals, with more British Columbians for the first time believing Adrian Dix would make a better premier than Christy Clark, according to a new poll. The online Ipsos Reid poll, which surveyed 1,026 adults June 5-11 for Global BC, shows support for the NDP has moved up four points since February, giving the party a 19-point lead over the Liberals with 48 per cent of decided voters. The Liberals, in comparison, have 29 per cent support, with the Conservatives at 16 per cent.
      Photograph by: Jenelle Schneider, PNG , Vancouver Sun

      The provincial New Democrats continue to expand their lead over the B.C. Liberals, with more British Columbians for the first time believing Adrian Dix would make a better premier than Christy Clark, according to a new poll.

      The online Ipsos Reid poll, which surveyed 1,026 adults June 5-11 for Global BC, shows support for the NDP has moved up four points since February, giving the party a 19-point lead over the Liberals with 48 per cent of decided voters. The Liberals, in comparison, have 29 per cent support, with the Conservatives at 16 per cent.

      “The main thing we saw in February was a gradual shifting of the numbers; Clark still had the numbers but Dix was closing ground fast,” Ipsos Reid spokesman Kyle Braid said Thursday. “Now it’s obvious that wasn’t a small movement but was a trend.”

      During the same time, public approval for Clark has fallen dramatically, with just 33 per cent of British Columbians saying they approve of her performance, compared with 50 per cent for Dix.

      The poll found one in three British Columbians, or 31 per cent, also believe Dix would make the best premier, placing him six points ahead of Clark, who was down six points with 25 per cent support. Conservatives leader John Cummins, meanwhile, remained a distant third choice at 11 per cent.

      One-third of those surveyed are unsure which candidate would make the best premier.

      Braid said it appears Clark has lost the edge she had over Dix when she became the new leader of the Liberal party. This may be because voters are unhappy with her, he said, or because the Liberal party’s image has caught up with Clark and “she’s been pulled down with her government.”

      “The B.C. Liberal government have had to deal with voter mistrust the last three years because of the HST,” Braid said. “What gave them hope was the advantage of a new leader. That advantage is now gone.”

      Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/pulls+further+ahead+Liberals+survey/6784709/story.html#ixzz1xpuV6AmT

  6. Transcanada says:

    Brian Mulroney > GST > Kim Campbell > political disaster
    Gordon Campbell > HST > Christy Clarke > political disaster

    Conservatives never learn and god bless them for it.

    • The Doctor says:

      So conservatives should never do anything but cut taxes, and avoid consumption and VAT taxes like the plague?

      That’s an interesting view to find expressed on a Liberal-dominated website.

  7. frmr disgruntled Con now Happy Lib says:

    I like Christy, but the last straw for me was the BC Liberals planned sell off of the BC Liquor Distribution branch to private interests……I know the govt is strapped for cash, but selling off an asset that will not provide anymore jobs(less in fact), at lower wages, with no cost benefit to the consumer(in fact we can see higher prices if this deal goes through) makes no sense to me at all.
    Not happy about the govt legislation muzzling of govt workers and private citizens if there is an outbreak of disease on BC farms either…It overrides the BC Freedom of Information Act…Heavy handed and unnecessary.
    Not exactly happy if she is supporting the Enbridge Gateway Pipeline project…..few permanent BC jobs will be created, and the risks to the environment, esp the Great Bear Rainforest and the North coast waterways are simply too great…..

  8. Mark says:

    Yes, and just think about how far right-wing Conservative leader John Cummins is in comparison.

  9. Jordan says:

    This is what happens when you pick someone for leader just because they’re a “celebrity”.

    People should take a look at Christy Clark when considering Justin Trudeau for Liberal leader. Does Trudeau want to be leader for a reason or just for the sake of saying he’s the leader, like Clark did with being premier.

  10. Dan says:

    Charest in Quebec, Clark in BC. I don’t think that most people see the Liberal party as a “progressive” party. Maybe compared to Conservatives, but not even. Particularly in BC.

  11. deb says:

    Christy Clarke is no different than Gordon Campbell…they are the socreds under any name…and now they are desperate to find another flag to fly before election time. She and her rightwing contigent ( whats left of them, some have fled to Cummins camp) will be finally voted out of office. Harper has tried giving her help as its better for him if she stays, however the BC voters wont allow for it. Unless the libs/creds can trump up some sensationalist scandal for Dix, he will be the next premier. This faux liberal party is the most corrupt BC has ever seen, thank god its finally coming to an end:P

  12. Shawn says:

    I still don’t understand how people got so crazy about the HST. Governments have done far worse things that would impact people far more. It’s funny what things get traction. I’m no pro or anti BC Liberals as I kind of tended to hold my nose whenever voting in BC when I lived there… I just still can’t believe how worked up people got about the HST. Especially when it is actually logical policy.

    • The Doctor says:

      Well Shawn, I think the rage at the HST tended to focus on how the BC Liberals implemented it, the promise that got broken, yada yada yada. That really gave it legs, and tended to crowd out just about any argument.

      Plus most people dislike taxes. Plus most people don’t understand the underlying policy rationale for why consumption/VAT taxes are desirable as compared to other forms of taxation. Plus most British Columbians don’t understand why having a PST and HST, as opposed to a harmonized tax, is stupid. Plus Vander Zalm got on board, because he’s a congenital pathological narcissist who can’t stand being out of the spotlight and is bitter as hell that the BC Liberals helped destroy his beloved Socreds, so this was sweet revenge for him. Plus the BC Conservatives saw this as the Gift From God to them that it was. And finally, the BC NDP threw whatever principles it might otherwise have had out the window, seized the political opportunity and also got on board the opposition bandwagon — note this is the second time the BC NDP has adopted the persona of anti-tax populist crusaders, as they also opposed the BC Carbon Tax (you know, that BC NDP that fancies itself to be a champion of the environmtn). Now that’s being principled for you.

      I do agree with the poster above who equated Christy Clark with Kim Campbell. Exactly. She’s been dealt a completely sh*t hand of cards, and there is nothing she can do about it. She could walk on water, raise the dead, create loaves and fishes out of thin air, and it wouldn’t matter. Whenever there are two reasonably viable center-right parties in a BC provincial election, the NDP wins, period. It’s like an immutable scientific law. Unless an asteroid hits the earth, or the entire BC Conservative Party is arrested for mass child molestation, Adrian Dix will be the next premier of BC.

      • frmr disgruntled Con now Happy Lib says:

        Well said Doc….if the BC Libs had been open and up front about their plans…..it would have been a much easier sell…….and I would have left it off things like restaurant meals, haircuts, and funeral services…..things that are needs, rather than wants….
        I liked the combined HST because it closed a rather large loophole in our business that allowed people to purchase clothing for themselves without paying the PST by claiming it was for their kids, or haggling saying they werent going to pay the PST if we wanted the sale…..With the HST we simply said “Sorry, no can do”. The HST put an end to it, and made our bookeeping easier.
        Hopefully Adrian Dix will see the folly of going back to PST/GST…..and the reduction in the revenue stream the HST provides….

  13. JamesHalifax says:

    If it wasn’t for the GST in combination with Free Trade that Mulroney brought it…..the Liberals never would have been able to slay the deficit as quickly as was done.

    I credit Mulroney for the policy……and the Liberals for the balls to actually do what needed to be done; regardless of the pain it caused.

    Had to be done.

  14. Colleen says:

    The HST puts an end to production as both BC and Ontario are fighting with production going down, down, down as the 12% percent makes it harder to make a go of it.
    Painful you bet. The reduction in the revenue stream the HST provides for who? However the good news is with production down in both these provinces they get the green award because
    the comsuption of energy also is lower because of declining production.

Leave a Reply to Robbie Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published.