05.16.2013 07:04 AM

Why I think Harper is happy about BC’s election result

Because his team won, that’s why.  From my pal Mertl:

“The B.C. Liberals are a free-enterprise coalition of federal Liberal and Conservative supporters. Clark hails from the Liberal wing but got impressive support from federal Tories, including former ministers Stockwell Day and Chuck Strahl.

Kinsella told Yahoo! Canada News he thinks the B.C. Liberals are “for all intents are purposes, the provincial arm of the federal Conservatives.”

22 Comments

  1. Brammer says:

    Looks like Alberta will now get it’s pipeline to the Pacific, provided BC gets a piece of the action.

  2. Kevin Powell says:

    It could be that Stockwell Day and Chuck Strahl endorsed the BC Libs because the BC Cons weren’t expected to win any seats, and they wanted to remain somewhat politically relevant. I was disappointed by their endorsements, and by Christy Clark’s choice of a CoS. However, she had both Harper AND McGuinty people on her team. And, she won decisively, so there might be nuance to BC politics that I’m simply not getting.

  3. Dotty says:

    I suspect a Stop Dix movement developed days before the vote, and the LibCon negative ads just nailed it in. Fear of a Dix NDP government drove voters off their arses and into the voting booth to vote LibCon, while the Dippers sat on their fat arses and ass-umed they would win easily. Ergo, another LibCon government for BC.

    • Kelly says:

      That’s it. And it’s actually pretty obvious. That and the fact that Dix simply refused to go on the attack. He was a punching bag. Stunning.

      • deb s says:

        yes, and I bet he is kicking himself over it. There was soo much he could have used against the libs and no one would have minded, it would have shown some measure of passion and fight. The turnout is slightly better then last time around, its sad that almost 50% stayed home. Nick Nanos said on power and politics that the result might have been closer to the pollsters predictions if 60% of the electorate showed up. BC and the rest of Canada need a huge GET OUT and VOTE campaign.

        • Dotty says:

          In politics, nice guys finish last after the opposition trashes them with negative attack ads.

          Trudeau is a sitting duck quacking himself and the LPC into oblivion. Lights must be on late into the night at LPC Ottawa HQ… reading and re-reading “Fight the Right”… buncha dummies!!

          • deb s says:

            someone needs to mail the book to JT…and its sad but soo true that attack ads work!

          • Walter Ego says:

            I’m not so sure about Dotty’s comment. It looks to me like those attack ads against Trudeau were ineffective and possibly even counterproductive, since the Tories have rather abruptly stopped running them. I don’t watch much TV, but I did see the ads when they came out and I don’t see them anymore. And even though she didn’t make any public announcement on the issue it looks like my MP has decided not to distribute the “10 percenter” anti-Trudeau brochure. Call me cynical, but I suspect they realised these brochures were a bad idea, and rather than admit it they’ve suggested the MP’s individually generate some “positive” p.r. by declining to use them.

            Regardless, the Libs, contrary to what many may think, are not stupid and will have paid attention to what happened in BC. Should the Tories resume their attack ads against Mr. T. and they start having an impact I expect he will be prepared with his own attack ads to counter them.

        • frmr disgruntled Con now Happy Lib says:

          Well said, deb….better yet……mandatory voting…….three fellow employees…..all under the age of twenty-five, didn’t bother to vote….pathetic…..

  4. West Coast Jim says:

    There is no doubt that the BC Liberals are a centre right party however to call it the provincial arm of the federal conservatives is laughable. It is led by a federal Liberal, most of the MLAs are federal Liberals, the conservative faction led by Kevin Falcon lost in the leadership vote and he left the party. Other stong federal Conservatives like John van Dongen left the party to sit as independants and lost to – wait for it – a mayor known to have ties to the federal Liberals. There is no doubt that federal Conservatives voted for the BC Liberals but it is in no way the provincial arm of the federal conservatives.

    • frmr disgruntled Con now Happy Lib says:

      er…John Van Dongen lost to Darryl Plecas, a UFV criminology professor…..my own re-elected MLA is a federal Conservative who ran as a Fed Conservative candidate in another riding, and once ran for the Fed. Conservative nomination in my own riding.
      There are so few active Federal Liberals in BC that many of the BC Liberal candidates depend on the Harper Conservative local machines to get themselves elected…..no doubt there are a few dyed in the wool Fed Lib MLA’s……but they still are happy to use the services of the Fed Cons…

      • West Coast Jim says:

        Interesting point and completely valid if it this was the first time that the BC Liberals had won. But of course this is not. This is the FOURTH time that the BC Liberals have won a MAJORITY Government. Unless they were complete idiots – more on this later – they know who and where there vote is. And sorry about Plecas – a University Prof against the Death Penalty and with ties to the Federal Liberals.

        Now to reach the conclusion that you did that the BC Liberals have to look to the Federal Conservatives when they are on one of the most succesful parties in the country leads to only one conclusion. Walk to a mirror, take a deep breathe and softly say – “Dear God I am a complete political idiot”.

        • frmr disgruntled Con now Happy Lib says:

          Hey Jimbo……where do they get their volunteers?…..the ones that knock on doors, put up signs, and make the phone calls to GOTV…….yknow the people that actually get candidates elected?….In BC, the majority of those workers support the Conservatives federally….that’s what I was talking about……does the BC Liberal Party take their marching orders from Harper?….certainly not…..but I can tell you at least in the Fraser Valley, including Darryl Pleacas, the BC Liberal candidates wouldn’t be successful without Fed Con supporters…nuff said…..

  5. ottawacon says:

    For all the surprise in the punditry, it is a remarkbly dull electoral map. Basically, Campbell won one more election. A large chunk of voters took a look at the alternatives on offer, held their noses and voted for more of the same (or did not vote at all).

    Harper is pleased at the outcome, because holding that coalition together is precisely the same internal discipline problem the Federal Conservatives need to keep solved in order to deny the Federal Liberals any oxygen.

  6. Roger says:

    Warren, OT heads up….

    Just watched and listened to PM Harper in NY at a forum with the US Council of Foreign Relations where Harper was fielding questions from very knowledgeable Americans on economics and foreign relations.

    Harper was impressive in his analyses and explanations of the Canadian economy, healthcare system and foreign relations. He was extremely knowledgeable and very detailed in his remarks. I hope you have seen it or able to get a replay.

    In comparison, Trudeau would be totally incompetent coming before such a erudite audience of American academics and business representatives grilling him in detail on many domestic and global topics. Harper’s economics education shone through and easily handled the questions without obfuscating. He was roundly applauded.

    Trudeau cannot measure up to Harper understanding of economic matters and it’s inconceivable that he could appear before such a distinguished audience, and speak with any knowledge or authority. IOW, Trudeau would truly be vastly in over his head. Warren, why won’t responsible Liberals recognize Trudeau as nothing more than a weak and vulnerable front for the LPC, and probably leading to ultimate disaster?

  7. Big Bad Jim says:

    Harper is smiling because the liberals he sees at the provincial level are doing the same thing their peers did at the federal level – and the conservatives will clean up the same way.

    Consider: decades of liberal rule under Trudeau, Chretien and Whatsisname swelled the egos and the heads of the liberals at the federal level. They could do anything – and get away with it. The media didn’t even pretend to be objective, the CBC was their sock puppet, and they laughed with contempt at the conservatives out west that they were looting to finance pork for their electorates in Ontario and Quebec. Today they can’t buy a vote for love or money, despite owning Ontario, Quebec and BC. Despite owning the media. Despite being the darlings of public educators and other Big Union slobs. They are so out of touch that they sing the praises of Justin Trudeau – while two thirds of the nation laughs derisively.

    As it went for you feds – so it will go for BC’s libs. The Dippers can’t be trusted in BC – whenever they had money they stole it or lost it. The liberals are better…but not much. They harp on about political correctness, multiculturalism, gay tolerance and just societies…but we have all that now. People don’t care about rhetoric and unicorns anymore, they want better lives, better jobs, and more opportunity for their kids and themselves…and that won’t happen under a liberal govt. Harper knows it, he’s seen it before and he is seeing it again.

    That is why Harper is smiling Warren. Unless you guys get in the game he is going to eat your lunch. Rightfully so, I might add.

    • Roger says:

      Meanwhile, the CBC NN is broadcasting non-stop about some insignificant $90,000 and parading Liberal senators and politicians in front of the cameras and allowing them to badmouth Duffy and the Conservatives. If that’s what Canadian politics has sunk to, then it’s time to abolish the CBC and save $1.5 Billion annually… or $45 Billion which is equivalent to the 30 year cost of the F-35s and plenty of spin-off work for the Canadian aeronautical industry in Montreal and Toronto.

      • Kev says:

        At my local coffee shop, full of blue-collar, for-now Conservative swing voters… no one is calling this “insignificant”.

        No one. Nobody. Personne.

        And none of them are blaming the CBC, either.

    • Kev says:

      You realize that the “decades of Liberal rule” were interrupted by a minority government, Joe Clark, decimation in 1984, and Turnerization in 1988?

      Man people have short memories in this country.

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