Voters see the truth: BC Liberals becoming more & more unpopular

From Integrity BC:

Each logo represents a donation of over $7,500 to Clark's 2011 leadership campaign. They represent over $200,000 in donations and don't include donations these companies may have made to the BC Liberal party in 2011. The NDP set a donation cap of $2,500. 

 

BC Government Credit Card Expenditures from 04-01-2011 to 03-31-2012

The credit card expenditures of Officers of the Legislature and Ministries for 2010 – 2011 and 2011 – 2012.

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Listing Liberals unable to right their ship 

Keith Baldrey, Vancouver Courier August 8, 2012

The bad news just keeps accumulating for Premier Christy Clark and the B.C. Liberals, and there's little to suggest that pattern is going to change in their favour anytime soon.

The latest disappointment for them is the latest Angus Reid poll, which shows Clark and her gang got absolutely no bounce in the polls from her pipeline announcement. Indeed, it is the NDP that is growing in popularity, while the B.C. Liberals are stuck in the polls, unable to get any traction at all with the voters.

The poll followed on the heels of revelations of increased credit card spending in a number of government ministries, including Clark's office. 

The breakdown of the poll's other findings reveal just what a bleak situation the B.C. Liberals find themselves in. Pick a category -region, gender, income level, age demo-graphics-and the party trails in pretty well everything.

For example, just 15 per cent of decided female voters say they would back B.C.'s female premier and her party-an astounding finding. The NDP also leads in all three age demographics and among almost all income groups.

The B.C. Liberals have also lost the support of half the people who voted for them in 2009. They trail the NDP in all regions of the province, creating the potential for a scenario similar to the 2001 election results, except in reverse.

As the next election draws nearer, it's a safe bet to assume the bad news will continue to accumulate for the ruling party. The pattern has been set, and there's little chance of it being altered in any great way. Even a change in leadership-as remote a possibility that it is -appears unlikely to right their ship. 

 

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Victoria's secrets: All's fair game in love and politics

All's fair game in love and politics 

Michael Smyth, The Province August 5, 2012

After last week's uproar over Christy Clark's credit-card bills, and the financial farce that passes for secretive MLA expense accounts, the political blame game has begun.

Now the ugliest fight is between the Liberals and upstart B.C. Conservatives, who are calling on the Liberal speaker of the legislature, Bill Barisoff, to resign over the whole secrets-pending mess.

Shortly after Conservative leader John Cummins called for Barisoff's head, the Liberals called me to tear a strip off John van Dongen, the former Liberal MLA who jumped to the Conservatives in March.

Better put on a raincoat, dear reader - the mudslinging gets down and dirty from here.

Krueger has three part-time constituency assistants in Kamloops. In November 2010, one of them was hired as his "executive assistant" at the legislature. Then Premier Christy Clark dumped Krueger from cabinet in March 2011, and his executive assistant was let go and given $73,000 in severance.

In March 2012, Krueger rehired her as his constituency assistant.

It was one of the more eye-popping items on Premier Christy Clark's credit-card statement: $3,267.66 at the Ferris Oyster Bar in Victoria.

That was the bill for a reception Clark threw for Canada's premiers at a conference last year. The hungry first ministers also chowed down at Vancouver's fancy Bishop's Restaurant, to the tune of $2,279.

As Clark herself said, when denying a raise to B.C. civil servants: "After all, it's taxpayers' money."