Friday, November 02, 2012

When You Live in Glass Houses, Things Can Always Get Worse

The boat is beyond leaky. I find it hilarious the BC Liberals think getting Sukh Dhaliwal is a big coup. After years in office, which should prove his record for constituents, he was wiped off the map by Jinny Simms, well-known, but a neo-phyte to federal politics. 

I met the guy in Ottawa, he came across like too many other politicians, humouring the electorate, by gracing us with his presence. He's got his own game, like most.
It won't matter though, BC Liberals are done like dinner!

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Back when Christy Clark was hanging out with Stephen Harper and Preston Manning to prove her right-wing street cred, a guy like Sukh Dhaliwal wouldn't have made the cut on her photo-op A list.

Dhaliwal, unveiled Wednesday as a provincial Liberal candidate in Surrey, is a former federal Liberal MP.

Christy is also a former federal Lib, but she has gone to great strains to disguise her pedigree.

Why? Because the provincial Liberals have been bleeding right-wing support to the upstart B.C. Conservatives, and Clark had been passing herself off as a Harper fan to stop the hemorrhaging.

But that was before the B.C. Tories stalled in the polls, and perhaps the provincial Liberals feel the worst of the vote-splitting is over.

So it seems it's OK for federal Liberals to come out of hiding, and now Dhaliwal is being hailed as a star candidate for Team Christy.

"Christy Clark is a great leader," said Dhaliwal, who will carry the B.C. Liberal banner in Surrey-Panorama in the May election.

The seat is currently held by Social Development Minister Stephanie Cadieux, who will run in Surrey-Cloverdale, the seat being vacated by former finance minister Kevin Falcon. This is an excellent deal for Cadieux, who should have an easier time getting re-elected in the riding Falcon won by a comfortable 7,700 votes in 2009.

Dhaliwal will have a tougher time in Panorama — which Cadieux won by just over 3,000 votes last time — but the former MP said it wasn't a case of seniority rules.
"She lives in Cloverdale and I live in Panorama, so it works out well," said Dhaliwal, adding he decided to take another run at politics to stop Adrian Dix and the NDP.

"That's why I'm doing this — because the NDP have driven the economy into the ditch every time they've got in," said Dhaliwal, who was orange-crushed in the last federal election by the NDP's Jinny Sims.

Dhaliwal landed in controversy in Ottawa when he presented a petition in the House of Commons calling for 1984 violence against Sikhs in northern India to be recognized as "genocide."

Critics of the Indian government allege Sikhs were targeted that year following the assassination of then-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards.

"It was a petition given to me by constituents and I did my duty as an MP and presented it," said Dhaliwal, who denies courting the support of militant Sikhs.

"I'm supported by a wide sector of the community," said Dhaliwal, who will bring a strong political machine to the race next May.

Despite their dismal standing in the polls, the B.C. Liberals seem to have a spring in their step. The B.C. Tories are sliding, and Clark put in a strong performance at the party's weekend convention in Whistler.

Dhaliwal and the Liberals are daring to hope things are getting better. They might as well. According to polls, they could hardly get worse.

msmyth@theprovince.com
twitter.com/mikesmythnews

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