Some chat from The Post-Mortem: #Elxn40 Shake

 Gabriel Laurence Cayer said...

I don't think it's "clear that Clark didn't win this election, Dix lost it." Dix squandered most of his lead by heading a pretty lame campaign, but it took a really brilliant Liberal campaign to put Clark all the way over the top.

9:44 PM

 

 BC Liberals Suck said...

It is very clear that the NDP (not just Dix) ran "a pretty lame campaign" and this may have squandered a good lead. There is more than one reason this happened, not just a bad campaign strategy. 

I would hope those of us with a variety of political persuasions can all agree on one thing - that polls are full of crap! We might as well have people throwing bones and soothsaying the outcome of elections from here on out. 

However, it is absolute nonsense to think "it took a really brilliant Liberal campaign to put Clark all the way over the top."

Millions of dollars, both taxpayer BC Liberal supporters and others, were shoveled out of the back of a truck and Christy Clark couldn't manage to get elected in her own riding!!! 

This stunning defeat came from the person who had been both the MLA for Vancouver-Point Grey, but also front and centre as Premier for 2 years!!! She lost, even though she was running against a political neophyte, David Eby, who had far less financial resources backing him, and is an unknown quantity to a lot of people. 

What Eby had was an outstanding and hardworking campaign team, a brilliant mind and passion to serve the public good. He is also a person with the kind of integrity and ethics Clark could never begin to even dream of. His constituents are fortunate to have him represent them, those who voted for him and those who didn't. 

What the BC Liberals had was lots of $$$ (much of it taxpayers) for attack ads, candidates who appealed to local voters, and some really safe ridings. They also have voters who like their political ideologies and decisions, no matter how bad they are and how they impact us. Its only a matter of time before all of us get this, because no-one can be shielded forever. 

I was talking to a friend the other day and she told me that because there are no doctors, or transportation for people living in smaller communities in BC to go to places to see doctors and specialists (as well as waitlists to see them), by the time they are able to find ways to get to doctors, they see them and are riddled with cancer and die within very short time frames. That is Health Care brought to you by the BC Liberals. 

In some ways, as the BC Liberal brand of government keeps imploding upon itself, and the election lies start to become more apparent, or fail to materialize, the NDP and their supporters might just start to think it was a blessing in disguise not to win this go around.

Watch and wait, it's all coming apart at the seams. BS, spin, mismanagement, and incompetence can only work for so long before it all starts to fall apart.

6:54 PM

 

The Post-Mortem: #Elxn40 Shake

An exuberant (unelected) Premier Christy Clark was making the rounds of the media today, with a start on the Jeff O'Neill morning show on 99.3 CFOX where she was given bad champagne to toast her victory until she was onto the next media hit. The foremost question on everyone's mind is who is going to step aside so she can try and win a "sure thing" riding.



Meanwhile, the obligatory gnashing of teeth, hand wringing and the like are carrying on as people try to figure this $hit out. In no particular order:

• Adrian Dix is tarnished and a sitting target because of the stuff that happened a long time ago in a galaxy far away. It made great ads to bash him, but it was what Stephen Colbert would call "truthiness." He was not, at the end of the day, a criminal. He made a mistake and he resigned. That is a helluva lot more than some of the deviants, Machiavellians and their ilk that are running around the BC public sector under the last 12 years. I guess we get 4 more now. Bully for us!
• It scared the $^*! out of people when the NDP talked about raising the debt with new spending in a time of economic insecurity and high personal debt. 
• Dix is no match to Clark's charismatic leadership. She's a good debater, presented as confident, well spoken  on many occasions. When she can't dazzle them with her speaking points, she will baffle them with BS that means nothing. To those managed to get off their couches to vote, she seems like more of a confident, go-getter leader than Mr. Policy. It isn't that Dix isn't up to the job. He just can't compete with her carefully crafted image and the spin machine behind her. 
• Negative campaigning and advertising blitzes work. This campaign proved this to me in spades. You couldn't turn around without seeing, hearing, being exposed to a negative ad about Dix, contrasted by warm and fuzzy ones with Clark sitting around the table in soft light. I'm surprised they didn't rig up a halo. 
• People who did not vote strategically in swing ridings helped elect a BC Liberal majority. If voters strategically swung votes from independents, or Greens to the NDP to prevent a Liberal majority we would have had different outcomes in many ridings. In saying that, I think it is exciting that Andrew Weaver, the first Green Party member was elected. And I think it is great Vicki Huntington is back too as an Independent. 

A bit of a round up:

Eby and Heyman offer answers to NDP heartbreak

By Michael Stewart, May 15, 2013. Rabble.ca

I'm devastated that this province can look forward to four more years of unfettered neoliberal policies. This election result is a disaster for labour, for students, for teachers, for the environment, for First Nations rights, for poverty and for affordable housing.

There are already rumblings of what went wrong: vote splitting, the success of negative campaigning, the lack of killer instinct by Dix and his party.

First, Eby has called his campaign a referendum against Christy Clark's leadership. If that's true, and she lost her seat, then all the negative campaigning in the world shouldn't have made a difference. True, Point Grey is not representative of the province as a whole, but it does indicate that the electorate harbours serious questions over Clark's record and leadership. Combine this with the 20-point lead Dix enjoyed only a few weeks ago and it's clear that Clark didn't win this election, Dix lost it.

If the NDP wants to form government, they need to stop relying the belief that the Liberals will simply play themselves out of power in British Columbia and find their nerve. Offer clear policies which promise change in and of themselves by addressing the concrete needs of British Columbians; not vague promises that someday, things will be better.

Otherwise, progressives in this province better get used to disappointment.

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BC NDP flailed instead of fighting back against vicious BC Liberal attack - and lost the election during the campaign

Bill Tieleman's 24 Hours Vancouver/The Tyee column, May 15, 2013.

Tuesday night’s victory by Premier Christy Clark and the BC Liberals will go down in British Columbia political history as one of the biggest upset victories ever.

Unfortunately, it will also go into the books as a triumph of fear over hope, of choosing incredibly negative, personal attack ads over policy and vision, and a revolting example that using taxpayer dollars to advertise your own party cause works.

Clark’s team ran the most right-wing, Republican-style campaign Canada has ever seen.

The BC Liberals were relentlessly nasty, using wealthy allies to air slurs against BC NDP Leader Adrian Dix, while spending voters’ own money to promote the party with a collection of demonstrably false claims about B.C.’s budget, job creation and debt.

And yet, it worked.

For that, the BC NDP must bear its own share of the blame. It allowed a 20-point lead to disappear in a failed campaign that flailed instead of fighting back.

Despite the Harmonized Sales Tax betrayal, the BC Rail scandal and Clark being one of the most unpopular premiers in Canada, the NDP blew it.

And now B.C. will suffer the consequences of electing a leader who is more vicious than visionary.

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Pete McMartin: Absent voters should be ashamed

Excuses cited for not participating in Tuesday’s provincial election, as well as suggestions to making voting easier, are a load of crap

By Pete McMartin, Vancouver Sun columnist May 15, 2013.

During her two days at the polling station, she talked to a Filipino woman who came in, voted, and who then registered her dismay with the apathetic B.C. electorate. Did they not appreciate the privilege of voting? Were they aware that, around the world today, people were dying for the right to vote — not figuratively, but literally — and that in countries nowhere near as wealthy as ours, voter turnouts were much higher?

The answers to both those questions, as evidenced by Tuesday’s experience, would be, no. Neither do many of us appreciate the privilege, nor do we care. More than half of all eligible voters in B.C. have now voluntarily disenfranchised themselves.

Here are the numbers:

• As of Jan. 1, Elections BC reported exactly 3,315,040 eligible voters for the May 14 election. Of those, 3,116,626 registered to vote. (That total will rise somewhat due to citizens who registered at polling stations, the exact number of which won’t be known until early June.)
• As of Wednesday morning, exactly 1,628,524 votes had been cast and counted. (That number, too, will rise, due to late counting of mail-in and absentee ballots.)
• That works out to a voter turnout of registered voters of 52.25 per cent, a fall from the 2009 voter turnout for registered voters of 55.14 per cent.
• But when you use the number of eligible voters to determine voter turnout for this election, the number falls further, to just over 49 per cent.
• And when you consider the total number of votes that the winning Liberals received — 723,133 — the result is even more anemic.
• The governing party of this province for the next four years attracted just 21.8 per cent of all eligible votes. I repeat, 21.8 per cent. That’s not a mandate. It’s a palace coup.

Voting is a bequeathment, not a birthright, and it shouldn’t be seen as an inconvenience to be rectified by iPhone.

It needs defending, not diluting. It needs to be celebrated — not in the flag-waving way of government flackery, but in the hard-eyed way that reminds us how rare and privileged a thing it is.

As for those who were either too lazy, too busy, too complacent or too dissatisfied with the process, or who were so sophomorically cynical about politicians and politics that they couldn’t or wouldn’t get themselves down to a polling station, they should be ashamed of themselves.

There’s a problem with our voting system, all right. It’s them.

pmcmartin@vancouversun.com

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun.

BCNDP Wrestle Defeat from the Jaws of Victory: BC Liberal win majority, while Clark loses her own seat

Explain to me what kind of twisted "democracy" we have here in BC when a person (Christy Clark) can fail to be elected in her own riding, but will continue to be Premier of her party, which won a majority?

Have said it before, but it bears repeating - to the victor goes the spoils and the corporations are licking their chops at what Clark and the BC Liberals will be delivering to them. People  of BC, you are now owned lock, stock and barrel by the Corpocracy. 

Don't have time to provide a full analysis right now, but the people of BC have spoken and this is what they have said:

• We reject Adrian Dix as the leader of BC. He just did not resonate with a majority of voters. 
• We reject the BC NDP in many areas of the province. 
• We want more corporations to enjoy the spoils of our assets, our resources and we want to see more shadowy privatization and contracts we will never see. 
• We do not care about child poverty, seniors conditions, or the most vulnerable in our society. 
• We do not care that this government has been the most corrupt, incompetent and malicious in BC's history - we will elect them anyways over the NDP. Independent Vicki Huntington was re-elected in Delta South, making her the only one of three independent MLAs to hold on to her seat.

Christy Clark leads B.C. Liberals to surprise majority

But Liberal leader loses her own riding of Vancouver-Point Grey to NDP candidate

CBC News. May 14, 2013

Clark lost a tough fight to hold on to her seat in Vancouver-Point Grey, to high-profile NDP candidate David Eby by 785 votes. Despite the riding defeat Clark can still be premier, but it is expected she would seek a seat in a byelection in a safer Liberal riding. The last time a B.C. party leader became premier but failed to win their seat was in 1924.

The Liberals won 44.4 per cent of the popular vote and 50 Liberals were elected in the province's 85 ridings.

The NDP won 39.5 per cent of the popular vote, giving them 33 seats in the legislature, three seats less than they held before the election.

Green Party candidate Andrew Weaver won the first provincial seat for the party in the Vancouver Island riding of Oak Bay-Gordon Head, but party leader Jane Sterk failed to win her seat in Victoria. Overall the Greens won eight per cent of the popular vote.

Independent Vicki Huntington was re-elected in Delta South, making her the only one of three independent MLAs to hold on to her seat.

"Tonight we have received a mandate from the people of British Columbia. And I say to the citizens of British Columbia: You have humbled us tonight with this opportunity and the tremendous obligation you've placed on our shoulders. Together we will make British Columbia better.

"British Columbians will always know what I stand for," said Clark, who stuck close to her campaign message of growing the economy, balancing the budget and creating a "debt-free B.C."

"Together we have succeeded in keeping B.C. on the right track … Our future has never been brighter."

No more Orwellian words have been spoken. 

******************************
See this News1130 page for a results breakdown by riding: 
BC election results page

P.S. And here I was looking forward to retiring this blog. 

"In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act." - George Orwell

Predictions & Prognostications: May 14th is Finally Here!

Getting down to the wire, below are some of the predictions rolling in. I might as well get my predictions in too. 

• NDP win a Majority
• BC Liberals have Modest Returns
• An Independent, or more

I would like to see some Independents elected, more than just one, if possible. Vicki Huntington and Bob Simpson getting in again would be a good thing for democracy in BC. Electoral politics really need to change in this province. We've got to grow up and look at other options beyond first past the post. I definitely lean toward more diverse representation than what our current electoral landscape looks like. 

As difficult as it is for me to believe this, after everything they've done, there are still a few BC Liberal strongholds that will secure them some seats. We'll have to see which ones as there are some real races in here. A few ridings that spring to mind to keep an eye on:

Abbotsford South - Will it be Darryl Plecas, or John van Dongen, whose rabid pit bull schtick once he was out of the BC Liberal stranglehold has been a joy to behold.

Cariboo North - Will Bob Simpson get in as an Independent (hope so!)?

Comox Valley - Will environmental concerns over coal get people voting NDP over Liberal?

Delta South - Go Vicki Huntington go! We need more (effective) Independents to add to the electoral flavour in BC.

Kamloops-North & South Thompson - Bellwether ridings. Could go either NDP, or Liberal. All I know is BC is a better place now that flaming @$$hole Kevin Krueger is no longer "representing" Kamloops-South. People in that riding should be happy too, he made a fool of you and I hope you remember when you're at the ballot box that your MLA represents YOU around the province. 

Langley - I would like to see John Cummins, leader of the BC Conservatives win and kick Mary Polak back to whatever wafflehut she used to work at. Problem is I don't really think that will happen. Cummins and his party have not shone in this election and frankly, it's hard to take him, or the party seriously at this point. 

Surrey-Fleetwood -  Longtime BC NDP Jagrup Brar MLA is facing off against Peter Fassbender, Mayor of the city of Langley,who is running for the BC Liberal banner in a riding he doesn't reside in.

Vancouver-Fairview - Photogenic former BCGEU president, George Heyman, should be able to to deliver a win. He will have some of the best campaigners behind him so getting out the NDP vote should be easily accomplished. 

Vancouver-False Creek - I beg of you people of False Creek, do not inflict the rest of the province with  Sam Sullivan, the former Vancouver mayor. Besides, you can't get better than Matt Toner, who is the kind of 21st century digital dude and businessman that we need in Victoria.

Vancouver-Fraserview - All I can say is so happy Kash Heed is gone. Although now he will likely insufferably find a voice in the media on policing issues. Maybe without some last minute dirty tricks political smear tactics Gabriel Yiu will win the riding on good old fashioned campaigning.

Vancouver-Langara - Popular George Chow, former city councilor and strong Chinese community leader is taking on Moira Stilwell, a BC Liberal MLA who has been languishing away from the lime light because she is probably a real threat to Clark's puerile leadership. 

Vancouver-Point Grey: Will David Eby kick Premier Christy Clark to the curb. If there is a merciful and just God he will (just kidding). But here's hoping the most excellent Mr. Eby wins! He is EXACTLY the kind of new/fresh (and smart) blood the people of BC need in Victoria. 

Vernon-Monashee - With a vote split in the riding, Mark Olson of the NDP might swing the vote his way. 

Victoria-Beacon Hill - Carole James has been a solid NDP MLA and there is no reason she shouldn't win this riding. However this is one to watch because it will be interesting to see how many votes Jane Sterk, leader of the Green Party gets. It is also interesting to note the last minute ads for the Green Party in this riding.

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Tyee's BC Election 2013 Updated Riding Forecasts

We say NDP 57, Liberals 27, one indie. Bet against us?

By  Tyee Staff and Contributors, Today, TheTyee.ca        

Final polls released in the lead-up to the provincial election still have the NDP in lead, albeit a narrower lead than a month ago. Now, the NDP is expected to take about 43 per cent of the vote, and the Liberals about 37.

That makes updating The Tyee's riding forecast more difficult -- especially for the 10 ridings we deemed too close to call when we made our predictions back on April 22.

But we're going to bite the bullet and make those calls anyway, armed with the latest polling data as crunched by Angus Reid, Ipsos Reid, the insightful blog ThreeHundredEight.com, and analysis from The Tyee's own in-depth coverage over the past weeks.

Our totals now add up to 57 seats for the NDP, 27 seats for the BC Liberals, and one seat for an independent. See how our forecasts break down by riding here.

*********************
B.C. NDP stays ahead as Liberals’ base erodes
Daniel Bitonti, May. 13 2013, The Globe and Mail.

The B.C. NDP holds a nine-point lead over the B.C. Liberals as voters head to the polls, according to a new Angus Reid survey conducted exclusively for CTV and The Globe and Mail.

The online poll surveyed 800 voters over the weekend, with the results released on Monday.

“I think what it shows more than anything is that there were a lot of people who made up their minds on how they were going to vote before this [the campaign] ultimately began,” said Mario Canseco, the vice-president of Angus Reid Public Opinion, noting that the difference between the two parties was the same as it was in a poll released last Friday.

Of the voters surveyed, 45 per cent said they intend to vote for an NDP candidate, while 36 per cent said they will vote for a Liberal. Nine per cent said they would vote for the Green Party candidate, while seven per cent said they would vote Conservative.

The first Angus Reid poll of the campaign had the Liberals trailing the NDP by 17 per cent. In early May, the Liberals narrowed it to within seven percentage points, only to see the NDP push their lead up again.

Mr. Canseco said the Liberals’ inability to retain voters who supported them in the last election has been the biggest factor plaguing the party. The latest poll shows that only 67 per cent of people who voted Liberal in 2009 plan to do so on Tuesday. The same poll shows that the NDP has retained 83 per cent of its voters.

“A third of their base is gone,” Mr. Canseco said of the Liberals. “This [weekend] was the chance they had to reconnect with the base. If there was an opportunity to connect, this was the moment to do so. … But there was probably too much baggage to deal with.”         

Chinese Corruption Investigation leads to BC Liberal party insiders

Remember some time ago the head of CSIS issued a dire and rather paranoid warning of "foreign influence."

"Two years ago, CSIS director Dick Fadden made headlines by openly speaking of provincial cabinet members and municipal politicians coming under foreign influence. Though Fadden was cagey about the alleged foreign interference, he broadly suggested that China posed concerns" (CBC News). 

                                 CBC National: CSIS director says foreign governments infiltrating local, provincial governments.

Beijing investigates high official tied to B.C. pulp mill fraud

ANDY HOFFMAN, The Globe and Mail, May. 12 2013.

One of China’s top officials is under investigation for corruption that includes an alleged bank fraud scheme tied to a long-shuttered pulp mill in northern British Columbia controlled by a businessman linked to several high-ranking members of the B.C. Liberal Party.

The state-run Xinhua News Agency reported that the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Communist Party of China is investigating Liu Tienan, the deputy director of the National Development and Reform Commission, for alleged “serious disciplinary violations.”

Mr. Liu ranks among the highest of officials caught up in a sweeping crackdown on corruption led by China’s new President Xi Jinping. The case has ties to a failed investment in the Skeena Cellulose Pulp Mill in Prince Rupert by Chinese businessman Ni Ritao.

The Globe and Mail has previously reported that B.C.’s former Jobs Minister, Pat Bell, forwarded an internal government e-mail discussing fraud allegations published in China against Mr. Ni, the Chinese businessman who purchased the mill. 

Mr. Bell passed the e-mail on to Bill Belsey, the vice-president of the B.C. Liberal Party, who also works for Mr. Ni and appears to have lobbied on behalf of the Chinese businessman and his company.

Mr. Belsey, a former MLA, is being investigated by a provincial watchdog for failing to register as a lobbyist. Mr. Bell is not running in the election.

Andrew Wilkinson, a former B.C. Liberal Party president and the party’s current candidate in the riding of Vancouver-Quilchena, was once the legal representative of a company controlled by Mr. Ni, whose broken promises regarding plans to restart the shuttered pulp mill in Prince Rupert have cost the city more than $3.5-million in legal and maintenance fees.

Mr. Wilkinson also had dealings with Sun Wave Forest Products, a company also controlled by Mr. Ni, when he served as deputy minister for the Ministry of Economic Development between 2003 and 2006, according to documents obtained by The Globe.

Mr. Liu is alleged to have helped arrange an attempted loan of more than $100-million to Mr. Ni by two Chinese banks. Mr. Ni allegedly claimed the funds would be used to buy the pulp mill in Prince Rupert, an asset that he had already purchased in 2005 for about $9-million. A forged appraisal report valuing the mill at $202-million (U.S.) was used to attempt to secure the loan. The Globe has obtained a copy of the apparently fraudulent document. The appraisal firm named in the document, American Appraisal Canada Inc., denies ever issuing the report.

Mr. Ni’s original investment in the pulp mill was made through a company called CGR Investments Inc., which was incorporated in 2003. CGR later became a subsidiary of Sun Wave, which completed the purchase of the mill. Mr. Liu’s wife, Guo Jinghua, was a director and 10-per-cent shareholder of CGR, according to documents obtained by The Globe. In 2005, her ownership stake in CGR was transferred to Liu Dechang, the son of Liu Tienan and Ms. Guo.

According to Elections BC, Sun Wave and CGR donated $14,696 to the B.C. Liberal Party or election candidates between 2005 and 2007.

To the Victor Goes the Spoils: BC Liberals Suck List: The Real Deal, No Spin

Here is the BC Liberals Suck List of how the BC Liberals have made life in BC so much harder, more expensive and less accountable over the last 12 years. In no particular order:

We all pay much more to live in BC now:

• MSP monthly fees
• BC Hydro
• BC Gas
• BC Ferries
• Translink & transportation costs
• Carbon tax (and the scandal of the Carbon Trust)
• Food costs and cost of living
• Rent, with fewer rights for tenants

Privatizations, Outsourcing & Privacy Rights:

• Tearing up collective agreements, firing workers and bringing in cheaper labour in health care leads to increases in transmittable disease outbreaks at many licensed and public facilities. 
• MSP data and information is outsourced and risks of privacy breaches continue. Question: How do we even know when they screw up? Answer: We don't. 
• BC Hydro to Accenture (who has paid millions in fines in the US for mismanagement of data projects)
• BC Gas sold, now it's Terasen Gas and taxpayers pay a private corporation for gas
• P3 projects that include tolling on some routes, but not others
• BC Identification card and Drivers Licenses with RFID technology that can track citizens in BC, Canada and the U.S. 

Fiscal Mismanagement & Incompetence

• Spending millions in cost over-runs on the Vancouver Trade & Convention Centre to have a leaky building.  
• Spending millions in cost over-runs on replacing the roof at BC Place. 
• The Port Mann, Gateway and other projects have poured $$$ into private companies while taxpayers are left holding the bag.
• Cut the Therapeutic Initiatives program. 
• Spent $16 million taxpayer funds on BC Liberal ads pre-election. 
• Spent at least $11 million on the Times of India Awards show to court the "Ethnic" South Asian vote and has less than zero to show for it. 

Have destroyed the following:

• Slashed and burned the Legal Aid and court system around BC. Justice has never been more difficult to access. 
• Have completely mangled and politicized the BC Public Service Agency and public sector so that it is a culture of bullying, covering up scandals, corruption and incompetence, while competent people with integrity fled in droves leaving pond scum behind to fight each other over the spoils. 
• Ministry of Attorney General in BC has spent millions in unknown and unreported legal fees fighting litigation from aggrieved parties. Does anyone even know how many lawsuits against the BC government were launched over the last 12 years and how much this has cost taxpayers?

Scandals, Incompetence and a Lack of Care for the Most Vulnerable among us:

• BC Rail and the real estate that is gone and refusal to have an Inquiry into the whole mess. 
• Secret, shadowy approval to spend $6 million in taxpayer funds so Basi & Virk wouldn't get on the stand and name names. The burning question for many, would one of those names be Christy Clark?
• For 8 years in a row BC led Canada in child poverty (which is family poverty), (now #2 for the country) which means a generation of children in BC have grown up in deprivation. This will cost society billions in health, social and criminal justice costs. 
• Income and disability assistance have never been harder to access leaving thousands of people, including children and families, around BC  living in deep poverty and homeless with no way to get out. 
• BC's so-called child protection system in which children and youth have no-one to protect them from the very system that is supposed to stop them from being abused and neglected. 
• Community Living BC - Devolved from the BC government to save money. Don't keep waitlists, don't know, or care, how many people really need services, don't know how many people are suffering. 
• Thousands of homeless people in BC have died but the BC Liberal government made sure not to keep any real statistics on this, or issue any reports that analyze why so many have died. 
• Shell games with seniors care beds and affordable housing dollars. 
• BC's tattered and fragmented Health care system leaves many in pain, suffering and experiencing a much lower standard of care than a first world nation should experience. 
• International human rights agencies, including the United Nations, have singled BC out for the numbers of women living in deep poverty, for the continuing mistreatment of Aboriginal girls and women and the failure to adequately investigate missing and murdered Aboriginal girls and women across BC. 

List Makers - Part 4: Martyn Brown lists many of the Clark-inspired Scandals & Fiascos of recent times

Martyn Brown: Vote Once, Think Twice

by Martyn Brown on May 12, 2013, Georgia Straight. 

Did Christy Clark actually spoil her own ballot? Yes.

No, I’m not just talking about the one in which she happily wrote down two names, before the cameras. I mean, she’s the author of her own widely expected defeat on Tuesday, and deservedly so.

Although, like so many mistakes Clark has made, her botched advance ballot was also a classic example of her putting politics ahead of the serious task at hand, while also demonstrating how not to vote.

She was so consumed with the photo op and with putting her own name first—sigh—that she almost forgot who she was really voting for.

In a battle of images vying for all that camera love—pearly-white teeth, irresistible smiles, passion and emotion—Adrian Dix can’t compete with Clark.


Trouble is, that’s not leadership. It’s empty imagery that is about as important to governing as the bombast and tarradiddles that are “Christy’s” defining stock-in-trade.

Campaigns are curious adventures in voter manipulation. They tend to bury substance with style and to reward those who look the best in making their opponents look worse.

It’s funny to think that Dix should have lost some support for looking too serious, too cerebral, and too bookish for a job that demands those attributes. It’s not so funny that anyone would somehow misconstrue him as a “weak” leader, when his performance in contrast to Clark’s over the last two years has demonstrated anything but.

Dix has pursued a thoughtful, transparent, and laudable course that is still short on vision, but that is long on realism, moderation and conciliation. That should serve his government well in building new relationships that can begin to transcend the ideological divide that all parties have historically fostered for partisan advantage.

Be that as it may, through a series of successive mistakes made by her own hand, Premier Clark has also spoiled her party’s reelection chances.


Certainly, she was dealt a tough hand, saddled as she was with the HST, with a massive deficit, and with 12 years of B.C. Liberal baggage that she also largely helped author as Gordon Campbell’s deputy premier.

That alone, however, does not account for why Clark went from leading in the opinion polls in the wake of winning the Liberal leadership to so profoundly losing public trust and confidence.

Some 61 percent of all voters now disapprove of her performance.

Even after last year’s two humiliating byelection losses, her government showed no sign that it had heard the voters’ message.


Instead, it defiantly claimed a “victory” in the comfort of a second place finish that managed to “beat” the B.C. Conservatives. Were it not for that party’s self-immolation, the B.C. Liberals would still be facing a wipeout scenario.

Clark could have championed parliamentary reforms and acted to change Victoria’s “sick culture.” Instead, she thumbed her nose at the parliamentary calendar, she showed contempt for the legislature, and she sadly confirmed that when it came to changing a backwards institution, the lady wasn’t for turning.

Clark’s hiring decisions were often equally disastrous.

She appointed her lone caucus supporter, Harry Bloy, to cabinet and appointed him a second time, even after he failed in his first portfolio. With him came the Community Living B.C. disaster, the appointment of Brian Bonney, the Burnaby hospital fiasco, and the “quick wins” scandal.

Clark appointed the Harperites who hurt her office. One of them was her former chief of staff, who was forced to resign for inappropriate conduct. Her government’s paperless “review” of that incident added further insult to injury that diminished the Public Service Agency.

The Premier appointed her former deputy chief of staff, who was fired for coordinating the “quick wins” scheme. She must bear the ultimate responsibility for that scandal that so discredited her government and that so offended multicultural communities.


It was Clark’s choice to waste $16 million of taxpayers’ money for partisan political advertising, which mostly served to undermine her government’s claim to responsible fiscal management. Every penny of that was borrowed and added to the deficit.

It was Clark’s government that repeatedly missed its own deficit targets. And now she has the audacity to campaign on eliminating a debt that she proposes to increase by 50 percent by 2015, if all goes according to plan.

It was Clark who defied her own finance minister and Treasury Board by promising Prince George the “world’s tallest wood building”, which gave rise instead to yet another scandal.


It was her government that betrayed Telus on the BC Place naming rights controversy and cost B.C. taxpayers’ $40 million.

It is the collective weight of her government’s failure, on top of the HST fiasco and the voters’ fatigue after 12 long years of Liberal rule, that will likely sink the Clark government on Tuesday (May 14).

Either way, change is coming to British Columbia, in large measure, because Christy Clark spoiled her chance to prove that she was better than Dix to lead B.C. forward.


She squandered her time and the privilege of power by embracing the politics of the past instead of leading with vision and conviction that reaches higher for British Columbia.

On Tuesday, it will be the people who will again hold the power in choosing a government.

If the polls are accurate, the self-described “comeback kid” is about to get a rude reminder that there is more than one way for voters to spoil her ballot.

They will do that decisively by carefully making a confident mark for positive change that will leave no doubt about their voting intent.

Mapping BC Liberal Scandals, Clark's Words & Political Betrayals of Trust

BC Liberal Election 2013 Web 

Mapping:

• Recent Scandals
• What Christy Clark Says
• BC Liberal Political Betrayals of Trust

List Makers - Part 3: More from Laila's List

More from Laila's 100 + reasons the BC Liberals must go

52) The highly contentious and suspect South Fraser Perimeter Road – yet another project in Campbells infamous Gateway program, that  runs through farmland, skirts the unique and precious Burns Bog, and has taken more than a few peoples home, AND  has already been downgraded before it is even built. http://lailayuile.wordpress.com/2010/10/08/south-fraser-perimeter-road-downgrades-confirmed-by-news-1130-reporter-dave-white/ andhttp://lailayuile.wordpress.com/2010/08/13/south-fraser-perimeter-road-moves-ahead-as-revised-fraser-transportation-group-signs-agreement-with-ministry-of-transportation/

51) The sale of BC Rail, and everything related that has happened before- and since.  http://bctrialofbasi-virk.blogspot.com/

http://lailayuile.wordpress.com/2009/06/29/the-key-to-the-bc-rail-sale-lays-in-premier-gordon-campbells-beginnings-in-real-estate-and-land-development/

50)  The $6 million pay-off of Basi and Virk to plead guilty to some charges in the trial – but not the ones relating to the sale of BC Rail. http://therealstory.ca/2010-10-20/bc-politics/bc-rail-6-million-and-a-non-disclosure-deal-suppresses-evidence

48) The HST and all the lies that surrounded the introduction of it to the people of BC – http://fighthst.com/

47)  Child poverty rates the highest in the country – 8 years in a row – Shame, shame, shame. Doesn’t Campbell know the children really are our future? http://www.firstcallbc.org/pdfs/currentissues/press%20release08stats.pdf

44) Hidden tolls paid by everyone in BC, on the Sea to Sky highway, disguised as ” Vehicle usage Payments” http://lailayuile.com/2010/10/31/shadow-tolls-on-sea-to-sly-highway-the-william-r-bennett-bridgeand-the-bc-rail-connection/ AND  scroll down on this link to the full series http://lailayuile.com/best-of/

43) Gutting of Freedom of Information laws in BC. http://www.straight.com/news/micheal-vonn-bc-government-job-posting-exposes-crisis-democracy Under Christy Clark, allegedly an open government, requests are now posted online, which inhibits many people from requesting. However, often newsworthy  FOI requests are not posted.

37) Gutted workers rights, undermined labour laws. http://www.telusplanet.net/public/afl/LabourNews/june02-07.html

36)The introduction of the Carbon Tax ( still don’t like it, punitive to northern residents) and the Pacific Carbon trust, that has provided a fabulous income to friends of the BC Liberals. http://lailayuile.com/2013/03/27/auditor-generals-long-awaited-report-on-pacific-carbon-trust-finally-released-and-surprise-surprise-there-are-big-problems-all-around/

33) Continual mismanagement of the Forests and related forestry industries in this province http://www.policynote.ca/pat-bells-youtube-foray-sewing-seeds-of-misinformation/

32)Gutted the apprenticeship system in BC, laid off apprenticeship counselors and replaced them with a 1-800 number. http://pacificgazette.blogspot.ca/2012/12/we-are-shockedshocked-we-tell-you.html  ( Hey Christy, you need skilled labour to fill jobs in BC)

31)The entire Accenture/Bc Hydro ongoing debacle… http://thetyee.ca/News/2010/03/22/Finavera/

26) The long and storied relationship between the BC Liberals, SNC Lavalin that continued with Christy Clark bringing on Gwyn Morgan as her personal advisor during her  transition. http://lailayuile.com/2013/02/11/friends-helping-friends-the-story-of-how-the-bc-liberal-snclavalin-connection-persists-with-christy-clark/

http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2013/03/03/bc_premier_christy_clark_faces_calls_to_resign.html

23) One word: PAVCO, who hates the truth so much they want to stop investigative journalist Bob Mackin from getting any from them. http://2010goldrush.blogspot.ca/2013/02/pavco-seeks-to-blacklist-inconvenient.html

22) Ethnicgate: http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/opinion/blogs/lett/195318072.html

http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2013/03/03/bc_premier_christy_clark_faces_calls_to_resign.html

21)  On a related topic, the overpriced Time of India Awards Show, billed as being a strategic move to open BC to Indian investment and business opportunities.. but no one in India watched and it turns out its just a huge advertising plunder to attempt and buy more votes from the Indo community in BC: http://2010goldrush.blogspot.ca/2013/04/the-trials-and-tribulations-of-toifa.html

18) While claiming she has government spending under control, Clark spent more on government credit cards than Campbell in the same time period. http://lailayuile.com/2012/07/30/show-me-the-money-seehow-what-little-we-know-of-the-legislature-spends-its-money-plus-premiers-office-spends-double-what-campbells-crew-did-in-his-last-year/

16) Bringing the still controversial Smart Meters to British Columbia.. when in other locales, people have a choice, and in others, they haven’t worked well http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2013/01/30/bc-smart-meter.html

15) Failed Jobs Plan, worst yet, Clark continues to spout inaccurate numbers and expects voters to believe her  – http://blogs.canoe.ca/davidakin/politics/no-other-way-to-say-it-the-bc-government-is-fudging-its-job-creation-record/

13) The BC Liberals have continually refused to adhere to Generally Accepted Accounting Principle, instead manipulating the provincial books to make the financial picture of the province look better than it really is http://lailayuile.com/2013/01/06/british-columbians-deserve-easy-to-understand-financial-reportingwith-a-clean-opinion-from-their-government-auditor-general-john-doyle/

12) The BC liberal government continually stonewalled their own Auditor Generals attempts to find the truth behind the $6million Basi- Virk payment. http://billtieleman.blogspot.ca/2012/09/basi-virk-stonewalling-auditor-generals.html

11) Clark keeps insisting – and repeating on air – that Moodys rating agency verified her budget was balanced… when in reality, they did not and that isn’t even what they do. Hasn’t stopped her from repeating it over and over again… http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2013/04/26/bc-reality-check-ndp-spending.html

10)  BC Liberals real debt load is far more than claimed: http://lailayuile.com/2013/04/22/bc-liberal-legacy-a-huge-debt-burden-aka-christy-clark-really-has-no-clue-what-she-is-talking-about/

7) That same Christy Clark spent $15million taxpayers dollars on partisan government ads on the very unsuccessful BC Jobs Plan…. http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2012/11/20/BC-Liberals-Ads/ …. all while claiming she controlled government spending.http://m.theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/bc-party-leaders-spar-over-pipelines-balanced-budgets-in-radio-debate/article11578970/?service=mobile

6) While claiming to have reigned in government spending, under Christy Clarks leadership, the BC Liberals added $ 11 Billion dollars to the provincial debt and obligations. http://vancouver.24hrs.ca/2013/04/22/highs-of-liquified-natural-gas-a-fiscal-downer

2) Christy Clark’s LNG plan for the future of BC? Just rainbows,glitter and unicorns, as shown by CBC Reality Check. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2013/04/26/bc-reality-check-lng.html

And the number 1 reason the BC Liberals must go?

The BC liberal party actually voted Christy Clark as their leader… and look what’s happened since.

List Makers - Part 2 - Laila Yuile's 100 + reasons the BC Liberals must go.

Laila that political media dynamo that BC Liberals and others love to hate has updated her list of the reasons the BC Liberals have to go in T-3 days.
Here are some that caught our eye. Read the whole list here.

100 + reasons the BC Liberals must go

Laila Yuile, No Strings Attached : Laila Yuile on politics and life in B.C.

In 2010, I asked my readers to see how fast they could come up with 100 reasons NOT to vote for Gordon Campbell ( and the Liberals) again.  Readers rose to the challenge, and the comment sections quickly filled with concrete examples of Liberal failures that have all occurred during that Golden Decade during which the BC Liberals revealed an agenda of slice and dice vs. corporate welfare.

141) "Fabricating ” an ‘energy crisis’ in BC to be solved by forcing the public utility BC Hydro to buy power at twice the market value from Liberal-stocked independent power producers and then reselling it at a loss to owners of air-conditioners in California .

140)Closed 24 of 68 courthouses so the Attorney General could meet budget targets , therefore putting excessive strain and overload on the remaining ones, and forcing people to travel further to deal with family and criminal matters.http://bccla.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/20120401-Justice-Denied-report1.pdf

137) Massive, MASSIVE cutbacks to legal aid services in this province, across the board,for the entire time the BC Liberals have been in power . More people than ever are unable to remedy family law and simple legal matters because of lack of funding and resulting closures to free clinics, help lines and offices. http://www.povnet.org/node/3629 details  in the reasons below.

127)committed to NOT introduce internet gaming in 2007, then created and introduced the new BCLC online gambling site this year, again increasing and furthering the incidence of gambling addiction and family strife, since there is no way to police it.

126) raised gambling limits to $ 9,999.00 – a mere $1 below the reportable level to FINTRAC, the agency that monitors and polices money laundering… lol.http://billtieleman.blogspot.com/2010/07/explain-bc-liberals-addiction-to.html

125) raised MSP premiums, while service and wait times increased – and get ready for another MSP premium increase January 1st, 2013.http://www.vancouversun.com/health/premiums+rise+second+straight+year/7987242/story.htm

122)closed 176 schools between 2001  and  2009 . ONE FREAKING HUNDRED AND SEVENTY SIX SCHOOLS!!!! http://bctf.ca/SchoolClosures.aspx

121) cut funding to the Success by 6 program, an initiative which gave young children a head start  through more than 400 projects in 240 communities in British Columbia, including early childhood literacy programs, music and social programs for preschoolers, mentorship programs for single mothers,  and pregnancy support .http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2010/03/24/bc-success-by-six-cancelled.html

120)Cuts to seniors services and care http://www.hsabc.org/news/seniors-victims-long-term-care-and-home-support-cuts

116) cuts to funding and programs for special needs children in schools as a result of budget cuts.http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2010/06/25/bc-vancouver-special-needs.html

115) highest tuition fees  ever on record , for university and colleges in BChttp://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/September2010/16/c2521.html

111) BC post secondary students collectively pay more in fees than government collects in corporate income tax, showing where Liberal priorities really are.

110) cuts to surgeries in BC http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2010/01/21/bc-oylmpics-cancelled-surgeries-dix.html

109) cuts to diagnostic and rehabilitation serviceshttp://www.hsabc.org/search/cuts%20to%20diagnostic%20and%20rehabilitation%20services

108) cuts to community outreach services http://www.nupge.ca/content/3456/bc-cuts-southern-vancouver-island-social-services

104) cuts to income assistance programs http://www.bcfed.com/node/294

103) although the Liberals increased the number of Casinos and access to other forms of gambling, continued cuts have been made to the amount of gaming grants given out to  social service agencies, programs, playground and schools – only a small portion were  ever restored. http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2010/03/08/bc-community-gaming-grants.html

97) unregulated fish farms on the coast of bc and their impact on wild salmon stocks, as well as the increase in fish farm licences the Libs handed out during their tenure.  http://thetyee.ca/Views/2005/10/02/WildSalmonWipedOut/

94) The announcement by Campbell to flood hectares of prime land for yet another dam to generate power the province will sell elsewhere – and Christy Clark continues the push for Site C, admitting it’s needed for her LNG dreams http://lailayuile.wordpress.com/2010/04/20/the-worst-is-yet-to-come-rafe-mair/

93) Crown land giveaways and contracts apparently based on political donations. http://lailayuile.wordpress.com/2009/04/21/brookfield-asset-management-gordon-campbell-and-british-columbias-best-assets/

88) The “coincidental” and repeated occurrence of  development and real estate companies who donate large $$ to the Liberal party of BC, getting lucrative land deals and approvals across the province http://thetyee.ca/Blogs/TheHook/BC-Politics/2009/05/08/Builders-real-estate-firms-gave-big-to-BC-Liberals/

87) The ” coincidental” and repeated occurence of other corporations( mining,gas, oil and independent power producers) who donate large $$ to the Liberal party of BC getting lucrative contracts, deal and approvals across the province: http://lailayuile.wordpress.com/2010/05/07/the-kind-of-corruption-the-media-talk-about-the-kind-the-supreme-court-was-concerned-about-involves-the-putative-sale-of-votes-in-exchange-for-campaign-contributions-james-l-buckley/

86)  In February 2008, the public learned that Campbell’s TransLink board voted themselves a 500 percent pay raise. Only a few weeks later, the premier’s BC Ferries directors received an increase of up to 60 percent — on April 1, 2008 – the same day ferry fares were increased for British Columbians.
Compare this with the fact that in 2008, more than 50,000 British Columbians worked for minimum wage or less http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2008/02/08/bc-translink.html

85)  The very large and expensive  mess that is known as BC Ferries http://thetyee.ca/News/2009/11/07/BloatedFerries/

83)  The very large  and again, expensive mess known as BC Hydro , which is on the path to financial ruin http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2010/08/23/BCHydroPathToRuin/    and another opinionhttp://www.bclocalnews.com/bc_thompson_nicola/clearwatertimes/opinion/101681738.html

78).  Choosing to contract out the storage, handling and administration of our personal medical records to an American company, which leaves personal information potentially open to dubious uses with American law enforcement http://lailayuile.wordpress.com/2009/05/06/bc-citizens-assessment-of-what-the-campbell-government-has-done-to-british-columbia-so-far/

76) Christy Clark has spent so little time in the legislature, she needs a map to find her way around the building when she does show up. Only 19 days in session in one calendar year! http://www2.macleans.ca/2013/01/13/the-absentee-b-c-legislature/

74) Sold off BC Gas, now known as Terasen

72)  Exporting raw logs to China and elsewhere ( a direct contradiction to a campaign promise he made prior to first being elected back in 20o1) all while closing BC mills who could process wood here. http://www.peoplesvoice.ca/articleprint21/02)_BC’S_FOREST_JOBS_CRISIS.html http://store.wildernesscommittee.org/campaigns/communities/campaigns/communities/readers/raw_logs/

71) Vancouver convention centre completely ridiculous cost overruns , which technically might make it the largest screw-up in the history of BC – that is, until the final and true bill for the new Port Mann bridge comes in http://www.bcndp.ca/newsroom/campbells-convention-centre-overruns-largest-boondoggle-bc-history

70) Sea to sky highway over-runs – with no toll to cover costs . Campbell told press repeatedly at photo ops that the cost of the highway would be $800 million, yet the final cost was  nearly$2 billion + http://www.bcndp.ca/newsroom/campbell-liberals-p3s-not-time-not-budget

68) Failed P3- Port Mann Bridge debacle 

http://lailayuile.wordpress.com/2010/08/25/the-truth-will-set-you-free-but-first-it-will-piss-you-off/ and of course the must readhttp://lailayuile.wordpress.com/2009/10/09/laila-yuile-says-time-to-start-those-tolls-on-the-sea-to-sky-highway/

66)The  tragically expensive new roof on BC Place stadium...Originally announced at $365 million BEFORE the election, it went to $458 million after the  election ...total of $ 577 million. http://www.burnabynow.com/news/Costs+balloon+Place+roof/3385325/story.html

64) More cuts to seniors beds in residential care, than have been created, leave seniors and their families at risk and great worry http://www.straight.com/article-218182/ndp-leader-carole-james-whacks-gordon-campbell-seniors-care

65) Homelessness in BC  has risen over 300% during Liberals time in power.

62) Severe mental health and addiction cuts left many on the streets and without care- this continues through 2013 with no plan to address the challenges of the most vulnerable. http://www.bcndp.ca/newsroom/bc-liberal-mental-health-and-addiction-cuts-will-hurt-communities

61)Ken Dobell. And there are many more just like him among the BC Liberals crew of supporters/corporate friends. http://billtieleman.blogspot.com/2008/03/tieleman-ken-dobell-is-not-crook-he-is.html

60)"The Kinsella Connection”  http://lailayuile.wordpress.com/2009/04/11/the-kinsella-connection-it%E2%80%99s-no-secret-that-patrick-kinsella-is-one-of-gordon-campbell%E2%80%99s-closest-friends/

53)  The BC Liberals cut student aid, while tuition rates here in BC remain at an all time high - making it hard for domestic students to obtain a post  secondary degree.  It turns out that the Liberals have been promoting our universities and colleges to overseas students, leaving our own BC students in the cold.   http://www2.news.gov.bc.ca/news_releases_2009-2013/2010ALMD0057-001287.pdf