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Caucus retirements leave Christy Clark looking like a doomed premier
An image like this hasn't helped Christy Clark with centrist voters.
I keep expecting that Premier Christy Clark will have at least one good week.
Nobody, not even former premiers Bill Vander Zalm or Glen Clark, has been buried by as many bad weeks in a row as Clark has endured.
She got off to a decent start after winning the B.C. Liberal leadership, raising the minimum wage and not losing a by-election in Vancouver-Point Grey.
But since then, it's been mostly horrible news, including the ongoing fiasco at Community Living B.C., the chronic ridership problems at B.C. Ferries, and an economy that refuses to catch steam.
The Northern Gateway Pipeline proposal isn't helping Clark's prospects, given that she continues to sit on the fence as public opposition grows.
Then there are those rotten polls. Another one this week from Angus Reid showed that NDP Leader Adrian Dix is gaining momentum as the B.C. Liberals sputter.
There's a growing list of MLAs who won't seek reelection. This week, it was Murray Coell and Dave Hayer who threw in the towel.
Earlier, it was Kash Heed, Kevin Krueger, Harry Bloy, Barry Penner, and Iain Black. And John van Dongen left the caucus.
Hayer was one of Finance Minister Kevin Falcon's most enthusiastic supporters in the B.C. Liberal leadership race. It's hard to imagine that Hayer would have made his announcement without first consulting Falcon, a fellow Surrey MLA.
The retirements indicate that caucus members are voting with their feet on Clark's leadership.
She can stick it out until the inevitable slaughter in the 2013 election. Or the B.C. Liberals can pull the plug this fall and form a new party with a new name.
Of course, that would require a leadership contest, which would provide Clark with a graceful way out.
The alternative is to watch more B.C. Liberal MLAs leave the floundering party over the summer and fall, further humiliating Clark and ensuring her political demise by spring.
Vander Zalm and Glen Clark eventually quit, albeit too late to save their parties. The way things are going with the B.C. Liberals, we're likely going to see history repeat itself.
It's almost enough to make me feel a tiny bit sorry for the premier.
Follow Charlie Smith on Twitter at twitter.com/csmithstraight.
I know that Dix has followers in the NDP, are there other factions in that party?
They sold off BC Rail in a deal that cost us millions, that squandered a public asset, and that saw us paying the million-dollar legal fees of active criminals.
They brought in the deeply-unpopular HST, having promised they would never do any such thing. They spent millions to defend it.
They mis-appropriated more millions from Gaming revenues, and broke the compact that allowed legal gambling in the first place.
They have driven BC Ferries onto the rocks, and into the red, all the while paying millions to its managers.
They have allowed private-profit hydro plants on BC rivers, and forced BC Hydro to pay ridiculous charges for the electricity generated.
There are many more examples of grotesque incompetence, but these suffice to make the point: the BC Liberals have lost the confidence of the people. In our system, that leads to only one result.
Political defeat, richly earned.
I say bring back Rita Johnson, Van Der Zalm and some one with the last name Bennet,
ah forget it Dey Is Screwed - Good but Good.
Spring is in the air, 2013 that is, I can hardly wait.
Those leaving and retiring have no one to blame for the state of the liberals but themselves. Anyone remember how NONE of those SOBs represented their constituents and spoke out against the HST? The party was doomed and dead when she took over. There is nothing the liberals could since the HST that would have changed my opinion about them to garner my vote.
Miguel
How could we correct such abuses? Even if you live in a riding with a governing MLA, only mass, sustained pressure from constituents and the press will correct abuses. I figure most people are busy making a living and don't actively pursue the gov't about taxes and how they spend them.
In other words, as long as the changes are gradual and there's not extreme, media worthy greed or incompetence, I think people are generally passive about how the government works right now (or at least nowhere near French Revolutionary standards of resentment, :) For example, yes, BC Hydro rates are increasing, but I adapt by trying to be a smarter shopper, use less hydro, etc. It would take a major reduction in living standards for people to react, and then gov't to act.
Perhaps this is a limit of current society, kind of like the older cultures (Roman, British Empires) had limits based on their technology, bureaucracies, etc. It's hard to imagine change in a complex system without many active participants that understand better ways of working and coexisting - utopia anyone?
looks towards her shit eating PR team and inquires.."Is there anything on that ice cube that I can get my picture taken alongside of?"