A man who knew a bit about desperate government, Macbeth would probably sympathize with Premier Christy Clark as her B.C. Liberals begin this final session of the legislative assembly.
``I am in blood,`` Macbeth tells his wife in the Shakespearean tragedy. ``Stepp'd in so far that, should I wade no more, Returning were as tedious as go o'er."
To be sure, Clark's party is not so much covered in blood as weighed down by the baggage of more than a decade of Gordon Campbell's rule (though, as they ask in the airport, Clark helped pack many of the bags she carries). But like the sadistic Scottish king, she's stuck between plunging headlong into oblivion and reversing deeper into the mud.
Her government delivered its Speech from the Throne Tuesday but recent days have said far more about her government. The party is stumbling from the imbroglio surrounding Auditor General John Doyle and the house-of-cards implosion of star candidate Sukh Dhaliwal. Of particular note to Prince George readers, the Globe's Justine Hunter reports of open bickering in caucus regarding Deputy Premier Rich Coleman and the wisdom of liquor-policy changes in favour of Pacific Western Brewery, a firm that also contributed "generously" to the deputy premier's campaign fund.
Then there are the polls. The latest by Justason Market Intelligence gives the NDP a 22 point lead over the Liberals. An Angus Reid poll had 41 per cent of respondants describing the premier as 'out of touch.' 'Arrogant' pulled in 39 per cent while 'secretive' and 'inefficient' mercifully tied at 33 per cent.
Before the NHL lockout ended, one could have bet Roberto Luongo would be yanked from the most important job in B.C. before Christy Clark. But his numbers are stellar.
And, despite the shortened season, he had far more time to raise his stock - 48 games compared to the bare 90 days Clark's government has to somehow remake the stricken submarine she currently commands into something, anything that can fly.
She doesn't have a lot to work with. A combination of plunging natural gas revenues, the Liberals' own balanced-budget legislation and public distrust of her party's once-sterling fiscal reputation has Financial Minister Mike de Jong warning there won't be many pre-election 'goodies' in the budget to be tabled next week. She's also, as Sun columnist Vaughn Palmer points out, saddled with a slim majority in the legislature that's been whittled down by defections and byelection defeats.
What's also uncertain, writes Palmer, is how will the MLAs she does have support her as they contemplate life on the Opposition benches and geese squawk inside the gates. It's unlikely the NDP will be able to bring down the government but procedural miscues and other Hansard misadventures will only spawn more process stories about the weakness of Clark's administration.
However, she's got plenty of votes for her party's main task this session - the return to the PST after the Liberal's disastrous flirtation with the Harmonized Sales Tax. The NDP has, of course, said they'll support the legislation but have left unsaid they will spend as much time as they can - time the Liberals will lose to forward their agenda. It's unfortunate that the Liberals' first order of business is handing the NDP the biggest club in the deck.
The best part of the throne speech were nice tributes to notable northern B.C. icons, including pastor Lance Morgan and forestry pioneer Ike Barber; the worst was the conspicuous absence of any mention of Wood Innovation and Design Centre and a fleeting promise to look for more forestry business in India. There were various-sized pieces of pie in the sky, from a multi-billion dollar fund based on hoped for liquid natural gas revenues to a vague promise to look at some sort of school of traditional Chinese medicine somewhere in B.C. (this presumably took the place of WIDC in the wouldn't-it-be-nice category). Mainly the speech dwelled on what the Liberals had done rather than what they would do.
The overriding theme was B.C. was a safe harbour of prosperity in an global economic maelstrom. It's probably wishful thinking since the Liberals don't have a similar sort of refuge for their battered pirate fleet.
This is a government with less than a baker's dozen weeks to find money, ideas, votes, credibility, political capital, morale and popular support before the voters pass final judgment. The only thing the Liberals seem to have an abundance of is alliteration: Christy Clark, Pat Pimm, balanced budgets, families first.
All that's missing is Pat Bell showing up in a coonskin cap and Adrian Dix dressing up as a Mexican general at the Alamo legislature. Macbeth had a line for that and the Liberals too: "Blow wind, come wrack, at least we'll die with harness on our back."
