As visions of sugarplums dance in our heads and the grinding rigors of politics give way to the festive season it appears that the Christmas break may foreshadow better news for Christy Clark and the B.C. Liberals. I wouldn't break out the Champagne just yet, but with a lot of hard work, a few more bubbles may float their way.
Recent polling shows the party is up a few points; it's still trailing the NDP, but moving upward sure beats the alternative. Plus, there have been a few hotly contested nomination races with high-profile candidates in ridings where former MLAs have stepped down. This is always a good sign. No one competes for a seat on the Titanic. The party convention was enthusiastic and the Liberals are raising a lot of cash throughout the province including an event held lately in Prince George. As Sun columnist Vaughn Palmer wrote, "Dollars, candidates and an upbeat mood at the party convention are all good signs that the party itself is in better shape than it looked to be six months ago."
The other good news for Clark is the collapse of the B.C. Conservative Party. Defections, party constitution disagreements and general mismanagement have consigned the provincial Conservatives to the also-ran column. History shows us the provincial New Democrats can always eke out around 40 per cent of the popular vote. In B.C. the non-NDP party - be it the Socreds from over 20 years ago or Liberals in the last 12 years - will form government if, and it's a big if, there is no right-wing split.
Unless provincial Conservative leader John Cummins can pull off a re-organization miracle, his party will not be a contender in the upcoming May 2013 provincial election.
Locally, Prince George has faired well with the Liberals. The list of accomplishments include the UBC Medical School at UNBC and our newly opened Cancer Clinic. Even the long-awaited Wood Innovation Development Centre - on the to-do list since 2009 - is finally on its way with the building request now including a call for additional private investment.
Those of us who remember the Prince George "Have you had enough?" rally as the NDP limped out of office in 2001 know how devastating political dissent can be, but there's nothing like that feeling either here or anywhere else in B.C.
As this is being written, Finance Minister Mike de Jung has announced an increase in B.C's deficit. It is estimated to grow to $1.47 billion. Not good news, but most economists predict the B.C. economy to grow at a rate of 2.1 per cent, a bit better than that of most Canadian provinces. As a comparative example, Alberta's deficit will be $3 billion. Given the devastating global events of the last four years B.C. is fairing well.
As we head into the Christmas political lull, I wish the Liberals well. The party has an enormous uphill climb and as B.C. heads into an election year there are just a few short months left to convince the electorate the Liberals can govern better than the NDP. Currently - and even in these tough economic times - NDP leader Adrian Dix is seen as being the better leader at handling the economy, in spite of the New Democrat's dismal fiscal record during the 1990s.
The bottom line -- nature and politics hate a vacuum and to date Christy Clark has six short months left to define her government as having the capacity and structure to lead. Far be it from me to describe the Liberals as vacuous, but to date that's what the electorate is saying.
*** *** ***
Justin Trudeau: Loose lips sink more than ships.
Christmas came early for Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the Conservative party, compliments of Liberal MP and leadership hopeful Justin Trudeau. Two years ago, on a French-language radio show in Quebec Trudeau said, "Canada isn't looking good because it's Albertans who are controlling our community and social economic agenda, it's not working." He went to say we needed a Prime Minister from Quebec.
As we know now, this recently unearthed quip probably cost the Liberal Party the Calgary-Centre seat in Monday's by-election.
I have to ask what Quebec attributes Trudeau would introduce to make Canada look good. Would it be high taxes, a towering debt, a $7.9 billion grab in equalization payments or perhaps massive government corruption?
Looking at the Quebec social-economic agenda and its less-than-admirable outcomes, I'd say Canada should stay with the leaders from Alberta or anywhere other than Quebec.
