Tonight, the B.C. Liberals will be gathering at the Prince George Civic Centre for their annual fundraising dinner. The dress code for the 2016 edition of An Evening With The Premier is black tie and blue jeans. In other words, it's dress like Mike Morris night. Nobody can slip on a jacket and make jeans look formal quite like the MLA from Prince George-Mackenzie.
The official business of the night is to raise money, with a provincial election just 13 months away. Last year's event, according to documents filed with Elections B.C., brought in just $22,618.81 to party coffers. While the gross income from the 2015 dinner was nearly $171,000, the $148,000 and change in expenses kept the net income down. Without the $50,000 made during the live and silent auctions, last year's affair would have lost money. There were 634 tickets sold for $85 each with businesses and organizations buying 450 of those tickets. (Editor's note: Citizen publisher Colleen Sparrow and I attended the Evening With The Premier last year, accounting for two of those tickets. We will be there again tonight.)
The very next page of the B.C. Liberal Party's filing to Elections B.C. shows how to do it right. The Abbotsford Fundraising Dinner on Feb. 3, 2015 sold just 20 tickets but 19 of them went for $5,000 each and the last ticket went for the bargain rate of $1,250. The event cost just $3,289.43 to host, adding up to a tidy gain of $92,960.57.
Tonight's dinner in Prince George doesn't want to miss out on this kind of opportunity.
Tickets are $90 each this year but the real money will be at the premier's table. Two seats can be had to dine with Christy Clark for $25,000. This "platinum" sponsorship comes were some other perks worth roughly $5,000, so those seats cost $10,000 each. The "gold" sponsor costs $15,000 - $5,000 in perks and one seat at Clark's table.
In other words, this event should generate far more profit than last year's affair.
The money is important but the message is also critical and Clark is already busy shaping it in advance of next spring's campaign.
During her appearance in Fort St. John Thursday at a pro-LNG rally, she spokes to Jonny Wakefield of the Alaska Highway News. When he asked her about the possibility of no LNG plant announced by next year and how will she defend that record to voters, her reply was a variation of "when the going gets tough, the tough get going."
It's been harder than expected because nobody saw the drop in oil prices coming. B.C. is still sitting on a "treasure trove" of natural gas. We've got to "unlock that potential" for the good of all B.C. residents. It's all the lead up for her real answer, where she separates herself and the Liberals from John Horgan's NDP.
"I think the question in the next election is going to be do British Columbians want to vote for a party of quitters?" she said. "Or do they want to vote for a party of people who are absolutely bound and determined to make sure we make the most of this resource for people who live here?"
The NDP is on the run federally, after last fall's federal election and the abrupt removal of leader Tom Mulcair at this month's party convention, and in Manitoba after Monday's crushing defeat in the provincial election. Clark and her colleagues intend to cheerfully kick the NDP while it's down.
The Party of No. Quitters. And she hasn't even got started on the Leap Manifesto yet.
Whether it's with reporters or in front of fundraising banquets with the party faithful, Clark is busy constantly crafting her message, filing her words into daggers to inflict the most damage on a B.C. NDP on the defensive, insisting the Leap Manifesto doesn't reflect its ideals and still trying to figure out if it's really in opposition to construction of the Site C dam.
Money -- check. Message -- check.
Opposition way behind on raising money and solidifying message -- check.
In that light, tonight's event isn't just a fundraiser and an opportunity for Clark to try out a few new zingers in her speech. It's a celebration, for a leader and a party written off three years ago that now finds themselves well-positioned for another victory at the polls.
There's still 13 months before voting day and political fortunes change rapidly everywhere else and at light speed in B.C. All the money and message in the world can't stop that change once it starts taking shape in the minds of voters.
Best to celebrate now, with no sign of changing attitudes on the horizon.
-- Managing editor Neil Godbout
