BC Liberals seek to cure their summertime blues

Four signs the Clark clique isn't clicking

A source close to the core BC Liberal 2017 campaign team and another source on the riding level both tell me that internal polling is dismal, with 300 days to go before the May 9, 2017 election.

The Metro Vancouver real estate bubble is weighing heavily in polling. There is plenty of time to right the ship, but the NDP is sailing forward at full sail after putting the Liberals on their heels.

One: They’re Going Back to the Legislature (When They’d Rather Be at a BBQ)

The last summer before an election is normally time to rub shoulders, rouse the troops, enjoy burgers and beer and raise some bucks. The BC Liberals weren’t counting on returning to Victoria to amend the Real Estate Services Act to re-regulate real estate agents or pass a law to enable City of Vancouver to tax owners of vacant houses and condos.

Reconvening the Legislature in the final week of July takes time and energy away from those all-important activities. Mind you, the expected Question Period grilling from the NDP will not have as much traction in summer as would Question Periods this fall, should the Oct. 3-Nov. 24 sitting go ahead as scheduled.

The anti-red tape crusaders are reluctantly about to christen a brand new roll of red tape.

Two: Premier Christy Clark Flies Commercial

No #AirChristy this day
No #AirChristy this day

More than five months after chastising those who dared question her preference to ding taxpayers for private jet flights around B.C. with her entourage — including omnipresent videographer Kyle Surovy — Clark took to Twitter on July 12 to show an aerial photo that she said was shot while flying on Air Canada to Penticton for a hospital construction photo op.

I recently revealed that #AirChristy had exceeded the $560,000 mark and that Clark led an entourage to a Prince George BC Liberal fundraiser on a taxpayer-funded charter. 

Clark’s press secretary, Stephen Smart, did not immediately respond to my query about who accompanied the premier to Penticton and how much the flight cost taxpayers. I’ll let you know if he replies.

Three: George Gretes is Back in the News

The former aide to Transport Minister and B.C. Liberal re-election campaign co-chair Todd Stone is expected in a Victoria Provincial Court room on Thursday to plead guilty.

He was charged on March 11 with two counts of lying under oath to the Information and Privacy Commissioner, Elizabeth Denham, when she was investigating the triple delete scandal last year. Gretes will avoid trial, but questions about the Triple Delete scandal and BC Liberals misbehaving won’t go away. As they say, it’s not the scandal, but the attempted cover-up that does more damage in the long-run.

Four: Another Booze Newser

Clark is going on a tour of Vernon’s BC Liberal-friendly Okanagan Spirits Craft Distillery on Wednesday. The distillery has vodkawhiskeyginabsintheaquavit… and fruit brandy. Which will she throw back first?

When they’re in hot water, the BC Liberals have a habit of using liquor industry announcements and photo ops to divert from bigger, badder stories. 


4 thoughts on “BC Liberals seek to cure their summertime blues

  1. Sailjunkie

    If this was the week before the election, I would view this all as excellent news. I’m not a fan of Christy or the Libs. However, the election isn’t for 10 more months. In politics, that’s an eternity. Just remember 2013. 🙂

    Reply
  2. e.a. foster

    What may cause Christy and cabal some problems is the growing “interest” in the fact she is clawing back $7M from one of the most vunerable group in B.C., the disabled. Christy used to claw back $14M from children who received child support payments from the non-custodial parent. Now she’s clawing back $7M from the disabled. all the while the mining industry still hasn’t paid up on the billion and change they owe us.

    Of course Christy is going on tour to announce, announce, announce. Just saw her on t.v. supporting her idiot M.L.A asking when First Nations people were going to get over Residential schools. there just went the Aboriginal vote.

    So lets see, parents of school age children may not vote for her, people who know disabled people may not vote for her, those who don’t have family doctors, those making min. wage. Christy has her supporters and $12M but in the end, that doesn’t equate to 12M votes. Just about everyone’s ox has been gored in this province. there may not be a way to “make” it up.

    About all she can do now is blame the NDP of the 1990s, but she can’t hang the child poverty on them nor the bridges which don’t make money.

    For some reason she is all “excited’ about new ferries and that is getting a whole lot of press. Must be some Green party type which who is gaining traction there. On the other hand, perhaps some of her developer friends want to build “commuter communities” there and they need ferries. wonder who gets to buy the old ones this time and for how little.

    Looks like she just got some face work done also. Won’t help, ugly soul.

    Reply
  3. Evil Eye

    The BC Liberals suffer from the disease of supreme arrogance brought on by years of being in power. Photo-op told extreme exaggerations of the truth to win the last election (mind you, the NDP had a wet noodle running for top office and like a leach they can’t get rid of) and now the chickens are coming home to roost, so to speak.

    The NDP under Horgan the Absent must get off their collective asses and get to work or, like a Greek Tragedy, will again snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

    For the NDP to lose this election would be treasonous.

    Reply

Leave a Reply to Sailjunkie Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *