BC Liberals: The Beginning of the End

The link leads to Romney. I am interested in the Clark story as I anticipate retirement in a few years to Victoria.

It is nice to see the liberals implode completely. I just hope the bc conservatives can eventually take power. In the meantime I've got my physical gold and friends in Alberta in my industry who can hook me up with jobs.

Robert, take another sip of coffee and give us the Christy Clark link. :-)

I'm a BC resident who is not impressed with the way the Liberals have conducted business for the last few years: Campbell botched the HST introduction by not bothering to explain it when he announced it, then promising not to introduce it when he last campaigned for office; Clark made the mistake of skipping the middle when shifting the party left, leaving behind the fiscal conservatives who actually built the party only twelve or fifteen years ago, and doing nothing to mollify the useful idiots of the left who can't be placated by anything less than a Great Leap Forward.

So far, I've lived through two lessons from the BC NDP, and I fear that another is on the way. It seems that we forget the damage they do to the province's industry and financial stability, causing widespread harm to families, towns, and regions throughout the province. Only the teachers and big union backers of the NDP gained during these hard times, and only for brief periods before the economic collapse caught them as well.

This third lesson, then, comes courtesy of the arrogance of the ruling Liberals in the face of all the usual suspects: unions have to show some benefits to their members who pay dues to get gains they don't deserve; environmentalists who want to condemn all the province outside of the lower mainland to tourism McJobs in order to preserve every tree and rock in case
the city-dwellers should ever want to take a drive; first nations who want more graft before anyone can invest anywhere, in anything; and the media, who are still pushing us toward a "better" society, where we are just happy to be led by our educated betters.

A talk show hostess, no financial understanding, political education as a school board trustee, topped by being a leftard Libel. Cannot get any better than that!

For those that hold out hope on the conservative party re-org, good luck. Reports I am getting is that John Cummins is way past his due date. His supporting cast does not appear to be up to the challenge. This group would have been further ahead to have joined the BC Libel party and taken it over from within. Seriously, how difficult would that have been if Christie was able to do that very thing.

I am totally disillusioned with the BC politic as we had such a foothold under Reform. It has all been p*ssed away as far as I can see.

The Liberals have run their course and Clark's resistance to letting the carbon tax scam go,as well as hanging on to the HST for as long as possible is hurting her dwindling popularity. Campbell did enough damage that she is still seen as a extension of his policies. The biggest problem I see is that the NDP will replace her. After they finish their term even Ontario may look good. The tree hugging tax and spend party should crush any hope of a vibrant economy in BC for the forseeable future.

Apparently every 20 years BCers feel the need to flagellate themselves with an NDP government.
Perhaps this cycle they’ll learn...

Sorry about the messed up link, folks. One of my colleagues fixed it.

'Robert of Penticton': You and I share more than first names, brother. About a year ago I mostly gave up following provincial politics here in BC. It's just too depressing.

Come the next election, I will go to vote. But I can't bring myself to vote for the Liberals, and of course not for the NDP. The provincial Conservative party consists of just a bunch of bickering schoolboys IMO. So I think that spoiling my ballot - first time ever - is my only reasonable choice.

I fully do realize that Clark has paved for the way for 4 years of what will be a very left-wing NDP government, one which will almost certainly bankrupt the province a third time.

What a sorry state our provincial politics are in.

Another point is that the NDP in BC have been as corrupt as anyone else, if not more so; and twice as incompetent (can you say "superferry?").

The Socreds provided not-too-bad government. What in the world infection takes hold of supposedly intelligent people to turn them into Leftards?

Cristy Clark is a dead Albatross hanging from the Libs neck.
John Cummins is a creepy old fossil and needs to go.
Both are clinging to power and will be the demise of their respective parties.

Both stepping down would give a sniff of a hope for a coalition, IMHO.

I'm moving east next spring, so best of luck.

She supported and worded for Paul Martin.

'Nuff said about her intelligence and political instincts.

Drastic action needed or we get the BC FED sock puppet Dippers running the show and ruining the economy.

Gary Mason, can he not for a second comment on the " name change"?

It speaks volumes that CC wants people to believe that is the real problem! Treat the public like stooges

So far in these comments we've identified the problems with the Liberals and Conservatives, the (almost certain) hazards that come with the NDP, and even the best prescription: an internal takeover of the Liberals by the Conservatives.

What we don't have is the pressure to change the direction of the Liberals - away from the NDP positions, and back toward the free enterprise roots that won Gordon Campbell the Premier's office.

Sadly, we will need the only center right option in BC to spend four years wandering in the desert before we can toss out the Liberal leaders and reform the party once again.

What bothers me most in life is the constant pull leftward in every aspect of life. From elementary school to university, from the environmental and social
welfare proponents to the first nations agitators, and in a thousand other applications of pressure I'm faced with constant pressure to mend my evil ways. Well, I'm sorry to say that the older I get the more like myself I become - and I'm happy taking responsibility for my own life, and for my family's well-being.

Maybe I'm just getting tired of resisting all the "progress".

Must be that glass ceiling I keep reading about...

I attended the liberal party function where crispy was imposed as premier. The votes were counted and the room's mood became evermore gloomy as, one by one the more promising leaders were sidelined .
It soon became apparent that the BC liberals had been hijacked by a wierd coaliton of the real house wives of Vancouver or the "ladies- who- do- lunch", and trendy leftoids.Many of us left with a feeling of deep foreboding,since proved out.
Many felt she had over- wieght baggage from the rotten BC rail scam with direct ties to the shadowy shady backroom boys who created the scandal.
Incredibaly enough, she has now called up these same elitest twits to broker yet another sweet deal; sell off of the lucrative monopoly liquor distribution branch.
She has to go now!

"I’ve seen political fortunes reversed in a day, never mind a month or a year. It could happen here.”

Oh,I see. The liberals must be planning to nuke the NDP caucus.

Adrian "Stalin" Dix doesn't have to do anything,he doesn't have to utter a word. Christy Clark is so out-of-touch with us,she will continue to insult and condescend to us,confident we are all dazzled by her big teeth.

We,unfortunately, have always suffered this dilemma in B.C., governments that becomes arrogant and self-serving in an astonishingly short time in office,only to be replaced by socialist twits who drive business out.

The only people left in BC are druggies,leeches,unions,Suziki ecotards,and leftards.Sink,you worthless bums.The workers have left for better places.We need a fence.

Robert of Penticton, "What bothers me most in life is the constant pull leftward in every aspect of life. From elementary school to university, from the environmental and social welfare proponents to the first nations agitators, and in a thousand other applications of pressure I'm faced with constant pressure to mend my evil ways. Well, I'm sorry to say that the older I get the more like myself I become - and I'm happy taking responsibility for my own life, and for my family's well-being.

Maybe I'm just getting tired of resisting all the "progress".

Me to.

Khrushchev's words during the Cuban missile crisis come to mind, "One step back, two steps forward". This is the progressive way, and its aim is to destroy the centuries old liberal democratic way of life.

“Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do with the approval of their own conscience.”
C. S. Lewis, God in the Dock (Eerdmans)

I don't know, I've always sort of liked John Cummins probably because of his willingness to speak out on "controversial" issues regardless of what some pundits have to say about it. At least he's conservative.
I'll give his party my vote, in a losing cause I know, and then I'm promptly moving to Alberta where I've been working for the last 4 years anyway.
The Dippers and Libs can squabble over the soon to be carcass of B.C. amongst themselves.
It really is a crying shame.

Cummins has to go and the BC Cons need to pull it together. Whatever they do, DO NOT try to pull a coalition/pact/re-unification with the Liberals. They are nothing but a radioactive anchor.

Robert & Ken: A few nights ago I had dinner with an established businesswoman and her husband. The lady, who has the real pulse on business activities here in British Columbia, gave me several examples of companies out here who are fed up with the generally lazy work ethic of so many in the Metro Vancouver region and find it incredibly difficult to hire from a pool of competent people.

All of these companies will be expanding but none of them will be doing so here in Vancouver. Instead, they're going to do so down in the U.S.

If that's not a stinging indictment of a truly messed up province, I don't know what is.

LAS is right.

Every day it seems the BC libs open the door a bit more for the ndp to take over. I suspect the BC conservatives will get my losing vote next election.

If she does away with the Carbon Tax and doesn't bring in a replacement for it, she has my vote. After that, an apology for the monstrosity in the first place would be the cherry on top.

Will she do it? Nope.

We can look forward to at least 4 years of Dippers driving us further into the ground before hopefully the majority wakes up from their slumber.

Big mistake getting rid of Cummins. He's the most respected out here of the original Manning Reformers. The Dippers got a lock for 4 years. The B.C.C.P. has a leader with proven integrity. With Cummins savvy & a little luck we can use that opposition time to pick & groom a younger generation to carry the torch. Crucify the old guard now, & be prepared for at least a decade in the wilderness. If Reformers see the same thing happen to Cummins as Manning they won't show on election day.

LAS I agree with you. Unfortunately, it will probably take a term of two of the NDP before that happens.

Having said that, don't discount the NDP's ability to blow the next election. They've done it before.

I strongly disagree that Cummins is the man to get the BC Conservatives power, ever. Remember how he torpedoed Harper in the 04 election? He just doesn't get it IMO.

The B.C.C.P. has a leader with proven integrity.

That's a questionable statement. And I haven't seen a bit of saavy from Cummins. His platform has a lot of weird statist policy, kind of like the SoCreds did under WAC Bennet. Even if Cummins has integrity, he lacks competence and is about the worst 'public face' for the party I could imagine. Like the opposite of Danielle Smith. I highly doubt the old Reformers will either hold out on a different leader or make the difference for this one.

Shamrock makes a good point about the NDP's ability to blow it-they can certainly do it, but it would be difficult. All Dix really has to do is not say anything until the election and it's a lock. I wouldn't be surprised if he can't manage that. Hopefully the BC Cons can pull a Harris in the meanwhile.

PS Vancouver is without a doubt the most overrated city in Canada unless you like expensive living, shady characters inside and outside of Eastside, and rain. TO sucks and is full of Torontonians but at least it's safe. Vancouver has Science World going for it, and even that's overrated. Although admittedly the SkyTrain is great.

Not sure how many have noticed, but Clark has the biggest boobs I've ever seen, on a politician. If she wore a few low cut dresses and tight sweaters, she could hypnotize people into almost anything. She might alienate a few small breasted single women, but most of them don't vote anyway.

Cummins broke with Harper over the Kelowna Accord. If he had torpedoed Harper he would have been kicked out of caucus. McKay fed the B.C. Caucus a poison pill demanding unanimous consent for the Accord in return for his OK to bring the P.C.'s onside. Cummins was the only B.C. M.P. that didn't go along. He paid the price as he & Harper weren't on speaking terms & was relegated to backbencher for the rest of his federal political career. It didn't matter much to the rest of Canada cause they already had their treaties in place. So what if we lost a salmon industry & a few mines. Just a minute, isn't there a pipeline somewhere up there that the natives don't want & won't happen without their consent.

The behaviour of the BC Liberals is almost surreal at this point. They are ignoring every bit of advice their supporters are giving them and seemed determined to drive the Liberal car off the cliff. It has to be the weirdest thing I have seen in politics in a long long time.

At this point I wish we could just get the election over with. It is just too painful to watch the Liberal party going along like a half dead corpse.

And when the NDP gets their hands on this province every last liberal MP along with their utterly inept leader will be to blame. They should be ashamed of themselves.

LAS @ 4:55, this comment surprises me in a positive way. Your welcome.

coach, your naughty. :-)

I really wish that the people of BC would wake up and see just what losers the NDP and Liberals are surprise all the pundits on election day.

Coach, NDP operative Davide Schreck called her out on this months ago. Of course, he was roundly criticized, but he was right, she was using low cleavage sweaters, CFM pumps, -sex appeal-, to try to round up her dropping support. She has tried everything in her devious repertoire, save for common sense, to right the foundered ship, which she never had a chance anyways. A lifelong Lefty Liberal will never be successful in BC.

As if changing the name of the party is the problem. Try the carbon tax, the HST, an issue which they have continually screwed up every step of the way, and will pay the political price for it.

And, there is precedence here in BC for steering the political ship right off the cliff. VanderZalm did it in the late 80s, bringing the NDP back to power, Commander U! did it, after deep sixing Glenocchio's NDP in 2001, and now, again, Premier Dummy keeps the tradition going.

I get and agree with the hatred of all things Liberal, but, the BCCP continually finds ways of shooting itself in the foot, and too many BC voters, like Ontarians, are dimwits, seemingly choosing the NDP by default.

I will also vote BCCP, as a protest vote.

Sigh. It is all true. We are in a hopeless mess here in B.C. But even at that, it is a great deal better than it is going to be under the NDP if and when they get in.
I agree about Cummins. He is not the leader the conservatives need out here.
IF they could get a Dianne Watts ( Mayor of Surrey) or even Carole Taylor ( seducing her out of her University Ivory Tower)we might have a chance to beat back the dippers.
As it stands, it looks truly hopeless for now.
NO one seems to understand that the fight that is going on in the US ( most recently in Wisconsin) IS the fight we are in right now.
B.C. is totally asleep where Wisconsin was wide awake and fighting tooth and nail to beat back the union influence.
When B.C. wakes up it just might be too late for a province whose promise is ruined so many times by environmental tree huggers and red diaper babies running cities and towns into the ground.

SB

Those two have no need to sully their reps trying to fix the Edsel, that is the Liberal party.

For that matter, Taylor is pretty much done with politics anyways, by the time it matters, she will be too old. Watts on the other hand, is the favourite of the armchair qbs to renew the coalition for the next election. She's too smart to tie herself to the current trainwreck of idiots.

@ Justthinkin at September 1, 2012 12:28 PM
Not all BC. There is a huge divide in thinking once you get out of the lower mainland (where all the votes are) and the further north you go. Northern BC is supporting the whole province and has been for years but we still have upgraded goat trails for roads and see very little of the wealth we send south. We vote for business up here and have little use for the NDP disease or the Liberals. We also have little power with our sparce population. Just don't lump us in with the nuts in the south.

It's all so terribly depressing... When Clark hijacked the leadership process by signing up swaths of "new" BC Liberals the end was soon to follow. IMO, Clark wants the NDP to take power, she has more in common with Comrade Dix in an ideological sense then say Kevin Falcon, and she's a federal Liberal and has been so her whole life. I will be voting for Cummins and the BC Conservatives and I hope others will too. Otherwise, it's a french language activist and dyed in the red Commie, Dix as the next Premier. It's all so bloody depressing!

Clark has the biggest boobs I've ever seen, on a politician notes coach.

Didn't know that and that's what I get for not watching TV or reading newspapers. So I guess she has one redeeming quality and here I thought there was nothing good that could be said about her.

The problem BC has is far too many moonbats and, as I've noted before, the only solution I can see is to divide the province into a much larger sane portion and attach it to Alberta and put a fence around the coastal moonbat portion.

perterj, S. central BC is also part of the sane portion of the province. LAS, agree with you about Vancouver as it currently exists, but 30 or more years ago, Vancouver actually was a very nice place to live -- before it had been discovered. Back then the university endowment lands were almost empty and there was Wreck beach to be enjoyed. Every time I look at the now overbuilt UBC campus from the air, I feel less and less inclined to head back there to take a look around.

Through a surprising coincidence, my office lease will expire in May of next year. Most likely, should the NDP get in, there will be one fewer doctor in the very underdoctored portion of BC where I live. I'm sure there's somewhere in Alberta I can move to for a few years while I wait for BC to come to its senses.

Carole Taylor or Diane Watts were leader of the B.C,C.P. everything would be allright. If wishes were horses beggars would ride. This is a rearguard action & Cummins is more a Marshall Blucher than a Duke of Wellington (Though his nickname is King John round the docks & along the River). Like the Reformers had to destroy the PC's to unite against the enemy; B.C.C.P. has to destroy the B.C. Liberals to get at the dippers. You need the old Reformers for your base. Don't forget that out here there's a mass of populist voters that swing dipper & Reform bypassing the hated Liberals. Cummins himself has admitted so much. The base can't get you in power, but it can set the stage so a Diane Watts or Carole Taylor or some young Turk learns the ropes in oppositon to make a try at the brass ring in a few years.

Robert of Penticton at 11:04 AM, you're right on the money!

The BC Liberals have taken conservative voters for granted; the carbon tax, for me, was the last straw. Christy Clark may go the way of Ujjal Dosanjh, which would be fitting. I'm going to vote for the BC Conservative Party and hope they garner a significant number of ridings in rural areas like mine. The unions don't have the clout with their members that they think they do.

Coming back because I do happen to live here.
Cummins collects $4000/mo over his other pension to to nothing but run the BC Conservatives into the ground. Do you think that BC Conservatives are rich? We don't get invited to the important partys. We don't consult Mary Jane (smoke dope) to conclude policy matters.
idiots
He is a douchebag politician by any measure and that is why I would rather leave BC than vote for him.
He is a false flag, politicking for a rich retirement, and it is well beyond time for the young (10 years older than me at 37) to take the reins)
Sorry, if I offend 50 somethings, but really you suck, authoritarianism is NOT a good anything, accept for causing the younger generation to hide rifles and shotguns and food rations. So we can rise up against you.
You have been warned.

dwright

Oops I typed what a large percentage of people under 40 years on this planet are thinking.

Oops I typed what a large percentage of people under 40 years on this planet are thinking.
All I see is a bunch of professional politicians doing everything they can to convince me to pay them $20,000 a month plus kickbacks to shaft me with more taxes.
To give money to David Suzuki to have an island paradise prosperity while telling the little people to not pollute while he jet sets and hobnobs all over the world, and his kids are in on his racket, doing the same thing.
He is the epithelium of elite and nobody in the MSM in Canada calls him out.
This is our problem, let the USA deal with their elections , why don't we solve our own issues?
d

Posted by: LAS at September 1, 2012 1:32 PM

Never thought I would agree with you LAS, you are right. See, us cement-headed conservatives can give respect to a good point.
Cheers.
dwright

I'm sorry did I mention that John Cummins is getting paid $4000/month above double dipping his pension to divide the BC Conservatives?

Class act, that guy.

dwright

"The BC Liberals have taken conservative voters for granted;" chutzpahticular

Lots of excellent comments here, but I think chutzpahticular summarizes it best.

The Liberal brand is all but done federally, turfed in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, about to be thrown out in BC and in Quebec.

Trend here?

Dianne Watts is Christy Clark with training wheels- USELESS except for waving from the back seat of a convertible in a parade, and posing on bus-stop signs exhorting us to read a book, recycle, etc. She has no conservative bona fides at all.

Like the NY Times liberals will die, rather than give up their socialist dreams.
They truly think they are more intelligent than anyone else.
That the populace are babies they have to wet nurse.

We live in a period where all levels of government is driven by activists personal agendas rather than the free market. There should always be checks and balances , but we are now down to all checks and little balance. Too many tails wagging the dogs. Greenies, natives, immigration policies, health nuts , regulation zealots , lawyers and even the supreme court has made free enterprise, and by extension free people, a mere shadow of what they were even 40 years ago. Nanny now runs western society. Nanny is a spreading disease and BC will vote for it. If the USA votes for it too then we are truly screwed as a society. We'll know within a few months. Who would have thought Nanny could destroy empires ?

In BC, the only Party of principle are the Libertarians and there are only 17.5 of them, roughly half the number of actual conservatives counting those who have commented above. The choices are: voting for Cummins to boost his ego but deliver a Dix Government; plug your nose, put on a barf bag, get drunk, and vote for the BC Libs and do little more than keep the NDP out of power; or, vote libertarian along with a few hundred souls and sleep well under a Dix government while heavily invested in physical precious metals with an exit strategy ready for implementation.

There are not enough conservatives in BC (Canada?) to govern in a two party system under an actual conservative platform. Campbell would have been happy to govern in a province filled with conservatives but instead he played the hand he was dealt and had to stay drunk or give-up thinking to do it.