The 2013 British Columbia election is now over and the BC Liberal Party has grabbed a sizable victory from the much anticipated jaws of defeat. Most every pollster and talking head was absolutely wrong with their predictions. It is interesting to reflect back on this April 25th column from Thomas Walkom, warning that the polls may be very misleading. The only “poll” that mattered was the one that took place yesterday at the ballot box.

What is beyond disgusting though is the false spin from Christy Clark’s Praetorian Guard in the Media Party that this was a great victory thanks to her. This being uttered by the same folks who were entirely wrong in the lead-up to May 14th. In the same way that politicians rarely seem to learn from their mistakes, “journalists” seem impervious to their own.
In the past 24 hours, almost every single person I’ve spoken with who voted for the BC Liberals commented how much they loathed and distrusted Christy Clark but were simply voting that way because they were legitimately frightened about the pro-wacky-environmental / anti-business rhetoric of Comrade Dix of the NDP. From his very own pronouncements during the campaign, he was very much setting the stage to borrow & spend the province into oblivion once again, like every single one of the past NDP regimes in this province has done before.
As for Ms. Clark, one would hope that she would accept her party’s victory with some humility and the loss in her own riding as a clear message that voters aren’t at all pleased with her. But she won’t. That would take a depth of character that she simply doesn’t possess. However, in the near future, when an elected Liberal MLA is coerced to step down so she can run in that person’s riding in a by-election, one can only hope that the voters there will have the wisdom to defeat her again. Of course, she’ll have her friends in the Media Party on her side with heavy duty propaganda to help her win but let’s hope the voters can rise above that spin.
For those interested, Charles Adler will be discussing the election results at 11:05am PDT / 1:05pm CDT / 2:05pm EDT. Update: The segments can be heard here and here.
Update: Lorne Gunter has an excellent summary of the BC election results, as well as a related one about anti-resource politicians like Thomas Mulcair. In the latter one, John Robson has a brilliant line: “The NDP serves as the official opposition to reality.”

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