I was hoping all through the B.C. Liberal campaign that Christy Clark’s charisma would catch on with members and bring her in and it did. What a debacle for the Liberals.
Talented people who were in the hard button regime of Gordon Campbell were overlooked so it definitely means the coalition is dead.
All those conservative-minded people will come over to the B.C. Conservative Party. As an unelected premier, she cannot last.
To legitimize her position as premier a byelection, but most probably a general election, will have to take place by fall. By that time the HST will likely have been defeated in referendum.
Elections BC says it is not possible to bring the referendum forward so it is a political game about bringing it forward.
The runners up to her campaign shunned her completely, so she is a fly in the ointment just like the Bill Vander Zalm fiasco as an unelected premier flash in the pan.
The fact that she was a duly elected member in the house when the BC Rail scandal story broke will help sink her.
She won't have the guts to call a full legislative assembly where all MLAs have a chance under the jurisdiction of the Speaker to ask questions dearest to their hearts. These questions must be answered when people summoned by the proper legislative inquiry are called to testify. The deeper story of scandal would most certainly unfold.
This rail fiasco won't go away with a public inquiry because it will be too bureaucrat-dominated, which will not be acceptable by the public and some MLAs.
Nobody before Clark in my research had the guts to call this legislative assembly together to deal with the issue, but now the pressure will be on and it won't go away.
She was there when the rail issue broke. She won't be able to overcome these issues with her “family first” agenda so a Conservative minority government will be the result.
You can bet your boots that those Campbell Liberals that survive in this election will be part of the Legislative Assembly inquiry and called to testify because there is more to the BC Rail fiasco than Basi-Virk.
Ted Dever
Sooke