Stay Christy, Stay!...(v5.0)

HowLowCanHer

ExpectationsGoVille

It would appear that the (not)Premier is waving the white flag on both bye-bye's already.

CP's Dirk Meissner has the story:

VICTORIA—With the Liberals facing defeat in two Lower Mainland by-elections today, Premier Christy Clark appears to be already looking ahead to next May’s provincial election.

Clark said Wednesday she wants to bring new voices to her government’s free enterprise coalition, but those voices don’t appear to include B.C. Conservatives Leader John Cummins.

Clark said she’s open to different voices within her government — even a new party name — but won’t mention Cummins by name.

She warned that splitting the free enterprise vote means a New Democrat government next May.

Clark’s Liberals are facing long odds in ridings traditionally considered safe for the party...

{snippety doo-dah}

...Clark candidly admits that governments usually lose by-elections, and in B.C. the tradition is decades long, with the premier being one of only two government politicians to win by-elections in the last 30 years...

{snippety doodle-dandy}

...“We are a coalition party,” she said. “We include people from all across the political spectrum. We include everybody who wants to defeat the NDP.”

Clark said the Liberals discussed changing the party’s name at their convention last year. If a name change allows the party to broaden its appeal, Clark’s all for it, but she said she wants to be the leader.

“I’m not opposed, as you know, to changing the party’s name,” she said.

“We are still the free enterprise coalition in B.C. Yes, I’m going to be leading the free enterprise coalition into the next election.”...

But....

Never mind the potential for a perfect storm wherein the moneymen and the FedCons pull the plug on the 'progressive' free enterprise 'coalition' and go all in on a far-right Wild Dogwood-type Hail Mary for all the marbles.

Because it would appear that the real public leader of the 'coalition of the paying', who is backed by a good chunk of that big money that is not his, is still playing that very same card.

With, of course, a new name.

The Dean, in the soon to be self-marginalized/pay-walled VSun, has the latest 'better-late-than-never' assist....errrrr.... story....on the real public face of the abberation masquerading as a coalition:

As Phil Hochstein tells it, he's only been saying publicly what many other business leaders and government supporters were fret-ting about privately as regards the political situation in B.C.

"Everyone's talking about it," says the longtime president of the Independent Contractors and Businesses Association, representing more than 1,000 non-union firms in the construction sector.

By "everyone" Hochstein means anyone with a more than passing interest in the outcome of the next provincial election. By "it" he means the prospect that the New Democratic Party is poised to take power because the non-NDP vote is split between two rival parties, one calling itself Conservative, the other B.C. Liberal.

"I get two or three calls every day, from people saying 'what the hell's going on?,' " says Hochstein. "They can't under-stand why it is happening, given the implications of the split."

{snippety doo-dah}

He speaks with some authority, being no fair-weather friend to the province's free enterprise forces, but rather an unswerving advocate for the cause for 25 years. His dedication has lately extended to mounting his own attack ads - witness that recent series targeting Dix.

The timing is telling too. He began airing his concerns about vote-splitting against the back-drop of the byelection campaigns in Port Moody-Coquitlam and Chilliwack-Hope, both wrapping up today.

Presuming his fears are borne out when the vote count is completed tonight, one can expect to hear a lot about the need for the centre-right side of the political spectrum to get its act together. "Anyone who frustrates that is selfish and irresponsible," says Hochstein.

He places no specific blame on the Liberals and Premier Christy Clark, except to note that on the evidence of the opinion polls, she hasn't clicked with a big enough share of the electorate.

Nor does he single out the Conservatives and John Cummins, except to maintain that the party's undiluted version of conservatism is not likely to win over British Columbians on its own: "We're not that far over to the right."...

{snippety doodle-dandy}

...He'd like to see them pull together the kind of big-tent party that kept the NDP at bay in the past. Bill Bennett's Social Credit party, which ruled the province in the 1970s and 1980s, included federal Liberals, Conservatives, populists and even an old Socred or two. Gordon Campbell rode to power a decade ago at the head of a Liberal party that included Socreds, Reformers, Conservatives and more than a few actual Liberals.

"It's time to repair the tent and move on," says Hochstein. "People should focus on the similarities, not the differences."...

The Dean then ends his Bye-Bye Eve piece with a 'I doubt this will happen before a General Election whalloping' -type non-denial denial.

But, regardless, that's some kinda table-setting don't you reckon?

And don't forget, this piece telegraphing the potential coming of the new BC/WildDogwood/RabidConscienceRights Party, was published BEFORE folks out in the Valley got up to vote in today's bye-byes.

So.

If you were a ever-so-slightly-toried conservative voter out in the 'Wack who was worried about voting for the Curmudgeon's guy yesterday, how would you feel today?

Eh?

.