QuiteFitVille
Please note: moving this up in the queue given the last update (see below), and to put in the same page as the 'Super Saturday' post...Why?...Because, based on all the evidence that is now in, as of Saturday April 6th, I am of the opinion that this thing may have, indeed, been played for a 'Quick Win'...
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Update: Wednesday morning....Looks like there were problems getting through to the actual BC Liberal Party candidate before the weekend (scroll down)...Didn't know this when I strolled over to the meeting after work Tuesday afternoon (see my comments below) ...Given that, it wouldn't have been unreasonable for a stand-in to appear instead...It would also appear that the students could have been more accomodating...So....Would the Wizards now consider this a 'Quick Win!'?....Perhaps...But I reckon we'll find out if it is a lasting one if the actual candidate shows up for the now well-announced second meeting that is set to go three weeks from now just before most of the kids go home for the summer...
Not-So-Double-Secret-Probation Update: Wednesday afternoon...Not sure what all the BCL fuss is about given that the CBC is now reporting that..."The B.C. Liberal Party says the premier will focus on leader-to-leader debates once the election campaign is underway, and other candidates will continue to step in to represent the Liberals in Point Grey..." Which, one can only assume, means that Ms. Clark wouldn't have appeared at yesterday's all candidate's meeting even if it been in her calendar weeks ago...Furthermore, one can only assume this statement also means that Ms. Clark will not show up at the UBC AMS-sponsored debate three weeks from now..
Triple-O Sauce Update: Wednesday Evening...The VSun's Jeff Lee confirms, based on a face-to-face interview, that Ms. Clark is already lowering expectations by stating that she won't debate in her home riding...Those Wizards sure must still be convincing...
Friday Final Word Update...From the kids who put the thing on...Important points, according to said kids: Discussions about townhall with all political campus clubs began in February...April 2nd townhall date was decided on at a meeting of said clubs March 20th...Email was sent specifically to the 'incumbent' on March 23rd after no confirmation was received from her political party's campus club..On the day of the event the organizers spoke to the BCL Party spokesperson and made it clear that they were not interested in having a stand-in appear.
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Triple-O Sauce Update: Wednesday Evening...The VSun's Jeff Lee confirms, based on a face-to-face interview, that Ms. Clark is already lowering expectations by stating that she won't debate in her home riding...Those Wizards sure must still be convincing...
Friday Final Word Update...From the kids who put the thing on...Important points, according to said kids: Discussions about townhall with all political campus clubs began in February...April 2nd townhall date was decided on at a meeting of said clubs March 20th...Email was sent specifically to the 'incumbent' on March 23rd after no confirmation was received from her political party's campus club..On the day of the event the organizers spoke to the BCL Party spokesperson and made it clear that they were not interested in having a stand-in appear.
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Got all the stuff set-up on that new desk I bought on Friday that we slid in next to the new microscope late this afternoon and then scooted across campus to see what was happening at the all candidates' meeting organized by the kids.
It was a pretty good crowd in the SUB's Art Gallery, although it didn't look like a whole lot of them were undergraduates.
There were five candidates on the riser, and all of them made some good points during the time I was there (I stayed through the intros and the first three of the five moderated questions).
I stood at the back and a very sharply dressed fellow was right in front of me for the first bit but he soon moved to the front.
Turns out, I think, that he was the stand-in for the sixth candidate who was not on the stage.
Who is, of course, the actual incumbent (but just barely) in the riding, Ms. Christy Clark.
The stand-in, I was told by one of the kids in the back, was the Anton-killer from Quilchena Mr. Wilkinson.
Pathetic really.
The AMS, I was also told by the kid in the back, wouldn't let the stand-in on the stage.
Which sounds reasonable for an all-candidates' meeting that was focussed on a specific riding to me.
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The Dippers' Mr. Eby made a whole lot of sense, and was pretty nuanced on the Broadway rapid transit issue...He was also gracious towards Mr. Wilkinson...
Mr. Nickull, the BC Con, is going to have some populist appeal, but he's pretty superficial on most issues (the way to fix post-secondary funding gap?...open up that Coke contract so that the little guys can sell all the energy drinks they want on campus in a fully-caffeinated, software-noodleish, theory of flat-fooded, Adam Smithified utopian free-market even freer-for-all-and-all-for-one ... or some such thing)...
Ms. Raunet of the Greens sounded a little more socialisticy than the party line, which some of the kids liked a little but, unfortunately for the cause (and likely luckily for Mr. Eby), she is clearly no Mr. Kettlewell...
Will be interesting to see if the proMedia runs with the absence of the BCL candidate...They were most certainly present at the party...
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10 comments:
At the Truck Logger's convention in January, Christy Clark had this to say about Adrian Dix:
"We're supposed to be in a democracy, in a competition of ideas. How can you have a competition of ideas when only one person has their ideas on the table? I think refusing to be honest with the public about where you stand on issues is going at some point to be a serious liability for the Opposition, because British Columbians are going to quite rightly say, 'We deserve to know.'"
Guess she was just kidding...
Lew--
It would appear to thus.
Interestingly, her Flying Squadrons of the Flack-Hackery have taken to the Twittmachine to blame the students for standing their ground and insisting that the candidate in their riding be the one to join the all-candidates' meeting....So much so that some have taken to calling it the 'exclusion of the BC Liberals'.
Of course, they could have taken the high-road and perhaps have even scored some points if there was a genuine mix-up....But, instead, they just go on the attack...Should anyone be surprised?
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'[E]xclusion of the BC Liberals...'? Now that's a nice prediction.
I think Van-Pt Grey will be the most watched race on election night, right after home ridings (for those who vote) and the general results province-wide; it might even top the list for those who don't vote at all--predicted to be about half of eligible voters this time around. So I much appreciate your coverage.
It will be about much more than Schadenfreude at Christy's potential demise because if she loses her own seat the BC Liberal brand might be snuffed out shortly after (as opposed to a lingering death if she hangs on as leader of either Opposition, third party or rump party.) The other contingency upon which rests the speed the right will find a new vessel is, of course, John Cummins' riding: if he fails to win it as BC Conservative leader, he'll have to make way for a new leader, somebody younger, with connections, experience and ambition, somebody like Kevin Falcon. Though the ramifications for the political right are a bit more obscure than in Van-Pt Grey, I bet this will be the fourth most watched riding on election night, especially if the BC Conservatives surprise everybody and win a seat or two elsewhere (I for one think the Conservatives have sleeper written all over them.) As it happens, Van-Pt Grey could be one of those seats, although your eyewitness report did not ascribe much lustre to "Chaos" Nickull. Come to think of it, though, there are enough dark horses and potential spoilers in this race to make it an even bigger draw election night.
Lovin' the front row seat. Thanks.
When Christy Clark ran in the May 11, 2011 Vancouver-Point Grey by-election there were five other candidates also running for Gordon Campbell's vacated seat.
They were all ready and willing to debate.
Christy Clark was not.
She was supposed to win the riding in a landslide.
She did not.
David Eby is a professor of law at the University of British Columbia.
David Eby has also served as president of the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network and as a research associate with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.
Christy Clark doesn't even have a community college diploma.
She's a college dropout.
She was unwilling to face David Eby in a formal debate during the May 11, 2011 Vancouver-Point Grey by-election campaign and she doesn't have the guts (or the brains) to debate him this year.
In 2011 she was blaming it on "time constraints" and saying that residents were happy that she was taking all of her campaign time to speak directly to them.
She didn't live in the riding of Vancouver-Point Grey when she ran in 2011.
"My son goes to school in the riding" LOL
She still doesn't live in the riding.
David Eby did and still does.
Does everyone remember this little Georgia Straight blast from the past?
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Vancouver-Point Grey by-election candidates to consider electoral reform in Fair Voting B.C. debate
by CARLITO PABLO on APR 27, 2011
"EXCEPT FOR PREMIER Christy Clark, all of the candidates in the May 11 by-election in Vancouver–Point Grey have confirmed that they will participate in a debate organized by Fair Voting B.C."
Full Article Here!
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Despite all of the nonsense from the MSM about Christy Clark's mythological debating skills, she will never formally debate David Eby in a local candidates meeting in the riding of Vancouver-Point Grey.
What a shame.
Comparing that debate with the U.S. Vice-Presidential Debate between Joe Biden and Sarah Palin on YouTube would make Sarah Palin look like the highest ranking member of Mensa International in comparison.
Not really reasonable.
According to the Ubyssey, student society forgot to send Clark invite until Easter Sunday. And the invitation asked her her or a representative to attend.
The society messed up.
Ahhh...Didn't know that when I was at the meeting.
Thanks Paul directly above.
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Post now updated...
It does reflect the almost eerie power of Twitter to direct me to a Ubyssey article on BC politics as I sit in a hotel room in Tegucigalpa. (Visa renewal time.)
Does anyone know if radio commentary was accurate when it said that sitting premiers dont generally do all-candidates debates? Do they normally send substitutes?
Paul? Anyone?
Just wondering, heard that last night.
Thanks.
Paul--
And on the flipside, I saw Shane Woodfford's first tweet (see link in the update) before I originally posted...
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