Thursday, March 26, 2015

This Day In Clarkland...What The Premier Did Not Apologize For.

TheArtOfTheHerOwnPrivateImpossible
TotalDestructionPoliticsVille


NW's Shane Woodward has the 'apology':

Sorry.

That from the Premier after former Liberal MLA and a man she ran against for the leadership of the party was vetoed from a promised post at the eleventh hour.

“The communication with George was terrible. It was an example of really really poor communication.”

As for who is ultimately responsible for the decision, Christy Clark said “I take responsibility for the mess with the communications around it particularily with respect to George.”...



So.

Ms. Clark will apologize for not quite getting the spin right.

But she will not apologize for throwing a massive spanner into the treaty process in British Columbia.

How come?

Well, the VTC's Lindsay Kines has that non-apology apology:

...Premier Christy Clark said her cabinet vetoed the appointment of former Liberal minister George Abbott as chief of the B.C. Treaty Commission because her government wants to reform the entire treaty process.

Clark said cabinet decided to stop investing in a system that has cost $600 million and produced just four treaties in 22 years. “We have to be able to move faster and we have to find a way to include more First Nations in the process,” she said. “Fifty out of 200 First Nations involved in the process? That’s not enough. So it was a policy decision … not to appoint a treaty commissioner...



Thus, it would appear that the way to fix things is to do your best to destroy them.

Then, later, just like with say auditing, public education, ferries, pharmacare policy, regional transit strategies, apprenticeship programs, gaming, resource management and on and on and on, even the smallest of tiny 'fixes' down the road can be trumpeted as generational changes or some such codswallop.

Hey.

Here's a thought.

Maybe a Premier who's only real skillset involves the art of the spin b/w blunderbuss really was sorry about messing up both.

Because, when consultative governance does not matter to you or yours (and we're not talking about cabinet here, but rather Ms. Clark's wizards and patrons), it really is kinda crummy and sadfacey when your blown spin shines a wee bit of light on the fact that your real goal is to just blow things up that are inconvenient for said wizards and patrons.

****

Now, you might think I'm being too harsh on Ms. Clark et al.

But if the politics of total destruction is not the wizards' and the patrons' game you would think that Ms. Clark would have a plan now that she and hers have wrecked everything.

Right?

Wrong.

Again, from Mr. Kines VTC piece:

...“In terms of next steps — whether or not the treaty commission will be changed, whether or not it will continue to exist, how all that future will unfold with respect to treaties — is going to be something that we do together with First Nations.” ...


Sheesh.



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And the weird thing about the firing of the good Mr. Abbott, who really did seem to be working at being truly consultative and inclusive?....Well...He was once, it would appear, at least some of the wizards' and patrons' Horse 1A.....But that was back in the dark days, I suppose, when everything was a 20-to-1 shot, at best and back-up plans were needed everywhere.

.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

the gift that keeps on giving?

sounds like a clearcut to me?

didnt you get the memo?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bchnLOT7ic

North Van's Grumps said...

Starting from the top down at the Premiers Office of in-house advsiors that should be fired for JUST CAUSE:

Sarah Toda - Executive Assistant to the Chief of Straff
Dan Doyle - Chief of Straff
Sam Olphant - Press Secretary
Ben Chin - Executive Director of Communications and Issue Management
MacLean Kay - Manager of Communications
Emile Scheffel - Communications Coordinator
Evan Southern - Director of Issues Managesment

G West said...

This was NOT a communiations problem Miss Clark. This is a competence problem ... when Gordon Campbell was premier he ran the whole government off a credenza in his office. Miss Clark is now, apparently, trying to run the government (without actually having a clear concept of anything except her own image) from her IPhone.
She should go back to CKNW.

Lew said...

Abbott was in transition meetings with the current treaty commissioner when he learned his appointment had been vetoed by cabinet. Premier Forked Tongue says communications with him were terrible.

How about communications with the sitting treaty commissioner Sophie Pierre? She was conducting transition meetings with her successor and got blindsided as well. Any terrible communications there? How about the Feds? Anyone there in the loop? First Nations Summit? Nope.

According to the guilt-wracked premier, the decision evolved over many months. In the next sorrowful breath she says it was done because, “we have to find a way to include more First Nations in the process”.

So in her mind, the way you involve more First Nations is to make decisions in secret and spring it on them as a done deal, without even keeping the current commissioner around for a little continuity to assist with “something that we do together with First Nations”.

It’s almost as if she has someone running the government communications department who only got the gig because he was a long-time personal friend and former business associate rather than someone appointed after an exhaustive search for well-qualified candidates. But that could never happen. Right?

Anonymous said...

Actually. Abbott was never fired, as stated, because he was never hired. But just because a women is pregnant, and has not delivered yet, it does not negate the baby and make it a not-issue. Except perhaps in the mind of Christy Clark.