The provincial election campaign, in case you hadn’t noticed, is in full swing.
I caught a clip of Liberal leader Christy Clark unveiling the party’s platform this morning. She used a quote from her father who apparently once told her that elections are about the future, not the past.
Nice sentiment, particularly since after the Liberals’ 16 years in power and Clark’s five years as premier, there’s plenty to look back on.
But Clark should have told Prince George-Valemount Liberal candidate Shirley Bond about the looking forward stuff.
So far, her electioneering stump speech has started off with reminiscing about why she got into provincial politics – those dastardly 1990s … the dark days (because the Liberals weren’t in power) … the days when evil incarnate socialist hordes, the NDP, were in power and left a set of books that were actually balanced.
The Liberals have been using the NDP government of the 1990s as a hammer for, well, a generation. It’s getting old, it’s getting tired, the decade wasn’t as dark as the Liberals like to remember, and, gee, isn’t it time for something new? Isn’t it time to look forward?
I’m all for the Liberals campaigning on looking forward as soon as they stop dredging up the 1990s like they were birthed in the fires of Mordor.
And hey, the 1990s gave us Salt N Pepa and Vanilla Ice and they’re coming to town, so the decade couldn’t have been all that bad, could it?
• • •
Prince George-Mackenzie NDP candidate Bobby Deepak has been focusing on jobs during the early days of his campaign. One of the issues he raises is the temporary foreign workers that the province allowed HD Mining to bring in to work near Chetwynd when everyone except the Liberals and the mining company felt there were Canadian workers willing and able to work at the mine.
Not a bad argument. But then he heads off to the Site C dam construction and points out there are “plenty of Alberta” plates in the parking lot, suggesting, of course, that Alberta workers are taking British Columbian jobs.
He might want to take a drive up to Fort McMurray where, I’ll hazard a guess, there are plenty of B.C. plates in the parking lot. As the old saying goes “be careful what you wish for, you just might get it.”
In addition, the New Democrats aren’t yet completely committed to the Site C dam as they will defer to a B.C. Utilities Commission review before giving it the go-ahead or the heave-ho.
• • •
And if you’re looking for what will likely be one of the wildest ridings contested in this election, look north to Peace River-North.
That’s the seat held by Pat Pimm who managed to get himself in all kinds of trouble during his time in office. At least his shenanigans have garnered some interest in the race.
In addition to Liberal candidate Dan Davies (who sought the federal Conservative nomination that was eventually won by Bob Zimmer), and NDP candidate Rob Demsey, there are three independents running in the riding – Bob Fedderly, Rob Fraser, and Jeff Richert.
Hang onto your hats, it could be a wild one.
