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Despite the finest efforts of Premier Christy Clark to wrest control away from British Columbia’s New Democratic Party in Decision BC 2013, polls remain grim for Ms. Clark and her discredited and about-to-be-turfed Liberal party, as Adrian Dix and the BC NDP appear set to take the reins of government in Victoria — in what will likely prove to be a smashing electoral victory on May 14th.
According to the pollsters at Angus-Reid, across British Columbia 45 per cent of decided voters and leaners (unchanged since mid-April) would cast a ballot for the BC NDP candidate in their riding if the provincial election were held today. The B.C. Liberals picked up three percentage points of support since the last poll in April, putting them at 31 per cent, according to the poll which was conducted this past Wednesday and Thursday.
Pollster Mario Canseco says support for BC NDP leader Adrian Dix and British Columbia’s New Democratic Party has not fluctuated since the start of the election campaign on April 16th.
“The NDP keeps comfortable leads in Metro Vancouver and Vancouver Island, and maintains a good retention rate from the last election,” said Canseco. “Across the province, 59 per cent of respondents believe it is time for a change in British Columbia and would like to see a different provincial party elected into power, while 25 per cent would rather have the B.C. Liberals re-elected.”
Barring a major (and extremely unlikely) misstep by Adrian Dix, or the BC New Democrats, in the final two weeks of Decision BC 2013, British Columbians will get what they’re hankering for come May 14th — change.
BC Election 2013: Right-wing pit bulls drag out anti-NDP scare tactics
“NDP government = socialism“, say many pundits and media mavens. Horse puckey, we say.
Despite the BC NDP’s continuing dominance in the polls, there are those in the mainstream media who would seek to temper their pending victory.
Earlier in the week, Global BC’s Jas Johal conducted an interview with the despicable Philip Hochstein, President of the Independent Contractors and Businesses Association of B.C., where Mr. Hochstein accused BC NDP leader Adrian Dix of being a bully, going on to say in the interview that Dix is “trying to bully the business community”, and that an NDP government would set a course to “kill the business climate in British Columbia” should they be elected come May 14th. If anyone believes that hogwash, there’s a bridge that’s going for a great price they might be interested in.
Meanwhile, Vancouver Sun columnist Barbara Yaffe reports that with Adrian Dix and the Dippers in power over in Victoria, “Canada’s Pacific gateway under an NDP government is apt to become the country’s drawbridge,” as she sets about to elucidate just exactly how the NDP will kill business …
- Enbridge’s Northern Gateway Pipeline? Forget it.
- Expansion of Kinder Morgan’s TransMountain Pipeline? No way.
- Tanker traffic off B.C.’s north coast? Never.
- Coal exports out of West Coast ports? An abomination.
- A new Raven coal mine on Vancouver Island, or a Prosperity gold copper mine in the Cariboo-Chilcotin, or BC Hydro’s Site C dam near Fort St. John? No, no and no.
Ms. Yaffe continues in the same vein for 988 words of peerless ‘scare tactic’ prose, as if all that BC New Democrats are intent on is destroying the British Columbia economy, with designs on thrusting tens of thousands more beleaguered British Columbians onto the unemployment rolls.
And, let’s not forget about Business in Vancouver columnist Trevor Lautens, about whom blogger Alex Tsakumis expresses gaseous disdain on his blog. Mr. Lautens refers to Liberal leader Christy Clark as principled and noble, while describing NDP leader Adrian Dix as “a consummate actor who’s been impersonating a moderate. He’s foxed the media. Never doubt: He’s the strategic front man for the big-state, anti-business, neo-Marxist NDP heavies in the back rooms.”
Let’s allow Mr. Tsakumis to reflect on Mr. Lauten’s musings in BiV …
“To describe Lautens’ severely disfigured logic as ultimately flawed is to understate the case by a country mile. Perhaps in his zeal to hail a victory over the socialist hordes at the gate — a tired (and tiresome) canard to which he alludes, Lautens missed the multiplicity of factors that preclude such a result, inclusive - at position one - of the train wreck performance that is the failed, discreditable leader currently infesting the Office of the Premier.”
“In what I can only describe as the single worst column I’ve read in years, Lautens demonstrates that he not only can no longer read the tea leaves, but too, that he’s thoroughly lazy.”
As Mr. Tsakumis writes, “the far right has gone completely sideways.”
BC Election 2013: Report on Issues Raised by the Mainstream Media
Some sources in the tank for the Liberals, some not quite so much
Vancouver Sun legislative columnist Vaughn Palmer apparently finds covering Decision BC 2013 just no fun when the outcome seems such a forgone conclusion. Ssssoooo, why not raise a little hell? Mr. Palmer reports with all of the authorial voice he can muster that not only did Adrian Dix not acquit himself well yesterday morning on CKNW Leaders’ Debate, but that the BC NDP leader is flip-flopping on the Kinder Morgan pipeline (so-called flip-flopping is a big no no in politics, don’tcha know, can’t have that sober second thought / considered opinion thingy happening, no siree). The weight of Palmer’s columns have the potential to influence the discourse on this election, to the benefit of the Liberals and the detriment of the NDP.
Of course, you can watch the video above to determine for yourself whether the questioning of Dix appears to you as just discourse, or whether the media are losing touch with reality, need to get their ears checked, are relying on bad information (“No,” says Globe and Mail legislative reporter Justine Hunter, “Adrian Dix did not enunciate a position on Kinder Morgan when I interviewed him on January 10th”), or are otherwise attempting to generate “an issue” when there is no issue of contention that is readily apparent to you, me and thee.
Well, that’s it for our weekend report, folks. We’ll be back bright and early on Monday morning, with a pre-televised debate humdinger of a posting. Readers will find the latest coverage of the election at Decision BC 2013.
(If, by happenstance, you’ve arrived on VanRamblings looking for coverage of the April 18th Kitsilano Community Centre AGM — it weren’t pretty, folks — VanRamblings’ coverage of the KitsCC AGM is here. The Vancouver Courier’s Sandra Thomas has written about the KitsCC AGM, as well, her coverage of the delirious, anti-community meeting to be found here.)
