As reported by Jas Johal on Global BC’s evening NewsHour, an organized movement to oust Christy Clark as BC Liberal leader has already begun in the upper echelons of the provincial governing party.
Called the 801 Club — symbolizing 8:01 p.m., one minute after the election and the minute when the movement plans to begin the process of putting pressure on Clark to step aside, the club — made up of party members and business leaders — has already created 801 buttons, as can be seen in the video clip above, to signify the serious intent of the movement.
The 801 movement not only wants to rid the party of Christy Clark, but those that surround her, as well, including her brother, Bruce; ex-husband and BC Liberal organizer Mark Marissen; the 2013 Liberal party campaign chair Mike McDonald; and current Liberal party president, Sharon White.
Gordon Campbell’s former chief of staff, Martyn Brown, says the scandals that the Clark Liberals have endured are self-inflicted and speak to Clark’s rudderless and ethically-challenged leadership of the BC Liberal party.

“When you look at one thing after the next, it’s just a bad series of judgements that fall directly in her lap,” Brown told host Simi Sara, at 12:38pm, on her afternoon CKNW talk show.

“There is no escaping that, and this just brings it home in spades to people that it is the Premier’s judgement that is at issue here.”

Day after day, in the Georgia Straight and in The Province newspaper, Brown has challenged Clark’s questionable leadership of the BC Liberal party, and her time in government as the unelected Premier of the province.
Why would Brown consistently position himself on the attack against Clark in everything he writes and tells any broadcaster or journalist that will interview him unless he is, in fact, one of the charter members of the 801 Club, working in concert with business leaders to ensure that a person who better represents the interests of the business community will replace Christy Clark after a resounding defeat at the polls next Tuesday?
Piling on today on—the increasingly beleaguered—Christy Clark, high profile BC Liberal Daniel Veniez, who writes in his Georgia Straight commentary …

“I’m progressive, but not of the ideological left, and pragmatic, not of the doctrinaire right. I am a moderate and in the sensible centre … I have never voted NDP in my life … In British Columbia, voters have only two parties to choose from. On May 14, I am voting B.C. NDP. There are two reasons for that. The first is Christy Clark. The second is Adrian Dix.

Clark’s gaffe-prone, content-free, divisive, and ethically challenged tenure as unelected premier of B.C. has been well chronicled.

The core of her relentless electioneering is anchored on a fantastical notion that B.C. will be “debt free” in 15 years through liquefied natural gas. This is based entirely on the incredibly dubious premise that the stars of a volatile and highly cyclical commodity business will align exactly as she predicts. The reality is that none of us — including those within the industry who would make these multibillion investments — has the foggiest clue whether any of this is fact or fiction. But common sense should tell us this: Clark has made a career out of smoke and mirrors … the “debt free BC” slogan of her campaign is yet another whopper from Clark, whose entire government has been punctuated by advertising, gimmickry, and endless photo-ops, culminating in this election with a slogan that simply defies all credibility …”

Dix is a refreshing change.

He’s a humble and quiet man, not given to exaggeration nor to fits of narcissism. Not a “natural” politician, Dix is nevertheless obviously comfortable in his own skin. Well read and well briefed, Dix knows his files, understands the machinery of government, and has a great appreciation for what government can and can’t do. Dix has tried to do politics differently and has waged an honourable campaign.

As premier, Adrian Dix will restore honesty and substance in Victoria.

He’ll bring sober, deliberative, and collaborative leadership to the premier’s office. He’ll attract good people from across the ideological spectrum. He’ll govern the province as he has his own party: by appealing to all of us to come together to solve the problems of British Columbia. He’ll work hard to restore faith in our public institutions and trust in the competence and professionalism of government.

All of us want competent, honest, and accountable government that appeals to the best in all of us. Adrian Dix will do that. That’s why the NDP is getting my vote on May 14.

If the voters don’t do the job next week by ousting Christy Clark from her far from safe seat in the legislature representing the riding of Vancouver-Point Grey, while at the same rejecting her BC Liberal party at the polls, it is clear now that there are forces within the provincial, right-of-centre governing party that are well-prepared to do that job for us.

On the ethically-challenged front, Christy Clark scored a one-two punch on Day 23 of the provincial election campaign.
Early on Wednesday, Christy Clark’s off-the-rails BC Liberal campaign released a pointed and misleading Adrian Dix attack ad, employing footage of the the televised debate. Only problem, though, is that the Clark campaign and the BC Liberal party signed a legal agreement with the broadcast consortium that organized the televised debate that her campaign, and the Liberal party, would not use footage from the debate in partisan political advertising.
The debate footage, it should be noted, is also the property of the broadcast consortium — CBC, CTV and Global — and, as such is copyrighted material. Les Staff, news director at CTV who was writing on behalf of the consortium, wrote a formal letter to the Liberal campaign …

“The program was aired with a copyright at the end of the broadcast. The political parties involved agreed that no use of the copyrighted broadcast would be allowed for any political purposes,” writes Staff.

“I have a good faith belief that the use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law,” he continued. “Please have this copyrighted material removed immediately.”

As of this writing, early on Thursday morning, Clark’s ethically-challenged Liberal campaign has refused to remove the offending YouTube video.
To make matters worse, for the dirty-tricks-driven Liberal campaign, word was leaked on Wednesday that former senior advisor to Premier Christy Clark, one Kim Haakstad — yes, that very same Kim Haakstad who was forced to resign her what was supposed to be, non-partisan, civil servant position in the Premier’s office, amidst allegations that she led a partisan BC Liberal initiative, paid for with taxpayer’s money, to identify votes for Christy Clark and the Liberal party, in what became know as the “ethnic vote scandal” — is now “volunteering” on Christy Clark’s campaign in Vancouver Point Grey. Martyn Brown almost had a coronary as he related his severe misgivings about how it came to be that Liberal party campaign chair Mike McDonald, and “her poor judgement knows no end” Christy Clark herself, had allowed the discredited and dismissed Ms. Haakstad to play a role in the re-election of the Premier, in her very own riding!

So, let’s see where we’re at here in the waning days of Decision BC 2013.
Let’s take a minute to review the election press coverage this week, and who it has favoured — in this, the final full week of the election campaign — and how that coverage is likely to affect the latest election poll results that’ll be released tomorrow, and more importantly, how coverage of Christy Clark will affect the outcome of next week’s crucial provincial election.

• Vancouver Sun columnist Vaughn Palmer reminds his 300,000+ plus readers of Christy Clark’s central role in promoting the hated HST
• The Vancouver Sun’s Peter O’Neil suggests that a Premier Adrian Dix would have more in common with Prime Minister Stephen Harper, that they’d get along better than is the case with Christy Clark, and that the relationship would be more productive for British Columbia. To top it off, the Vancouver Sun provides sympathetic coverage of Adrian Dix’s and the BC NDP’s policy on eradicating child poverty
• Former chief of staff to Gordon Campbell, and the fellow who ran the BC Liberal campaigns in 2001, 2005 and 2009—yes, Martyn Brown—hammers Christy Clark, column in and column out, in The Straight, The Province, and on any TV or radio station that will air his views on Christy Clark’s “ethically challenged” BC election campaign
• Prominent Liberal Daniel Veniez, in his commentary in The Straight, calls Christy Clark’s tenure in government, “gaffe-prone, content-free, divisive, and ethically challenged”
• With 5 days to go in the election campaign, Global TV runs a lead story telling it’s 680,000+ dinnertime newshour viewers that not only the NDP, but the BC Liberals themselves, want Christy Clark gone

The writing is on the wall for the soon-to-be-ex Premier, Christy Clark.
Even the most apolitical British Columbian — for whom politics is a mere afterthought, or an intrusion — must now realize that we are on the verge of witnessing the bloody end of the Christy Clark era in BC politics.

Interested in reading VanRamblings’ coverage of the British Columbia 2013 provincial election from Day 1 to the present just click on Decision BC 2013.

The advance polls open today across British Columbia, in this most important 2013 provincial election. Wednesday through Saturday this week — in advance of Election Day, Tuesday, May 14th — from 8am through til 8pm (local time) each of the four advance polling days this week, Elections BC has provided to you the opportunity to exercise your franchise.
Don’t know where to vote in your local riding? Simply click here for the location of the advance polling station closest to where you live. There is no more important role that you can play in the life of our society than casting a ballot for the candidate of your choice, enfranchising yourself, your family and your neighbours, by participating in the grand democratic engagement that defines what it means to live in a free society, in a country and a province where your vote counts, as you play your part in helping to determine where the province in which you live and prosper is headed over the course of the next four years.
BC Election 2013: Where BC is Headed Over the Next Six Days
As can be seen in the latest UBC Sauder School of Business Election Market prediction, above and to the right, British Columbia is headed to a majority New Democrat government, a change from 12 years of the corporate friendly policies of the BC Liberal party, to a more balanced NDP-driven economy, where the needs of working families — and the most vulnerable among us — are taken into account when determining public policy.
Change is always difficult. But in 2013, amidst near economic chaos across the globe, change is necessary in order that the priorities that best fit the needs of the vast majority of British Columbians are well-tended to, where your needs, and the needs of your family, your friends, your co-workers and your neighbours emerge as priority concerns to those whom we have elected to represent us in the seat of power in Victoria, as British Columbia moves fitfully, yet inexorably forward through the 21st century.
Martyn Brown, the B.C. Liberals’ public campaign director in the last three elections, has weighed in again on where he thinks British Columbia will find itself on election night, where we are now, and where we’re going.

“The B.C. Liberals are still hovering in the low 30s, well below the NDP, with a week to go and little obvious room to grow. The NDP’s strategy is sound and has worked to help put that party in the lead so far. I believe it will prevail … (British Columbians) want a new type of positive politics that doesn’t sink to the gutter. They want an approach that isn’t all about running people down or that is utterly wedded to partisan hyperbole and fearmongering, as Dix used to engage in before he was the NDP leader, and which remains a defining feature of Clark’s DNA.

If Dix can round out the last week by appearing more energized and more passionate in his drive to lead B.C. forward, he can show people a new dimension to his character that inspires trust and confidence in him. The latest polls should certainly give him new impetus for a heartfelt appeal that shows he’s more of a fighter than most people have given him credit for being. Anyone who has watched Dix at his best in the Legislature over the years knows that he has the potential to be devastating, with wit, humour, and sheer political smarts.

If anyone should be feeling pangs of panic at this point, it should be the B.C. Liberals. They are still at least 10 to 13 points from any serious shot at winning, given the NDP’s sizable lead, its more evenly distributed geographic support, and its more motivated voter support base.

As things stand, the NDP is unlikely to lose any of the 35 seats it won in 2009, with the possible exception of Cariboo North. The best the Liberals can really hope for is to hang onto seats they currently hold, at least half of which are all potentially vulnerable … I like the NDP’s odds, to put it mildly. Hopefully, the prospect of a horse race will help motivate all British Columbians to cast their ballots.”

And thus we in British Columbia move towards a new government in Victoria, an end to Liberal governance, and an end to Christy Clark’s reign of error, towards an NDP government representing the interests of all.
Canucks eliminated in four game sweep. Calls for change abound
The Vancouver Canucks went down to ignominious defeat in overtime, in the fourth game of Round One of their Western Conference Stanley Cup quarter final. As the headline on the Vancouver Sun reads, “Canucks swept out of NHL playoffs by Sharks, with likely sweeping changes to come.” And so, change will come, not just within the Canucks beleaguered, playoff averse organization, but across the province of British Columbia, as well.
British Columbians do not want more of the same, whether it be Christy Clark and her far from merry band of tired, old Liberals, or the can’t get it done Alain Vigneault, whose job is on the line. Don’t expect Vigneault back with the Canucks next season. Don’t expect Clark to take her seat in the legislature as Premier, post May 14th. Clark has as much hope of either retaining her position as Premier, or her seat in the legislature as representative for the riding of Vancouver-Point Grey, as Vigneault does of finding himself behind the Canucks’ bench come September. Not a chance.

Where are the leaders campaigning today? Adrian Dix, B.C. NDP: Summerland, Kelowna, Penticton, Vernon, Armstrong, Kamloops; Christy Clark, B.C. Liberals: Maple Ridge, Burnaby, New Westminster, Surrey; John Cummins, B.C. Conservatives: Vernon; Jane Sterk, B.C. Greens: Victoria, Vancouver. More information will be provided as it becomes available.

Full VanRamblings election coverage available by clicking Decision BC 2013.

Part Two: Don’t Allow Decision BC 2013 Polls to Get You in a Tizzy
Have another look at the BC Election polls above, and the more detailed analysis we published on the weekend, and the following series of questions arise, “How do the poll results relate to the probable outcome of the British Columbia provincial election, how many seats is each provincial party likely to garner on election night, which ridings are in contention that will tip the election result one way or another and, finally, what does it all mean for British Columbia going forward into the future, most particularly between May 14, 2013 and the next provincial election, in the autumn of 2017?”
A few of the questions above were answered in VanRamblings’ weekend post. We’ll address the remaining questions in postings we’ll publish over the course of the final week of the Decision BC 2013 election campaign. Stay tuned, cuz this is going to be one humdinger of a provincial election.
Know this: the BC New Democrats and the BC Liberals are running disciplined campaigns. Both campaigns will stay on message, and both Adrian Dix and Christy Clark will continue to hammer home the main themes their parties are promoting to voters (change vs more of the same).
In the final week of Decision BC 2013, neither of the main contending parties for government will move anywhere close to going off track, although there’s a greater likelihood you’ll see the NDP mounting an edgier campaign in the next seven days, as Adrian Dix raises issues involving the BC Liberals’ sorry record of governance — of which example there are many — the Liberals’ 12-year history of fiscal mismanagement, as well as their abject failure to govern in the interests of a majority of British Columbians.
Let’s face it: there was never any question that the British Columbia election campaign would not tighten up closer to election day, May 14th. Not for nothing has VanRamblings consistently predicted 54 seats for the BC NDP in the legislature for the coming term of office, and somewhere around 26 – 30 seats for the BC Liberals. In the polarized political climate of British Columbia, we in this province have a history of only 3 per cent, or less, of the provincial vote separating the two main parties on election day.
The difference this time? As we say above, in 2013 the advantage goes to the BC New Democrats. The best the BC Liberals can hope for in 2013 is a decent showing at the polls on election night (30+ seats would be considered a massive win for this discredited party), leaving the BC NDP left only to ponder the size of their majority in the British Columbia legislature.
As Vaughn Palmer writes in his weekend column in the Vancouver Sun, the BC Liberals are still fighting an uphill battle, a battle “against the odds.”
To conclude this discussion on the polls and their meaning for the outcome of the campaign for the government of British Columbia, from his commentary published in The Straight on the weekend, here’s Martyn Brown, former Chief of Staff to BC Liberal Premier Gordon Campbell …

“The Liberals’ supposed ‘surge’ amounts to a few points at the NDP’s expense, that still leaves them miles away from where they need to be to have a serious shot at forming the government. While the ‘new horserace’ narrative helps pollsters stay relevant, gives the media something interesting to report, and allows the two main parties’ supporters to become more motivated, it’s way overblown, in my view.

The NDP are still way ahead by any measure, especially in the Lower Mainland, where most of the seats are. If the Green and Conservative votes both collapse to some extent, as I expect they will on election day, the NDP will gain more than the B.C. Liberals will.

If the NDP regain even a couple of points from the Green Party, and if the B.C. Liberals gain even half of all current B.C. Conservative voters, it would still be a wipeout. The NDP would be in the mid-40s and the B.C. Liberals would be in the high 30s.

The NDP voters are more motivated to punish and change the government, and the NDP vote is more ‘efficient’ — meaning that it is more evenly distributed across regions than that of the B.C. Liberals vote, which tends to be more regionally concentrated.

Both of those factors give the NDP a premium of perhaps 3-5%. We saw that in 1996, when the NDP lost the popular vote, but still won the most seats. In an election that is tied, for example, with both parties at about 42 percent, the NDP would form a massive majority government.”

Let’s follow up on the reference made by seasoned political strategist Martyn Brown in the last paragraph of his commentary above, and get a bit more graphic about the 1996 British Columbia election result …

In 1996, as can be seen in the graphic above, in a legislative house with 75 MLAs — with only 624,395 votes cast in their favour, amounting to 39.45% of the popular vote, Glen Clark’s BC New Democrats maintained a comfortable 39-seat majority in the British Columbia legislature, even though Gordon Campbell’s BC Liberals managed 37,534 more votes (BC Liberals’ total: 661,929), for a 41.82% showing at the polls. As Martyn Brown says — by the way, Mr. Brown was campaign director for the BC Liberals and their massive win in 2001, as well as the BC Liberals’ wins in 2005 and 2009, therefore, he should know better than most of the pundits out there commenting on the probable election night results come the evening of May 14th — ”the NDP are still way ahead by any measure.”

See you back here during the course of the week. In the meantime, full VanRamblings election coverage is available by clicking Decision BC 2013.