With last night’s Leaders’ Debate complete, Decision BC 2013 heads in to the homestretch, with less than two weeks til election day, on May 14th.
With no so-called ‘knockout blows’ landed by any of the party leaders, as can be seen in the Ipsos-Reid post Leaders’ Debate poll conducted for Global BC, last evening’s debate emerged as pretty much a draw, with BC’s NDP leader finding somewhat more favour among British Columbians than did his BC Liberal party counterpart, the beleaguered Christy Clark, who drew much of the fire during the course of Monday evening’s debate.
Vancouver Sun legislative columnist Vaughn Palmer weighed in on last night’s debate in today’s edition of B.C.’s newspaper of record …

(John Cummins) had the most telling comment of the night, however, with his devastating observation off the top that “nobody” expects Christy Clark and the Liberals to win the election and folks probably tuned in “to see what Adrian Dix would look like as a premier.”

If so, then what they saw was a leader who remains a bit awkward and evasive here and there, but who is a master of his chosen material, with growing confidence overall.

If any of the other leaders laid a glove on him in Monday night’s debate, it didn’t show up in my notes.

The Globe and Mail’s Justine Hunter and Ian Bailey write that the party leaders traded punches during the course of the election’s only televised debate, while columnist Gary Mason felt that “Dix won on points, as he delivered the most important performance of his political career.” Meanwhile, Georgia Straight editor Charlie Smith opined that, “It’s hard not to feel that all four provincial leaders are insulting voters’ intelligence.”
And, of course, Charlie is right. Last night’s Leaders’ Debate was, for the most part, an ‘issue free’ zone, with virtually no discussion by the party leaders of the major policy issues of concern to British Columbians: transportation, education, and housing, among others. Yes, it may be that Christy Clark’s gaffe in barreling through a red light at 5:15 a.m. offers a metaphor for her approach to governance, but to be the first question that was posed to her by debate moderator Jennifer Burke? C’mon now. And so the night went, parry and thrust, personal attack followed by more political invective, and nary a mention of some of the critical issues that a new government in Victoria will have to face in developing policy that best meets the needs of British Columbians across the vast expanse of our province.

Today, then, it’s back onto the hustings for the four leaders, with Premier Christy Clark spending the day in the Kootenays mainstreeting, before travelling to Cranbook for a 5pm Liberal party rally.
Following an early morning, so-called Breakfast of Champions campaign event with Vancouver-False Creek NPD candidate Matt Toner, BC NDP leader Adrian Dix will hop on a plane heading for Prince George, where he’ll issue a policy announcement at the College of New Caledonia at 3pm, after which he’ll attend a Rally for Change with candidates Bobby Deepak and Sherry Ogasawara, at the Prince George Civic Centre.
BC Conservative Party leader John Cummins — who didn’t fare all that well in last night’s debate, with his deer-in-the-headlights performance — will spend the first part of the day in Vancouver before traveling to Kamloops for a BC Conservative fundraiser. Meanwhile, BC Green Party leader Jane Sterk — who wasn’t as strong in last night’s debate as she was on Friday — will spend her day doing media (e.g. interviews with the editorial Boards of the Vancouver Sun and The Province), before heading out to Surrey this evening for an all-candidates debate at South Park family school.

As can be seen from the latest ThreeHundredEight.com statistical compilation poll above, heading into the final 12 days of Decision BC 2013, as most pundits predicted the race has tightened up some, the Liberals are up 2.8 points, the NDP down a couple — all of which means not a whit to the election outcome May 14th, other than the prospect that the election result will not prove a complete wipeout for the BC Liberals.
VanRamblings will return tomorrow with more, probable, election outcome predictions, a review of Decision BC 2013 mainstream media coverage and, perhaps, a bit of insight into BC’s 40th provincial election. For the latest VanRamblings election coverage, click on Decision BC 2013.

Well, this is it folks — the big day, the make it or break day for Decision BC 2013. Tonight at 6:30pm, broadcast on the three major television networks across British Columbia, as well as radio stations throughout the province, the four leaders of the main political parties in our province come together for the televised Leaders’ Debate, the only opportunity British Columbians will have to assess the cut and jib of the provincial party leaders who are vying to become the Premier of our province for the next four years.
Ostensibly, the purpose of tonight’s leaders’ debate is to provide British Columbians with a keen insight into the policies and political belief structure of our provincial leaders. Premier Christy Clark has the most to gain or lose, as she is the one leader who will face an audience that is primed to give her a thumbs-down review on both delivery and substance.
Adrian Dix steps in front of the cameras tonight the perceived front-runner in the May 14 election. All Dix has to do is keep his powder dry, appear reasonable, engaging and perhaps even avuncular while presenting his, and the NDP’s, plans for British Columbia through 2017, and the next provincial election. BC Green Party leader Jane Sterk acquitted herself well on CKNW’s Leaders’ Debate on Friday — will she perform as well again tonight, as she attempts to paint herself as a reasonable alternative for voters?
And, finally, Conservative leader John Cummins, who thus far in BC’s election campaign hasn’t gained much traction, even given his ridiculing of the balanced budget legislation that forms a central raison d’être plank of the Liberal platform. By Wednesday, when the major pollsters release the results on their post-election sampling of the public’s reception of the four leaders, we’ll know who the leader will be that will enter the final 11 days of the campaign with the most forward momentum headed toward May 14.

One of the “issues” that will almost certainly come up during the course of tonight’s Leaders’ Debate will revolve around the poor judgement Premier Clark displayed in blowing through a red light at 5:15 a.m. one morning this past week, her son Hamish and Vancouver Sun reporter Jonathan Fowlie in tow. As former Chief of Staff to Gordon Campbell writes in The Straight …

“Even if Clark was banking on the incident not being reported or captured by a red light camera, it is illegal. ‘Fun’ or not. No matter how empty the intersection was or how early in the morning it was, it displayed a wanton disregard for the law and common sense. It sends a horrible message that, metaphorically, too closely approximates her approach to governing.

In Clark’s world, rules are meant to be broken. It is a message that is endemic to her Office and that has been reflected by her example and by her most senior political staff. Whatever you can get away with when you think that nobody’s watching is A-OK … This Premier stops for no one. She’s cool with “pushing the envelope” with actions that she assumes will never be held to account.

Note that when Clark ran that red light, it was no accident. She didn’t run a yellow light that turned red before she could stop at the intersection. She deliberately chose to go through the light because it was red. Because she could. … It speaks volumes about her troubled leadership and government.”

And thus the metaphorical issue that best describes Christy Clark’s reckless and wanton approach to government rears its head in the final weeks of the British Columbia election campaign, in this ‘do or die, on the line‘ election for Clark’s governing BC Liberal party. Premier Clark’s decision to run a red light, when she knew full well a reporter was sitting right next to her in her car - as research for a profile piece he was writing on her - was a blunder.
A blunder on top of one blunder after another — from the so-called ethnic vote scandal that served to alienate British Columbians across the province, to the failure of her government to respond to the heartbreaking protests of parents over the Liberal party’s unconscionable cuts to services for their developmentally disabled children (all the while, promoting her disingenuous “families first” agenda - parents with disabled children apparently seeming not to fit into Premier Clark’s ruddy definition of family), from the utter lack of ethics displayed by senior government officials in her office who engaged in partisan activity to identify the vote for her Liberal government, to the iconic wooden office building scandal respecting the partisan efforts of Ministers in her government respecting the bid process — has defined her time as Premier of the province of British Columbia. Just as is the case with a marriage, it is rarely ‘one big thing’ that destroys a marriage, but rather it is the litany of ‘little things’ that when added together prove to be the most consequential in the final, heartbreaking decision to end a relationship.
And so, the 12-year reign of a BC Liberal government that lost the favour of the voting public with the implementation of the much-despised HST, through Christy Clark’s reign of error since winning the leadership of the Liberal Party on February 26, 2011, must come to an end. As the defining line of the BC NDP campaign says, “Change. One practical step at a time”.
Update: For VanRamblings’ coverage of Monday’s BC Leaders’ Debate click on BC Election 2013: The Campaigns Move in to the Homestretch.

BC Election 2013: A Wrap-Up of News from the Mainstream Media
We’ll wrap today’s post with a review of print and online press coverage.

• Georgia Straight. As we’ve reported previously, editor Charlie Smith is on a roll. In his latest commentary, Smith tackles the BC Liberals for neglecting to pay attention to the tenor of politics in the western world, their failure to recognize that “the winds are changing”, and for their decision to campaign to the right rather than as a moderately progressive party. Smith also writes that the NDP are poised to add many new seats if the polls hold, suggesting he believes they will. Also in The Straight, Vancouver-False Creek Liberal candidate Sam Sullivan writes that marijuana prohibition is a failed policy. You’ll find more Georgia Straight coverage of the provincial election here.

• Globe and Mail. Andrea Woo writes a profile on ‘underdog’ Vancouver Fairview candidate, Geoge Heyman. Mark Hume travelled north to write a riding profile of Peace River North, one of the ridings to watch on election night, with Independent Arthur Hadland on track to defeat Liberal incumbent Pat Pimm. Guess we’ll see in 15 days.

C’mon back tomorrow for VanRamblings’ take on tonight’s Leaders’ Debate, and other election-related news of the day.
(Find the latest VanRamblings election coverage at Decision BC 2013)
(As the ‘story of the the April 18th Kitsilano Community Centre AGM continues to generate interest, readers will find VanRamblings’ coverage of the KitsCC AGM here. The Vancouver Courier’s Sandra Thomas wrote about the KitsCC AGM, her article to be found here, along with a Letter to the Editor in response to Thomas’ article. In related news, The Courier’s Bob Mackin writes that Kate Perkins, Trout Lake Community Centre President, and Chair of of the community center Associations Presidents Group — currently involved in a sensitive re-negotiation of the operating agreement that defines the relationship between community centres and Vancouver’s Park Board and City Council — is, in fact, as she describes herself, a “mole” for the office of the City Manager, and Dr. Penny Ballem — at best, questionable conduct as well as a conflict of interest for Ms. Perkins, and unethical behaviour on the part of Vancouver’s City Manager, if in fact Dr. Ballem made promises of employment or favour to Ms. Perkins in exchange for her duties as a “mole”)

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.)

Click on video to watch full CKNW BC Election 2013 Leaders’ Debate, broadcast earlier today
As per the heading of today’s VanRamblings post, why was Thursday, April 25th, and why will today both prove to be slow days on the campaign trail?
Easy answer that.
This morning, veteran CKNW broadcaster Bill Good hosted an exclusive BC leadership debate on AM980 (see video above). The much-touted Leaders’ Debate included BC NDP leader Adrian Dix, Liberal leader Christy Clark, Green leader Jane Sterk and Conservative leader John Cummins.
Where were the leaders on Thursday, and where will the leaders be over the weekend? In preparation. Thursday was preparation day for the make-it-or-break-it election opportunity that a leaders’ debate provides to the four hopefuls running to become Premier of British Columbia. For any politico out there worth her or his salt, CKNW 980 was the place to be Friday morning. Full video of the CKNW Leaders’ Debate may be found above.
Monday’s April 29th leaders’ debate, to be broadcast both on the three big television networks (CBC, CTV and Global), as well as on radio across the province, is the real make-it-or-break-it pivot for Decision BC 2013. All one has to do is look back at the impact then Liberal leader Gordon Wilson had on the electorate in 1991, and where many decided to park their vote.
The 1991 leaders’ debate was supposed to be a clash between the NDP’s Mike Harcourt and Social Credit’s Rita Johnston. But Liberal leader Gordon Wilson surprised everyone by getting in the best shots, as he scolded the bickering Harcourt and Johnston. “This reminds me of the legislature and here’s a classic example of why nothing ever gets done in the province of British Columbia,” Wilson told the television home viewing audience.
Although the New Democratic Party went on to win an astounding 51 seats in the house, the Socreds were decimated, finished, done like dinner — winning only 7 seats — while the Liberals went from zero to 17 seats in the legislature. Not winning the debate was one of the few flaws in what was considered a great campaign for NDP leader and new premier Mike Harcourt.
Leadership debates can have a profound effect, as they did in 1991 in BC, or on the national stage, when in 1984 Progressive Conservative leader Brian Mulroney confronted a deer-in-headlights, newly-elected Liberal leader John Turner — Mulroney pouncing on Turner’s patronage appointments and thunderously rejecting Turner’s leadership in a heated exchange — devastating Turner in a one-on-one debate, in the process taking the Conservatives to an unprecedented 211 seat victory in Parliament.
Whether it’s this morning’s leaders’ debate on CKNW, or Monday evening’s televised leaders’ debate, how the four leaders perform could very well emerge as a determining factor in who wins government on May 14th.

Although the ad above is a bit dated (it came out in Nov. 2010, prior to newly-elected Liberal leader Christy Clark announcing a rise in the minimum wage, which now sits at $10.25 an hour), the ad nonetheless speaks to a core constituency of the NDP, in a resolutely non-cynical manner.
In a month of Sundays, the provincial Liberals could never hope to achieve a connection with the youth in our province because, let’s face it, the provincial Liberals — even with the bright, relatively young face of Christy Clark at the helm — are the party of the old fuddy duddies, the party of the corporate elite, a provincial political party that believes in stasis over change.
The New Democratic Party speaks to, and for, most youth who reside in British Columbia. Whereas to the provincial Liberal party youth are just kids, kids who don’t get out to vote, and thus whose interests are unworthy of concern or interest, to be roundly ignored while on the campaign trail and, more particularly, while holding the reins of government.
Take a moment to consider the unemployment rate among youth in British Columbia — an astounding and unforgivable 14.5%, the highest youth unemployment rate in Canada. And just what have the Liberals done to address the problem of unemployment among our province’s young people? The answer is a simple one: BC does not have Canada’s highest youth unemployment rate because the Liberals gave a damn about this British Columbia constituency (or their worried parents, for that matter).
If what VanRamblings has observed while volunteering in the offices of Vancouver Point Grey NDP candidate David Eby offers any indication on where the youth vote will go in Decision BC 2013, and how many of our youth will plug in to this year’s provincial election — as we’ve witnessed an unprecedentedly well-organized, daily outreach campaign to youth, and the many thousands of students at UBC — the BC NDP are set to gain an unprecedented portion of the youth vote come election day, May 14th.

C’mon back to VanRamblings over the weekend, when we’ll continue to provide dense coverage of Decision BC 2013, as we link to reports in the mainstream and alternative press, point you in the direction of interest group involvement in the election, and otherwise attempt to provide you with the information you may have missed while leading your very busy life.
(For the latest VanRamblings election coverage, click on Decision BC 2013)
(For those of you who arrived here looking for coverage of last week’s Kitsilano Community Centre AGM — as sorry an example of untoward democratic engagement as you’re ever likely to witness — VanRamblings’ coverage of the KitsCC AGM may be found 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.)