On Thursday, NDP leader John Horgan was mugged. No, nobody stole his wallet, but someone snuck into the NDP condo and ripped out all the flooring. Those planks are now part of the Liberal condo next door.
Premier Christy Clark unveiled a Throne Speech on Thursday through the lieutenant-governor that was virtually a carbon copy of what the NDP and the Greens have been fighting for and pushing for the last many, many, many years.
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During that time, the Premier pretty much ignored all of those calls. Well, Thursday’s Throne Speech covered a lot of those issues.
Back in April, Christy Clark had this to say about politicians who flip-flop on policy positions: “Leadership I think demands that we be clear about where we stand, that we be principled and stick with what we believe in, and that we be consistent in fighting for that. I just have never believed that politicians or that societies are better when politicians hide what they believe or try to be all thing to all people. If you stand for something, you should have the guts to say it. And you should be proud of what you believe in.”
But in just two short months, Clark executed a political manoeuvre, once thought impossible.
To call it a political flip-flop would not do justice to the spectacle, the artistry, the arrogance of display in the legislature.
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As the lieutenant-governor began reading the Throne Speech, Clark leapt from her chair, in a twisting triple sidewinder somersault, with a dainty quadruple sidestep, into a full reverse back flip, and finished it off by producing a unicycle out of thin air and furiously backpedaling to the nearest exit while thumbing through a biography of W. A. C. Bennett.
The Liberals loved it, everyone else yawned.
Among the promises in the Throne Speech, getting rid of tolls at the Port Mann Bridge. During the campaign, the Liberals derided the NDP’s toll elimination promise saying it would lose the province our Triple-A credit rating.
No matter, details are unimportant when you’re in the middle of sidestepping your own principles.
Then there’s daycare. Liberals said it was too expensive, and irresponsible when the opposition pushed the idea to help families. The Liberals rejected that notion for six years.
But when faced with the loss of power, Clark has now doubled down on the NDP’s idea, saying she’d have full daycare in four years, not the 10 the NDP had promised.
Clark said that when people want daycare, they want it now. Well, people have been wanting daycare for the last six years but again, a principled approach lost in the whirling dervish act of a desperate politician.
I could go on because the list is a very long one but you get the point.
Christy Clark has liberally selected from the NDP and Green platforms, policies that mere weeks ago were anathema to her party.
She says she’s been listening to people since the election, but she’s had six years as the premier of the province and listened only to the people who brought campaign cash to the table – and record amounts of it by the way.
Developers, contractors, mining and oil and gas interests, their interests were very nicely looked after thank you.
But only now, staring electoral defeat in the face, does Clark pretend to hear your voices?
So who is Christy Clark? Who are the BC Liberals? And what do they stand for? Your guess is as good as mine on that one.
Maybe Clark will be able to sort it out as opposition leader.
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