The B.C. Liberals have quietly transitioned to a new election logo, dropping the name “Christy Clark” in favour of a new-look label that emphasizes the Liberal “team” instead.
The old logo was introduced in 2011 and designed to take advantage of Clark’s fresh appeal and popularity after she won the Liberal Party leadership following her successful run as a popular talk-radio host.
The logo included Clark’s name in large red letters, while the word “Liberal” was shrunk down to teeny-tiny type. Insiders joked the Liberals had been rechristened as the “B.C. Christy” party.
At the time, Clark had pulled the Liberals up in the polls, and her own personal approval ratings were also doing well.
But it’s been all downhill ever since. The Liberals nosedived in the polls amid new scandals and controversies, and Clark’s personal numbers crashed even worse.
Now the party’s new logo reads simply “Today’s B.C. Liberals” while Clark’s name has been dropped.
“We transitioned to a new logo,” confirmed Mike McDonald, the party’s election-campaign director.
“The success of candidate recruitment has taken place since that first logo was used. The new logo reflects the strength of the team that the premier has assembled.”
McDonald denies the Liberals are downplaying Christy because of her low approval numbers, of course. And he said the old logo is still receiving some limited use, though it’s been erased from the party’s website.
“The premier is featured prominently on the website in terms of photos, video clips, messages and so forth,” McDonald said.
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Unfortunately for Clark, her efforts to showcase the Liberal “team” have been upstaged by even more problems.
And last week was another damaging one for the Liberals.
Kash Heed started the wrecking ball swinging by writing an online editorial demanding the resignations of Liberal cabinet ministers Pat Bell and Shirley Bond over a controversial land deal in their home riding of Prince George.
Two developers accuse the government of “breached protocols, broken promises and misrepresentation” in a proposed B.C. forestry innovation and design centre, and the two cabinet ministers have been dragged into the controversy.
Heed, a former police chief and solicitor-general, said his Liberal colleagues should step down.
“The public trust is where we as elected officials derive all of our legitimacy from,” Heed wrote.
“My colleagues Shirley Bond and Pat Bell have an obligation to remove themselves as ministers until this matter is formally investigated.”
The story was breaking while Christy Clark was attending a Liberal campaign event for Surrey candidate Peter Fassbender. The Liberal pep rally turned into a media scrum about Heed’s attack on his own colleagues instead.
So much for showcasing the new Liberal team.
The week went from bad to worse with the release of Auditor General John Doyle’s scathing report on the government’s “carbon offset” program, which has forced cash-strapped schools, colleges, universities and hospitals to pay more than $50 million for dubious private-sector “carbon credits.”
Instead of vowing to fix the program, the government instead attacked the auditor general, a fierce defender of B.C. taxpayers. Environment Minister Terry Lake even suggested Doyle himself should be audited!
So this is how the Liberals rally public support to their new team? By attacking a popular public watchdog? The bone-headed moves never seem to end.
It all comes with the election just 44 days away, and the Liberals desperately trying to stop the bleeding.
With the polls looking increasingly grim — the NDP holds a massive 20-point lead, according to a new Angus Reid survey — the Liberals keep hoping the race will somehow turn competitive.
After all, the Liberals tell themselves, other governing parties have been down, too. Just look how Alison Redford’s Conservatives defied the polls and the pundits and won another term in Alberta.
And doesn’t the race always tighten up in British Columbia?
Unfortunately, voters’ appetite for change may rule the day instead.
Watch for the NDP to release their promised pre-election “fiscal plan” in the days ahead. The Liberals will attack it as lacking in detail and accuse the NDP of having a hidden agenda. But the memory of the Liberals’ own doublecross of voters on the HST is still fresh, and the attacks may fall flat.
And if people start to get a little nervous about the prospect of an NDP government, I have a feeling the upstart B.C. Green and Conservative parties may be the ones who benefit — not the rebranded Liberals and their Christy-free logo.
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