Gordon Wilson wants British Columbians to ‘come home’, and back the BC Liberal government and Christy Clark in the provincial election.
“After 20 years, I believe all of us, who were so excited at the BC Liberal breakthrough in 1991, but who left the party in 1993, and those of us who don’t feel comfortable at the prospect of an Adrian Dix government, come home,” says Wilson in a YouTube video posted on May 4.
“This is not a decision that I have taken lightly. But it’s one that I feel compelled to make,” Wilson adds.
He spoke exclusively to Global BC about his decision. It has been 20 years since he has called himself a BC Liberal.
Wilson has had a varied political career. He served as leader of the BC Liberal Party from 1987–1993, then founded the Progressive Democratic Alliance, and led that party from 1993–1999, and he also ran as a candidate in the 2000 BC NDP leadership race. He pulled out of the running, but then went on to lose the race for a seat in the 2001 provincial election, to BC Liberal candidate Harold Long.
Now he’s once again backing the BC Liberal Party for election.
“I think Christy Clark has done a good job since becoming leader of the party to make a broader base, to make it a more inclusive party, a party that really wants to look at a future British Columbia that really does start to control spending and get under control, ” says Wilson. “From my perspective, in this modern day and age when you look at the world economy, we have to start to get serious about managing our debt, about balancing our books and getting away from dependency on foreign lenders.”
Wilson says he was neutral during the campaign up until just before the debate, when BC NDP leader Adrian Dix said he opposed the proposed expansion of the Kinder Morgan pipeline. Wilson says that caused an alarm to go off.
“It just struck me that the cavalier attitude that was being put forward by members of the New Democratic Party, and by the leader himself, with respect to spending these huge deficits and debt, I just frankly couldn’t support it,” says Wilson.
According to Wilson, Dix talks too much about taxes in order to pay for programs across the province.
“I think we have to recognize, he has to recognize, that BC business is not an ATM for the NDP,” says Wilson. “You can’t just go and take more money any time you want to run a new program.”
Watch the YouTube video uploaded by Wilson below:
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