After Global BC’s Jas Johal report on the “801 Movement” aired on the News Hour, we spoke with him to get a deeper picture of why the movement has sprung up, and what it means.
Q: How did you come across this?
A: This was through a contact I have. I talked to them a couple days ago, and they mentioned that this 801 effort was happening. I was a bit skeptical at first, but then they said they had pins made up. I mentioned this to Keith Baldrey, and he said he had heard the same story from a different source. So that’s how we moved forward. Even the pins we got were different, but the same three numbers.
Q: There have been people in BC Liberals skeptical of Clark’s leadership for months now, with the party victim to many leaks. Is this group connected to that?
A: This frustration that some of the individuals have began right from her victory two years ago. She has never been viewed as a conservative, she’s viewed as a federal Liberal. There’s many within the party that have never liked her winning. Since then, there have been tremendous amounts of leaks coming from her party, you have the issue of ethnic gate, you have the issue of Burnaby Hospital, you had the issue of the Times of India awards, and many others. There’s probably about a dozen MLAs who have in some way questioned her leadership at the very least. And this has been building during this election campaign. There are people who feel if she loses, she should be gone.
Q: Do the people think that if the Liberals lose, Clark may try and stay on?
A: The worry is if they do lose election, but win 25 or 30 seats, Clark could make the argument that she wishes to stay. She could say that she has been able to keep the coalition together, and because of her record over the last 12 years, they weren’t going to win, but she managed to put up a good fight and bring the party back. Many people think this party is not going to become a majority again with her leadership. They want her gone. They want her supporters gone. And there is fear that she would want to stay.
Q: Rich Coleman has already responded to the story, calling it a “load of crap”. What do you make of that?
A: Mr. Coleman is entitled to his opinion. But the reality is it isn’t just some no-names who are part of this movement. I’ve talked to a person with a high profile in the party, Keith Baldrey has talked to a business leader who also passed this along. It’s not one individual here, there’s a good amount of people that just don’t want her to be leader. They will eventually have to step up and make themselves known, ultimately. But right now they feel that it’s best not to say much.
This transcript has been edited and condensed.
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