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B.C. Liberals wrestle with identity

Views

The BC Liberal Party is in search of a new leader and a new vision to try to reform in time to fight the next election in this province. It’s hard to know what the party stands for right now. In her desperate attempt to retain power, former premier Christy Clark offered up a throne speech which so closely mirrored the NDP election platform it was remarkable. Many Liberals were aghast. To many Liberal supporters, what most distinguished the party was that it was not the NDP.

There is a lot of confusion about what the Liberal party is. I heard one critic refer to it as the fake Liberal party. The party would probably be better known as the BC Party or the Free Enterprise party, but that would leave the Liberal brand up for the taking by some other group. The Liberal party in this province is a coalition of federal Liberals like Clark and federal Conservatives like Rich Coleman.

Under Gordon Campbell, the Liberal caucus was under instruction not to participate in federal elections. He didn’t want his members identified with the federal parties. 

The reality is the BC Liberal Party has only had one major goal, that being to keep the NDP from power. 

As long as there is no serious BC Conservative Party, that has been a pretty effective strategy. It would have worked again this year if the Green Party hadn’t climbed into bed with the NDP. 

Watching shiny new Premier John Horgan enjoying the early days of his administration, it’s easy to forget the Liberals actually won the election with the most seats and the most votes, but lost its majority, allowing the NDP and Greens to take power. 

In my view, the Liberals had become too complacent. They allowed the NDP to come up with ideas like cancelling tolls on the Port Mann and Golden Ears bridges, and promising to address affordable housing and better public education.

In hindsight it’s become apparent that the Liberals, who ran on economic prosperity, had a bit too much of it. The outgoing government built up an astonishing surplus of $2.7 billion. That money could have been used to make affordable promises on issues like health care and education that would have likely meant a majority for the Liberals. Instead they’ve handed the NDP the keys to the coffers to do the things many British Columbians were crying out for. Taking the tolls off the Port Mann and Golden Ears was probably the biggest promise made by the NDP and almost by itself gave the NDP enough Surrey seats to dislodge the Liberals.

The challenge for a new leader of the BC Liberals will be to appear more sincere and more caring than Christy Clark. When Ms. Clark said “Families First,” many people felt that didn’t include their family. One of the biggest challenges is to bring that Conservative-Liberal coalition together and prevent it breaking into two parties that divide the free enterprise vote. 

They have until Feb. 4 to find that person.