Wednesday’s televised leaders’ debate was held with less than two weeks to go before the provincial election, and with polls showing the NDP both leading and gaining, especially in Metro Vancouver. As a result, both Liberal leader Christy Clark and Green Andrew Weaver appeared to strategically join forces to bring down the frontrunner. With some able assistance from the moderator, the two took turns pumping their silver bullets into the new werewolf of B.C. politics, Mad Dog John Horgan.
Clark hit the theme over and over – B.C. needs a calm leader who can negotiate a softwood lumber deal with those tough, wily Americans, a leader who can be strong but can also control their wicked temper – and above all stay calm. Calm.
Weaver took on Horgan directly. “Are you going to lose your temper on me now, Mr. Horgan, because you did last week?” the Green leader goaded anxiously. “Are you getting mad at me too, John?”
And in a case of manna from heaven, moderator Jennifer Burke very calmly asked Horgan, “Do you have an anger management issue?”
Essentially being asked if he needed therapy, Horgan calmly denied it, saying he did get angry when he thought of the government ignoring children in care “to the point where they take their own lives,” but the damage, of course, was done. And no question – Horgan walked into it by engaging in useless verbal dogfights with Weaver and obnoxious exchanges with Clark during the Bill Good debate last week. But no one put Clark on the hot seat for her evasiveness, the rudeness of her refusal to even pretend to answer important questions on her government’s record. The main thing, apparently, is that she was calm. Same with Weaver – if his timid, at times simpering manner would make him ineffectual in any kind of negotiations, no one bothered to notice or care. Frontrunners, after all, are the natural targets.
Thursday morning, the Clark team was basking in its positive reviews, like this one from CBC: “The premier smartly stepped out of the testosterone-filled room and just let them have at it.”
Rejuvenated no doubt by a calm sleep, Clark was scheduled to have breakfast on West Georgia with some of her candidates and “women from across the community.”
She can ride out the campaign calling out her opponents as job-killing delusionals who are coming after your taxes, but now with the added advantage of being the one who can keep her cool when the pressure is on. Not like that Mad John.
It’s all strategy.
Don’t you love elections?
