A running tally of the polls published in the B.C. election campaign (the writ dropped on April 16), arranged here, with the most recent on top. In every poll, Adrian Dix and the NDP lead with Christy Clark and the Liberals in second. The biggest gap of 22 points between the two was found by Justason in a poll published April 29. The smallest gap was 2 points in poll published May 9 by Forum.
Continue reading A review of the polls in BC: Dix leads in all but the gap varies
“We have set out these bold goals and we are reaching our targets. I’m going to run in the next election on the strong economy. I’m going to run on (being) number one in job creation.”
– Christy Clark to her party’s convention in Whistley, BC, October, 2012
This morning, Statistics Canada released the final report card before Tuesday’s general election in B.C. on Clark’s 17-months-old Jobs Plan. BC is unequivocally not “number one” in job creation. In fact, it is not number one in any employment measurement used by Statistics Canada. And yet, it could be a lot worse, I suppose. So I’m giving the BC Jobs Plan a “C-” at this point. Continue reading The report card on Christy Clark's "BC Jobs Plan": A "C-"
“What the frack goes on with the [BC] Liberal party?” says Vancouver 24 Hours columnist Bill Tieleman. Bill also notes — and I agree — “This has also been the most environmentally-minded campaign I’ve ever seen in B.C.”
In this video, I ask BC Premier Christy Clark (running for re-election right now): Continue reading VIDEO: BC's Christy Clark on pipeline politics and balanced budgets
The BC Liberals are producing a daily TV News-style report on their campaign anchored by former BC CTV news anchor Pamela Martin. This one features a dancing mayor.
In the 1996 provincial election in British Columbia, the BC Liberals won the popular vote, with 41.82% of all votes cast going to the party that was then led by Gordon Campbell. The BC NDP, under incumbent Premier Glen Clark, finished on election night with 39.45% of the popular vote, a drop of about about one percentage point from the previous general election.
And yet, though Clark lost the popular vote to Campbell, Clark won a majority of seats in the BC legislature. Clark’s caucus had 39 MLAs, Campbell’s had 33. There were three in the “other” category.
How does one explain that? Continue reading The polls are worse than they look for Christy Clark and the BC Liberals.
Any Parliamentary Press Gallery journalist who has been around for a few years can tell you that federal Liberals can be a vicious bunch although they usually prefer sticking the knives into their opponents under the cloak of anonymity — the “senior Liberal source” you’ve no doubt read a lot about.
It’s refreshing then to see that, in B.C. politics, those who would stick the knives into members of their own party are not only not anonymous, they actually issue press releases with photos! Continue reading BC Liberals issue press release telling Clark to step down
While the federal government and governments in Ontario and Alberta — to name just two — are wallowing in red ink, Christy Clark’s Liberal government in B.C. could table a budget Tuesday in Victoria that promises the elimination of its deficit within the year. And yet, Clark’s government is struggling to find favour with voters. From earlier tonight on Battleground on Sun News Network, our Vancouver reporter Jill Bennett tells us what Clark and her finance minister Mike de Jong were saying and then I check in with Vancouver 24 Hours columnist (and Adrian Dix supporter) Bill Tieleman on the budget, new BC Liberal nominations and the significance of Clark cabinet minister Pat Bell’s decision to take a break from politics once the writ is dropped.
British Columbians go to the polls in mid-May. It’s now almost mid-February. The incumbent premier, B.C. Liberal Christy Clark, continues to trail badly in the polls and she polls particularly badly among female voters. Here’s a new ad that, it seems to me, is aimed at female voters. Think it’ll help?
Continue reading B.C.'s Clark pitches for women: Will it work?
Earlier this week, a group calling itself the Concerned Citizens for BC launched attack ads aimed at Adrian Dix and the BC NDP. Dix’ NDP has a 15 point lead on incumbent B.C. Liberal Premier Christy Clark with less than 16 weeks until e-day. Today, at separate press conferences, both Dix and Clark said they’d avoid negative ads.
Well, so far, Clark, at least, is true to her word and her party is first out of the gate with a political ad, i.e. paid for by the party. (You may have heard some controversy about the $15 million in taxpayer funds being spent on ad campaign that New Democrats say is a thinly-disgused pro-Clark campaign). Here’s the Premier: