Defections from the BC Liberals may be on the horizon in the next few months

Yesterday I was delighted to have the opportunity to listen online to the Bill Good Show, and hear his interview with former Social Credit Premier Rita Johnston. 

For those of you who are not aware, in 1991 she became Canada's first female premier.  She is also a member of the BC Conservative Party's Tactical Advisory Group, which is headed up by former Reform MP Randy White.

While Bill’s interview with her was mainly focused on comparisons between then and now, as Christy Clark takes over the reins of the BC Liberal Party, she was able to comment and get in discussion of the BC Conservatives, and their upcoming leadership race.

I did stick around for the next segment on his show as well, because Bill Good mentioned that he would be having former Liberal, now independent MLA’s Bill Bennett (Kootenay East) and Blair Lekstrom (Peace River South) on with him.

For those who were also able to catch that portion, I wonder if we heard the same thing?  Both MLA’s appeared, at least to me, to be hedging their bets as to whether they planned to return to Liberals now that Christy Clark was Premiere.  Both in fact answered with “qualified no’s” when the question was posed to them by Bill Good.

Bennett indicated he would like to see, “what she can do first” … while Lekstrom saying the same thing also indicated that he did not believe in jumping to another party without being elected to them, and that rather than join another party, at the moment, he would continue to sit as an independent and also wait to see where Christy Clark takes government.

Lekstrom also said that he believed that the people of BC were looking for change and that the first 60 days of the Christy Clark government would be important.  He said that the key issue for any government was to listen to the people, and that government had to be, “with and for the people”.

I have to ask however; why is this all of a sudden new information to the BC Liberals?  It truly seems that the BC Liberals have believed they could do the exact opposite of what Blair Lekstrom said, and govern opposed to the will of the people.

When asked about the BC Conservative Party, Bill Bennett did say that it was for the moment, “am empty vessel” … and that there were “good people there.”

So all in all when the dust settled on the interview, both said they planned to have a wait and see attitude to Christy Clark and the Liberals … and neither had anything negative to say either with regards to the BC Conservatives.

Time will only tell where and what they do in the future – and where their future political aspirations will lead them. 

These are not the only MLA’s however to keep an eye on, as defections from the BC Liberals may be on the horizon in the next few months.

I’m Alan Forseth in Kamloops, and those are the thoughts of one conservative.

FOOTNOTE … the following is from Canoe .ca 

Lurking in the shadows of Clark’s campaign is Patrick Kinsella, the veteran political strategist, lobbyist and racehorse owner. Kinsella’s Progressive Group donated $20,000. Kinsella was behind Social Credit Premier Rita Johnston’s epic 1991 election loss and Tory Prime Minister Kim Campbell’s equally impressive 1993 federal loss. Johnston and Campbell were crowned by their parties, but the people voted against them because of their unfit to govern parties.

Will the K-Man use Clark to complete his trifecta of female futility? For those keeping score at home, he’s the Liberal insider involved heavily in BC Railscam who figuratively boasted he had a “foot into” VANOC. Who’s powerful leg it was attached to remains a mystery.