What kind of Deputy House Leader was Rich Coleman, if he knowingly let discussions from the BC Liberal caucus be leaked?

BC Liberal Deputy House Leader Rich Coleman

QUESTION:  With friends like this, who needs enemies? 

Shortly after the announcement by Abbotsford South MLA John van Dongen, that he was leaving the BC Liberal Party (of which he sat as a member for nearly a decade and a half), Deputy House Leader Rich Coleman took out the knives.

Oh he put on the concerned friend game face, saying how faithful he had been, staying at Van Dongen‘s side during ‘personal’ (?) issues he had gone through in the past.  A story in the Vancouver Sun on March 27 (John van Dongen swaps parties from Christy Clark's Liberals to B.C. Conservative) quoted Coleman saying:

"I've been concerned about John as a friend for some time. He's been struggling with his role in public life and I wasn't particularly overly surprised because I've had lengthy conversations with him about some of his own personal issues."

Then began the criticism of his ‘so-called friend’.   

And why?  Because he had allegedly broken ranks with fellow members of the BC Liberal caucus for saying he could no longer support the direction of the government —and how it was being led.

Abbotsford South MLA
John van Dongen

John van Dogen rose in the legislature to make his announcement, and he had many things to say about his reasons for resigning from the BC Liberal Caucus – here however are the words that stood out as the most important to me:

"There have been other lapses in proper accountability and I expect more to come. When more and more decisions are being made for the wrong reasons, then you have an organization that is heading for failure."

For the first time since Christy Clark took over the reins of the BC Liberal party, a member of her own caucus expressed, in public, what many in BC have been feeling for some time now. 

That was not something that was going to be tolerated, and so the innuendo and whispers began -- it rose to a crescendo on the weekend, with more from Rich Coleman, the so-called friend of John van Dongen. 

Over the weekend, with Sean Leslie on CKNW’s The World Today Weekend, Rich Coleman had this to say:

“There’s no question. It wasn’t something that he didn’t admit either. He was a regular contributor to some of the bloggers as far as information and things like that.”

What was he referring to?  Well just moments before he had said … There is “no question” MLA John van Dongen leaked caucus information to bloggers. 

I ask you, what kind of Deputy House Leader was Rich Coleman, if he knowingly had let discussions from the BC Liberal caucus be leaked?  

After all, we are not talking about some lowly back-bencher; this was one of Christy Clark’s leading members in the legislature ... and in the BC Liberal Party.  

If, as he has said, he knew this 'leaking' was going on for some time, why did it not come out in public months ago?   What kind of Deputy House Leader, or Premier for that matter, would have allowed that to happen?

And why, are those writing and reporting the news, not asking Rich Coleman and Christy Clark that question?

If these allegations were true, John van Dongen would have immediately been turfed from caucus, as happened to Kootenay East MLA Bill Bennett, and Blair Lekstrom, during the Gordon Campbell uprising.

I for one do not believe a word of what Rich Coleman has to say.  This in fact is nothing more than, to put it mildly, ‘sour grapes’ from a man who now appears to have become the new blustering windbag for the BC Liberals.

These words from John van Dongen are more than likely the real reason for the whispers and smears:

"I decided to join the BC Conservatives because they are a party devoted to integrity and are motivated by a genuine commitment to public service.  I am energized to be part of a principled, honest and growing party that offers the people of BC a credible, free enterprise option in the next provincial election."

I’m Alan Forseth in Kamloops, with the thoughts of one conservative.