Dear Geoff ... you asked? Well here's the answer.

Former BC Attorney General, Geoff Plant

Today former BC Liberal Attorney, General Geoff Plant wrote a column entitled, “What does John Cummins really want?”

In it, he begins by stating:

Of the two provincial by-election campaigns about to get underway in BC, the race in Chilliwack-Hope may be the more interesting.  It looks like the fight in Barry Penner’s former riding will be between a BC Liberal candidate with impeccable conservative credentials, and a BC Conservative party candidate with impeccable conservative credentials. 

Huh? 

Well, it’s true.  The BC Liberal candidate is Laurie Throness, who was chief of staff to former Conservative MP Chuck Strahl, and calls himself a “policy conservative.”  The BC Conservative Party candidate is John Martin, a professor of criminology and former Chilliwack Times columnist, whose party describes itself as “BC’s only true conservative party.”

So with two candidates trying to “out-conservative” each other, maybe this is as good a time as any to ask what it is that BC Conservative Party leader John Cummins actually hopes to achieve.

He goes on to talk about truth … policies … being an armchair quarterback … the split-vote argument and more … the regular stuff you would expect to hear from the BC Liberals.  Then he concludes by saying:

BC Conservatives move into a tie with the Liberals

We now know the reason why the BC Liberals have a gain begun their mantra of a vote for the BC Conservatives is a vote for the NDP.  We have now had 5 straight polls showing the BC Conservative Party growing in strength, and we are now at 23% ...

The BC Liberals have nothing to offer British Columbians except for ever increasing taxes and fees ... big payoffs to government executives in crown corporations as well as BC Ferries and BC Hydro ... and big phoney "Green" cheques to outfits like Encana while schools and hospitals do with out.

We have NOT had government accountability --- nor have we had a government that is responsive to the people of this province.

I encourage you to read Doug Ward's story in the Vancouver Sun ..."New poll shows NDP in lead in B.C. with Conservatives surging into tie with BC Liberals"

Here is a brief comment from his story:

“The problem for the B.C. Liberals is that they are in the middle and they bleed both ways,” said the pollster.

“They are pinned down on both sides. We saw that happen to the federal Liberals in the recent election.”

 The Forum Research poll also found strong discontent with Clark herself. Fewer than one in three voters approve of Clark’s job performance. Twenty-nine per cent of British Columbians approve of Clark compared to 45 per cent who disapprove and 27 per cent with no opinion.

Conservative leaning increasing across Canada

News from the Manning Centre seems to show that more and more people are coming to a realization that the common sense ideas, presented by the conservative side of the political spectrum, have value.

Given the race by the BC Liberals, led by Premier Christy Clark, to be more and more like the NDP this is good news for John Cummins and the BC Conservatives.

A story in the Toronto Sun, regarding a poll conducted by the Manning Centre, also found that, " ... Canadians are overwhelmingly disengaged from their governments and legislators, with three quarters (76%) of those polled believing their elected officials don't even share their view of what's wrong, let alone how it should be fixed."

More and more people are looking for, and demanding, governments be accountable for their actions, and for their taxes ... and that they must be responsive to voters.

The report from the Manning Center indicates that from their research and polling we are, "increasingly embracing "small-c" conservative values" ... and that we believe "... a smaller government focused more on managing the country's affairs than drastically changing them is best ... ".