"Ladies and Gentlemen, I'm delighted to see over a thousand people here today. And as Kevin said, 'some days you read Vaughn Palmer' - you probably don't all read Vaughn Palmer anymore -'or you listen to CKNW' - you probably don't listen to CKNW anymore - and you think maybe there weren't any BC Liberals left in British Columbia. Well look around you today . . ."
Christy Clark, July 14, 2012
HAD British Columbians known Premier Christy Clark would headline the BC Liberals' annual Beans 'n' Jeans barbecue on the anniversary of Bastille Day, perhaps they'd have held a storming of their own, overwhelming her thinned ranks of supporters.
As it was, Clark's speech to the dwindling converted was riddled with self-delusional bad taste.
Videotaped by an undercover "political operative" sent by blogger Alex Tsakumis, the premier's parroting of Finance Minister Kevin Falcon's remarks about Vancouver Sun columnist Vaughn Palmer and her back-stabbing of CKNW - the station she used as her personal 'love-me' platform for nearly five years - revealed Clark's true colours for all to see.
Hypocritical? Willfully or deviously incompetent? Poster-girl for failed leadership?
It's hard to know which descriptors to use.
Far from rejuvenating our provincial government, the premier has accelerated its decline to the point that nothing short of a complete housecleaning can hope to restore the Liberals' fortunes.
Her performance as leader has left voters hungry for revolution. In 2013, it seems likely they'll get one.
Clark is seeking to protect herself from the angry masses with her gradually eroding caucus.
With breaks to allow for the lacklustre applause that echoed across Senator Gerry St. Germain's South Surrey acreage, Clark recited an embarrassing litany of praise for the benefits she says her MLAs have heaped upon us - spicing the list with obligatory threats about the dangers of the NDP.
So who are these brave foot soldiers who "stand between you and Adrian Dix"?
Third on Clark's list of gatekeepers behind Margaret MacDiarmid and Mary Polak was "Mr. Fix-It," Fort Langley's own Minister of Energy, Mines and Housing Rich Coleman.
"Formidable!" as the French might exclaim; who would want to storm those three?
But never let it be said the North Shore lacks the stuffing to defend the barricades. Unafraid of being tarred by the company they keep in Victoria, MLAs Ralph Sultan and the gregarious Jane Thornthwaite stand with muskets at the ready - even as some of their colleagues flee the ranks.
Oh, for the skills of a political cartoonist! This would be hilarious, if it were not so desperately sad for our province.
But why wait until 2013? This lame-duck administration, which has shown itself willing to facilitate bitumen pipelines and trade the province into private hands even as it prepares to close the door behind itself, no longer has the moral authority to govern or to commit us to decades-long agreements.
Even "free-enterprise" boards of directors so beloved by the CampbellClark regime are subject to the will of their shareholders - not once every four years, but every year at their annual general meetings. It's a model we could learn from.
The recent misfortunes of BlackBerry maker, Research in Motion, show us how:
After a year or more of falling short of company milestones for release of BlackBerry 10, and after slashing 5,000 jobs along the way, the final blow to RIM's bottom line fell on Friday, July 13 when a California court handed the company a $147.2 million penalty for patent violation involving MFormation, a Delaware technology company.
Had RIM's AGM fallen a week after that judgment rather than a week before, it is entirely possible that all or most of the directors would have been set loose to pound the streets for new appointments.
Instead, although the company's still-angry shareholders did re-elect the directors, they also forced the directors and CEO to redouble their efforts to find and appoint more qualified people to the board while RIM decides whether or not to appeal the California decision.
Why raise the troubles of
a previously successful Ontario company in the context of our premier's BBQ speech and her foundering government?
The analogy is clear.
By tradition, governments are said to be 'in power,' but as with any other corporation, the real power is in the hands of the shareholders - your hands and mine.
We knew the BC Liberals were in trouble long before Gordon Campbell resigned. Yet, with the exception of the HST referendum, we did little to speak our power to that truth.
Once Campbell disappeared, the energy dissipated, and people seemed content to watch Clark and await their opportunity to deliver a collective verdict in 2013.
We have learned the folly of that tolerance. The decline in support for Clark and for the BC Liberal administration in general has been dramatic.
The question now is this: Are B.C. shareholders prepared to put forward a unanimous vote of non-confidence in the current administration and demand an immediate extraordinary meeting to name a new board of directors?
If they are, I predict none of Clark's erstwhile supporters will recover from their wounds in time to defend the barricades.
