Two events in the past few days provided a glimpse into the focused message box the B.C. Liberals will be using during the next six months to secure their fifth straight election win.
If anything, the party has been good at honing a very disciplined and narrowly defined message aimed directly at the people who have kept it in power for so long: the older middle class.
And it’s a message that deliberately skirts those who will never vote for them no matter what: hard-line environmentalists, social activists, dyed-in-the-wool New Democrats and those who advocate for a larger government role in society.
The first event looked like something from the 2013 election campaign. It featured a beaming Premier Christy Clark, wearing her good luck hard hat and talking about her favorite industry – liquefied natural gas.
Back in 2013, she painted a rosy picture of the creation of a new industry that would provide economic miracles for British Columbians, which could include everything from retiring the provincial debt to eliminating the sales tax.
But the emergence of a glut of natural gas on the world markets put almost all major investment decisions on hold for who knows how long. Still, the event Clark was at was indeed marking one of those long-awaited investment decisions in an LNG project (this one was the Woodfibre project near Squamish, and it’s still a long ways from being built).
So expect Clark to use that announcement again and again during the upcoming campaign as proof that the industry is indeed coming to life and riches lay ahead for the province. Even with only one (and relatively small) LNG project being given the green light, she won’t be straying far from that issue (plus, that hard hat is very much embedded in her public image).
Considering NDP leader John Horgan was quick to lend his support to the project (a move that will no doubt infuriate the environmental wing of his party) takes some of the sting of any forthcoming NDP attacks on the LNG front.
In fact, there is a real possibility that Horgan’s positive position on Woodfibre turns the simmering tensions that exist within his party between pro-industry and pro-environment views to full boil, much to Clark and her party’s delight.
Just a few hours after the LNG announcement, the B.C. Liberal party’s final convention before the election kicked into gear. The convention was more evidence the party is already into full campaign gear, with most candidates in place and the party awash in money and members. Clark’s pep rally-type speech to more than 1,300 adoring members touched on the themes that form the core of her party’s election platform.
Her emphasis on consistently balancing the government’s annual budget, on keeping taxes and unemployment low and on boasting the best job creation record in the country are major ones. Joining those is a relatively new one: extending the social safety net, particularly for single mothers.
But the overarching theme is this: the economy is everything, and B.C. leads the country on that front because it is fiscally cautious, keeps taxes low and puts people to work. All good things flow from that, not the other way around.
The NDP, on the other hand, is showing signs of having a distinctly different platform come next spring, one that incorporates huge spending increases on social programs and education and embraces hard pro-environmental protection rules when it comes to resource development.
Horgan has said his party will have a fully costed platform to put in front of the voters early next year. Will it be as narrowly focused as the B.C. Liberals’ version, or will it be more broadly based and thinking outside the box? Horgan has said he is looking for “bold” initiatives to put in that platform.
It’s shaping up to be a contest of two starkly different visions on how best to lead the province. One embraces improving the economy as the way to provide more services, while the other is leaning towards redirecting existing taxes – and introducing higher taxes on higher-income earners – to expand services, particularly for those less well off.
There’s no question a clear choice is coming into view for British Columbians.
Keith Baldrey is chief political reporter for Global BC. [email protected]
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