The Second Clark Era

Yesterday was... interesting.

To start, the voting process used yesterday for the BC Liberals could have gone far better. Many members complained they hadn't received their PIN required for voting. This can be seen with the fairly low voter turnout in the election: 62%. Still, the first round results came in with a big lead for Christy, and de Jong was eliminated. In the second ballot, Abbott was eliminated, and Christy's lead grew. Finally, on the third ballot, Christy won the leadership of the party but with only 52% of the vote. You can see the detailed results of the election below.

First Ballot:
1. CLARK, Christy (3,209 points/38%)
2. FALCON, Kevin (2,411 points/28%)
3. ABBOTT, George (2,091 points/25%)
4. DE JONG, Mike (789 points/9%)

Second Ballot:
1. CLARK, Christy (3,575 points/42%)
2. FALCON, Kevin (2,564 points/30%)
3. ABBOTT, George (2,361 points/28%)

Third Ballot:
1. CLARK, Christy (28,411 votes/52%)
2. FALCON, Kevin (26,119 votes/48%)

With that, Ms. Christy Clark is now the Premier-designate of British Columbia. The results however show a divided party. Nearly right down the middle, the free-enterprise coalition is split between Falcon and Clark. While all candidates speak of coming together and uniting under the leader, it is important to remember that only one MLA supported Clark. A divided caucus and a divided party membership - it's going to be a fun time for Christy back in the capital.

The new premier has a substantial amount of challenges ahead of her. Her first priority, politically, should be to establish a new cabinet complete with former opponents to head this "new era" in British Columbia. By doing this, she could also reunite the caucus, although she must seek a seat (Vancouver-Point Grey) if she wishes to involve herself in the legislative debate in Victoria. While she has flip-flopped already, her stance to work towards improving the relationship between the party and the people is her best hope for keeping her newly found job beyond 2013.

Legislatively, I have no idea what her first priority is. Again, she personally can't introduce anything until she has a seat, but one of her Ministers can. Perhaps Family Day or detailing how the budget will be spent is in the cards. It's my guess that little to no environmental legislation will be passed any time soon considering she failed to address the issue adequately during the campaign.

Some say that Ms. Clark will spark growth in the Conservatives, and while it is possible, we will have to wait for some bad public policy or a gaffe of some sort for that to happen. If anything, this affects the NDP most, and it's ongoing leadership election, which concludes in mid-April. For any NDP leader, this result is great as Clark has been frequently commented as big on image, but shallow on policy. A great debate is coming up ladies and gentlemen!

There are a lot of unknowns in BC politics right now. As of now, British Columbia's best hope for political progress would be non-partisan issues. Think the Water Act and other, not so hot-button topics. Still, I wish Christy Clark well as she guides are province. We may disagree in policy, but we share one thing in common: we both want a better British Columbia.