This is a great title for an editorial: Clark’s B.C. Liberals are circling the drain. Poll numbers show that the BC Liberals have fallen well behind the NDP even before the recent ethnic strategy scandal. And as a result many pundits are predicting the end of the Government, i.e. the BC Liberal Government. At the same time the pundits are also hedging their bets because things can change quickly in an election.
We think that the NDP will take the election (about 9 weeks away) simply because the BC Liberals have been so arrogant. Rather than thinking about good public policy, it seems that they’ve only been concerned with hanging onto power, at least since Christy Clark became Premier.
Now the word has got out that the Government has been using various strategies to avoid disclosing documents pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act. If there’s one thing we’ve learned in our ongoing quest to expose the IRP scheme, it’s that various levels of government have all sorts of different strategies to thwart FOI requests. We’ve notice in the last year that the Government is pulling out all the stops to keep embarrassing information from getting into the hands of political critics such as ourselves.
To us this signals desperation. The BC Liberals may be circling their wagons or circling the drain. Either way, British Columbians have lost confidence in this Government. At this point it’s clear that the BC Liberals have fallen and we hope that they can’t get back up.
Almost all of the people who follow our blog have received a 90-day IRP and so most don’t think much of this Government. Many (including some of us) are former BC Liberal supporters who have dropped our party affiliation because of the IRP scheme. When the Government becomes this arrogant and is bent on retaining power rather than good policy, they have no moral authority to govern. This is why we have used our blog to take a political stand.
Now is the time for our followers to take a political stand. Phone your local BC Liberal MLA and tell them that the reason that you’re not voting for them is because of the IRP scheme. They might as well know that you will not cast your vote for a party that only cares about hanging on to power.
Then pick up the phone and call the candidates for the other parties. Tell them that they’ve got your vote if they promise to repeal the IRP laws if their party wins power. Explain the problems with the system and the reasons that you oppose it. Let them know that good public policy is important. Let them know that you will not be silenced.
There are 35,000 people in BC who received IRPs. Each of those people have a family who have suffered alongside them. They have friends who have learned all about the unfairness in the law. If everyone gets out to oppose this Government in the upcoming election, we’ll ensure that the BC Liberals fall and can’t get up.