A little more than two months ago in this space, Chief readers were treated (subjected?) to a bit of political forecasting. Reacting to a narrow victory by Premier Christy Clark's government in a vote in the legislature on second reading of the provincial budget - a vote that, if lost, would have triggered an early election -this writer opined, "We don't, however, expect them to survive the real confidence vote of the electorate on May 14."
Let us be the first to admit that we were among the um, millions? who wrote off the B.C. Liberals back then. This writer evencalled the so-called ethnic vote scandal "the final nail in the current B.C. Liberals' political coffin."
You know what, though? This writer has suddenly acquired a liking for the taste of crow. In fact, it appears a lot of us in the game of B.C. political punditry are sitting down to a meal featuring corvids this week.
You've got to hand it to Clark and her party for keeping the faith over the past couple of months. They - including rookie West Vancouver-Sea to Sky MLA Jordan Sturdy -deserve congratulations on a campaign well run.
When you think about it, this election really hinged on how long B.C. voters' memories were. Those who looked back only as far as the last election in 2009 could clearly see the HST debacle and the ethnic vote fiasco as two of the more prominent blotches on the B.C. Liberals' record.
But it appears a fair number of voters also thought long and hard about the Grits' record on the economy -not bad, all in all - and wondered whether an Adrian Dix-led government could keep B.C. on the beam economically while implementing its "Change for the Better, one practical step at a time" agenda.
As well, we're sure many voters remembered the period from 1991 to 2001, with the NDP in power, as a time that included "fudge-it" budgets, the fast ferries boondoggle and even a police raid on the premier's home (Glen Clark was later acquitted of any wrongdoing).
We're sure that for years to come, this result will be picked apart and analyzed by the pundits - many of them the same ones who wrote Christy and the Liberals off just a couple short months ago.
- David Burke
