Has a Canadian Government Actually Been Brought Down by Corruption?
I mean, I knew it could happen in theory. But it might actually happen in practice.
Not the federal government, of course. A provincial one, though: the Social Credit-turned-Reform-turned-”Liberal” Party that currently holds a majority in British Columbia under one Christy Clark. Later Sunday she will be hauled onto the carpet in front of her own Cabinet, and the odds are better than even that she won’t leave the meeting as premier. If she does, the odds are even higher that the caucus will do her in some time during the week.
It’s worth noting, before anyone in the professional media gets too gleeful, that worse things than Clark’s government stands accused of in this “great scandal” is done by the federal government on a more or less regular basis. Anger has been growing for years, but the proverbial straw on the camel’s back is the leak of a Jason Kenney-ish plan to mobilize “ethnic voters” for the upcoming May 2013 election. It also included planting several party operatives in key government ministries and using ministry resources to build databases of likely “ethnic” supporters. “Ethnic,” “ethnic,” “ethnic,” and then, in the middle of it all, a truly ironic warning:
If not done correctly, we will appear opportunist.
Yep. That’s true!
Anyhow, for some reason, Clark’s disillusioned gaggle of MLAs apparently feel that this latest scandal is the worst of all. My expectation is that she will be out by week’s end. She will be replaced by a relatively untainted insider who it is felt will “rally the troops.” Maybe Kevin Falcon.
This person will probably cancel the planned May 2013 election by whipping his newly reminted caucus to repeal B.C.’s fixed election law, and move D-day to the fall. He will then spend the next six months persuading disillusioned Conservatives to rejoin the fold, which, with a full-court press by the province’s almost unanimously right-wing media, is actually a fairly decent strategy. Chances of Liberal re-election: ironically, much higher than they looked like a week ago.
Which is unfortunate, but in my short life I’ve gotten used to things never getting better, politics-wise, so really it’s just more of the same.
Update: Michael Smyth of the Province reaches a similar conclusion, with the assistance of the usual bevy of anonymous sources, amongst which can be found this zinger:
Many Liberal insiders I consulted want Clark to resign, and there was furious research underway to see if there was a way to force her out.
Good Lord. Either they’re leading poor Smith up the garden path, or they really are unfit for their positions. How much “research” can such a question possibly require? Call a caucus meeting and tell Clark she’s no longer welcome as their leader. This isn’t rocket science.
I suspect that very process is underway in parts of the caucus right now, but we’ll know in the next couple days.
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I’m not sure if you are talking about a party turfing its leader or the public turfing a government. If the latter, the most famous example was Sir John A. and the CPR scandal that caused him to lose the 1873 election. For that one, the opposition and media had telegrams from Sir John A. pleading with the CPR for campaign money.
Sir John won the following election in 1878.
We get the government we deserve and elect.
Sixth Estate
Well, it was going to be the public turfing the leader in May, but I suspect over the next week it will be the party turfing the leader instead. Which in turn raises a strong possibility that the polls will not be open in May, although that part is even more speculative.
There are also examples of parties turfing leaders in Canada — many of them — although it doesn’t happen nearly as often as it should, or as often as it does in other Parliamentary democracies.
Purple Library Guy
Well, the strategy you outline isn’t a bad one . . . but everyone hates Falcon’s guts. He might well be able to take over the Libs and ram that vote through; he has the energy and drive. But win an election? That I’m not so sure. The man can’t rein himself in from being abrasive and stepping on anyone in his way including the general public.
Sixth Estate
Quite possible. And it may not be Falcon either — after I wrote that, the rest of the press seems to be settling on George Abbott.
In any event it’s a long shot. But Clark’s short-term political survival seems doubtful, and rushing a hastily crowed leader into a spring election also seems doubtful. And the likelihood that Postmedia and the Globe & Mail, for instance, will not put their full editorial weight behind the new leader seems even more doubtful.
Rob
Love ‘em or hate them, the Liberals are clearly done. Leaders need a public mandate, not a party mandate. History shows that leaders who win the top job through party machinations (doesn’t matter which party, or whether its provincial or federal) lose, and often lose big.
Mr. Dix will be the next premier. He will get knifed, in time, by his own guys. Meantime, the anti-socialist coalition will inject fresh blood and wait its turn. Same as always.
Maharg
If the puppeteers force Clark out and select a new leader, there is a remote chance that the BC Liberals will get a positive bounce in the polls. Should that happen, the current power brokers will be aided and abetted by Main Stream Media.
The latest debacle, by this corrupt government, is a diversion which is hindering the Clark regime from passing legislation. Legislation needed to permit more crown jewels to be given to their insider friends.
Any newly chosen leader will want to go the polls on May 14th. Although it is a tight window, to wait another six months to drop the writ will tick-off even more voters.
Sixth Estate
“Meantime, the anti-socialist coalition will inject fresh blood and wait its turn.”
I’ll agree with you except on this part. There can’t be an anti-socialist coalition in B.C. insofar as there is no mainstream socialist party in that province. It would be as meaningful as calling the NDP the anti-capitalist coalition.
“Any newly chosen leader will want to go the polls on May 14th. Although it is a tight window, to wait another six months to drop the writ will tick-off even more voters.”
It’s a rock and a hard place. Simply putting together a leadership team and getting control of government would normally eat up most of the pre-May “window.” Unless, of course, the person in question has been quietly moving pieces in that direction for quite some time now, which isn’t impossible. Barring that, though, whoever succeeds Clark would need time to engage in the sort of commonplace duplicity that is now known as “re-branding.”
G.J.W.
Many of the Liberal Ministers that were around, during Campbell’s reign of terror, are still among us today.
The Campbell/Clark BC Liberals, are Harper’s satellite party. They dished out a lot of dirt, to this Province and the people. I am not forgetting about that one either. The treachery, lies, deceit, corruption and dirty tactics, they all used against the citizens of BC. Not on your Nelly. They can all go to hell.
Sjeng
However ugly the facts, these are commonly used strategies by all the old parties. What the media, including you, are missing in their observations is who released the memo, and its timing. The answer is that it was the NDP, the government in waiting, who nicely timed it to take attention away from the fact that they refuse to reveal anything about how they are planning to deal with the serious issues BC is facing. That is the same NDP who so sanctimoniously promised a ‘positive’ campaign just a few weeks ago. The future in BC looks troubled.
Sixth Estate
“However ugly the facts, these are commonly used strategies by all the old parties.”
Not just “old” parties. I’m not sure what in what I write in this blog would lead you to think I’m oblivious to this.
And you’re certainly right that the NDP leaked this to embarrass the government. They’re the opposition. It’s their job to embarrass the government. The fact that whatever disgruntled insiders decided to leak this in the first place went to the opposition instead of to the media is also an indication of just how absurdly pro-Liberal the BC press is.
I think you’re probably reading too much into NDP conspiring here, though. Judging from the polls, their strategy of letting the Liberals crash and burn was working splendidly. They don’t really need to “distract” anyone from the fact that their policy platform is thin.
The Sixth Estate » Right Wing Introduces New Concepts in Parliamentary Tradition: “The Buck Stops… Over There”
[...] there’s the BC Social Credit government. I speculated this weekend that B.C. premier Christy Clark wouldn’t even make it as far as the May election because of the recent leaking of a Jason [...]
Purple Library Guy
Well, it’s a time honoured adage in politics: When your opponent is self-destructing, stay out of his/her way. Why would Dix want to distract anyone from Clark’s performance?
Thing about a thin platform is, even if Dix does nothing whatsoever in office, at this point that would still be clearly superior to having the Liberals.