B.C. Liberals elect new leader

PARTY TURNS TO FORMER CABINET MINISTER ANDREW WILKINSON

British Columbia’s Liberals have turned to a former cabinet minister to lead the party as Andrew Wilkinson edged out former Conservative MP Dianne Watts in a leadership contest Saturday night.

Wilkinson won with just over 53 per cent support, while Watts had just under 47 per cent.

Watts led the contest after four rounds of voting.

Former transportation minister Todd Stone, one-time finance minister Mike de Jong and Liberal caucus members Sam Sullivan and Michael Lee were eliminated earlier in the evening.

An estimated 60,000 party members were eligible to vote online and by phone to replace Christy Clark, who resigned after the New Democrats formed a minority government last summer, ending the Liberals 16 years in power.

The party used a preferential ballot that allowed it members to rank the candidates, and points were awarded based on their support.

Watts, who is also a former mayor of Surrey, is the only candidate who is not part of the Liberal caucus in the legislature. She resigned her House of Commons seat to seek the party’s leadership.

Wilkinson, Stone and de Jong were longtime members of Clark’s cabinet. Sullivan, a former Vancouver mayor, was appointed to Clark’s cabinet in her government’s final weeks in power.

The B.C. Liberal party is not affiliated with the federal Liberals.

It describes itself as “a made-inB.C. free enterprise coalition” that includes members of the federal Conservative and Liberal parties.

Getting the party back to power after a lacklustre election campaign last May has been a focus of the leadership campaign.

There was finger-pointing in debates over who was to blame for the Liberal downfall, despite B.C. boasting the strongest economy in Canada.

Some candidates criticized the party’s old guard for failing to address transportation, housing and social policy issues that led to losses in seat-rich Metro Vancouver, once a Liberal stronghold.

De Jong, the former finance minister, defended the Liberal record as he was criticized by many of the other candidates for his tightfisted control of the province’s purse strings, which some of his former cabinet colleagues said prevented programs aimed at easing financial pressures for people never made it off the drawing board.