B.C.’s Clark won’t just fade away
Christy Clark is out as British Columbia premier. So what’s her future? To paraphrase Arnold Schwarzenegger’s immortal words, odds are, “She’ll be back.”
Clark may be the feistiest political leader in Canada. Not necessarily the best, most admirable, open-minded or ethical, but certainly among the fiercest. On Friday, more than seven weeks after her government was reduced to a razor-thin minority, she finally resigned as premier, ending 16 years of Liberal rule. This was not a case of a veteran politician bowing out gracefully after a long and storied career reached its inevitable end. The satirical review The Beaverton wrote that “firefighters were called to the B.C. Legislature this afternoon to extract Liberal leader Christy Clark, who chained herself to the Premier’s desk and refused to leave until her Liberal government was reinstated.”
It wasn’t entirely joking. Clark said she didn’t want another election, then — after stalling for almost two months in the wake of her government’s downfall — spent 90 minutes with Lt.Gov. Judith Guichon, urging her to call one. Allowing the New Democratic Party and the Greens to form a government — they hold 44 seats to her 43 — would be a threat to democracy, she explained later. “As we had our conversation it became very clear to me … the risk that would be there for changing the rules and really bending the rules of democracy in order to make another government work.”
Precisely how democracy would be undermined by the sort of alliance that is common among freely- elected regimes elsewhere she did not say, but Clark was barely able to hide her displeasure with Guichon for refusing to bite. “She has chosen another path,” Clark groused. “I suppose she’ll be able to talk to you about why she made that decision. I don’t know why. But she did.”
Anyone who has followed Clark, even from afar, can’t be surprised by her reluctance to accept the will of the people just because it went against her. As premier she offered voters a cheery smile and a fine line in disdain. Politics isn’t a calling, it’s a war, and those who aren’t with you are against you. “When we go into political combat we all acknowledge that sometimes we spend so much time fighting with one another in here that it’s hard to listen to what British Columbians want,” she acknowledged after trying to hang onto power by coopting large sections of the NDP platform in the recent throne speech.
After rubbishing NDP plans mercilessly on the campaign trail, Clark performed the quickest pirouette since Pierre Trudeau, pledging changes she’d spent the campaign rejecting. “It’s an acknowledgment, a sincere acknowledgment, that we didn’t get it right,” she shrugged. Also, it would seem, a confession that a Clark government wouldn’t let beliefs or principles get in the way of power.
It’ s been like that throughout her career. A confrontation with B.C. teachers she started in 2002, stripping away certain of their bargaining rights, wasn’t settled until she was premier 14 years later, when the Supreme Court took just 20 minutes to side with the teachers. She waved off persistent concerns about her government’s wholesale willingness to accept large donations from lobbyists and corporate backers, even after B.C.’s elections agency referred its investigation to the RCMP. Faced with similar complaints, Ontario’s Premier Kathleen Wynne and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau eventually retreated in the face of public anger, but not Clark. Not until the throne speech did she finally proclaim that, given the chance, she would accede to NDP demands to ban corporate, union and third-party donations.
Clark demanded that B.C. get “our fair share of fiscal and economic benefits” before Alberta oil pipelines would be allowed to reach coastal ports. She cited environmental concerns to explain her stand, while nonetheless working doggedly to push through her government’s plans for a giant dam project and liquid natural gas plants opposed by green groups and Indigenous leaders. While holding up Alberta’s ambitions, she demanded Ottawa support B. C.’s threatened forestry industry against the Trump government in Washington.
NDP leader John Horgan will now get his chance to form a government, but he’d better keep a close eye on his opponent. It would be unlike Christy Clark to fade quietly into the shadows. Stepping aside from provincial politics in 2004 she professed a desire to spend more time with her infant son, then launched an effort to become mayor of Vancouver. Failing in that effort, her “break” from politics involved hosting a radio show that kept her views in the public ear. Presumably down and out weeks before the provincial vote in 2013, she beat every forecast to win a surprise majority.
If there’s a movement to oust her as leader it’s keeping a very low profile for now, and Clark has already announced she plans to stay on. From her point of view, there is every reason to do so. Horgan’s one-seat advantage will disappear the moment he appoints a Speaker. Betting is heavy the GreenNDP alliance will be rocky and short- lived. Green leader Andrew Weaver appears unlikely to be content to play second fiddle for long.
The NDP has indicated the legislature won’t be recalled until September, giving it two months to acclimatize itself to office and prepare to do battle. They’d better be prepared: Christy Clark doesn’t take prisoners.
CLARK MAY BE THE FEISTIEST POLITICAL LEADER IN CANADA. — KELLY McPARLAND