Clark hires Tory aide in bid to cut out Cummins

Hey, who says Christy Clark’s B.C. Jobs Plan is just a bunch of political spin and doubletalk?

She hired a new chief of staff on Thursday and gave the old one a cushy new gig in her office, expanding the size of her already bloated entourage yet again.

Jobs for B.C. indeed! Former chief of staff Mike Mcdonald is now Clark’s “principal secretary.”

The government may be so broke it can’t afford group homes for the disabled, but there’s sure enough money to hire people at the legislature.

And the latest lucky winner in the west-wing hiring bonanza is sure an intriguing choice.

Ken Boessenkool is a federal Conservative power broker and lobbyist. He’s a former adviser to Prime Minister Stephen Harper and a major Tory player in Alberta, where he’s been trying to merge the ruling Conservatives and the breakaway Wildrose Alliance. Hmm, maybe Boessenkool has been brought in to try and get upstart B.C. Conservative boss John Cummins to stop his mischief-making and come home to the big B.C. Liberal tent? Cummins is not impressed. “Instead of focusing on the economy, she is shuffling the deck chairs of the Titanic!” he thundered.

“This is further proof that the only people getting ahead in Liberal B.C. are lobbyists, cronies and insiders.”

Is Boessenkool Christy’s crony? Well, he was her campaign manager during her Liberal leadership bid (until other federal Conservatives griped about it and he quit) and he helped run a fundraising dinner for her in Calgary.

But I think this hire is more about repairing Christy Clark’s frayed relations with Ottawa, in addition to generating some right-wing street cred at home.

Clark (a dyed-in-the-wool federal Liberal) is badly losing support to Cummins’ Tories, so she is loading up on federal Conservatives to try and stop the bleeding. (The Libs just named another federal Tory as their byelection candidate in Chilliwack.)

But Cummins asks this question: If Christy Clark is such a true-blue right-winger now, why isn’t she out there fighting for the Enbridge pipeline, Stephen Harper’s pet project?

Interestingly, Boessenkool used to lobby for Enbridge, as well as big banks, drug companies and the beloved Taser International.

But Christy still refuses to state her position on the pipeline, which cummins enthusiastically supports.

“It’s a failure of leadership,” Cummins said, adding he believes many B.C. Liberals who want the jobs and investment from the pipeline will now flock to his Conservatives as a result.

Clark is clearly hoping that by bringing in a federal Conservative heavy-hitter such as Boessenkool, the hemorrhaging of Liberal support to Cummins will slow. Will it work? I doubt it. Boessenkool is well-known in Alberta, but not here. She needs a miracle worker. He’s not it.