Bennett blast shakes up Liberal leader race

Bill Bennett isn’t the type of guy who likes being told what to do, how to think or who to vote for. And that includes taking marching orders from the candidate he’s backing for the B.C. Liberal leadership.

Bennett is the tough-talking former Liberal energy minister. He’s now the campaign co-chair for Andrew Wilkinson, who’s running for the party leadership vacated by deposed ex-premier Christy Clark.

Last week, Wilkinson announced a deal with rival candidate Mike de Jong, the former finance minister. Wilkinson and de Jong agreed to encourage their supporters to vote for each other as second-choice selections on the preferential ballot in the leadership election. Bennett is having none of it. “Andrew’s campaign believed it was strategically important to enter into the arrangement with Mike de Jong’s campaign,” Bennett wrote in an email to Liberal party members Wednesday. “It is not for me to second-guess the campaign people. However, it is also not my way to support someone I don’t trust, and I don’t trust Mike de Jong.”

The email rips de Jong’s $2.7-billion budget surplus delivered before the election, arguing the excess money should have been spent to bolster the Liberal campaign. The money went instead to debt reduction.

“Had we used even a portion of that extra money to help with stronger social supports, I don’t believe we’d be having this leadership campaign today,” Bennett wrote. “The 2017 election loss is on Mike de Jong. I will not be putting Mike de Jong in second place. I will not be putting him anywhere on my ballot.”

Bennett told me Wilkinson and his campaign manager, Katy Merrifield, gave him advance notice of the deal with de Jong and Bennett let them know what he thought about it.

“I made it clear I could not support de Jong,” Bennett told me, adding he’s still Wilkinson’s co-chair. “I pray to God that Andrew wins this thing, but I cannot support Mike.”

The de Jong campaign said they weren’t worried about the shot from Bennett.

“We never expected to get 100 per cent support for this agreement,” said Stephen Carter, de Jong’s campaign strategist.

The Wilkinson campaign also played down Bennett’s blast.

“All of our members, Bill Bennett included, are entitled to their own opinion,” Merrifield said.

But I’d say the Bennett backlash shows the danger of candidates trying to dictate voting instructions to their supporters.

The de Jong-Wilkinson deal strikes me as a desperate tactic by a pair of candidates who know they’re running behind. And that’s good news for the three candidates who appear to have the best shot at winning the leadership: Dianne Watts, Todd Stone and Michael Lee.

Liberal members get the final say Feb. 3.