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| Premier-designate Christy Clark at news conference February 26, 2011 |
Her shocking win is explained in the Seven Habits of Highly Effective BC Liberal Leaders
Bill Tieleman's 24 hours/The Tyee column
Tuesday March 1, 2011
By Bill Tieleman
"Live out of your imagination, not your history."
- Stephen R. Covey, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People
Premier-designate Christy Clark executed a shocking win in the BC Liberal leadership vote Saturday.
Shocking because Clark's narrow third ballot win over Kevin Falcon came against the wishes of the BC Liberal cabinet and caucus, the business community, most of the party establishment and despite her connections to people involved in B.C.'s biggest political scandal.
None of it made a tinker's damn of difference -- Clark simply ignored her history and captured BC Liberal voters' ballots with her imagination.
There are lessons here for anyone in politics. There are also big warnings in Clark's victory for the opposition BC New Democrats and the upstart BC Conservatives, which both see significant opportunities.
Beware, because Clark's victory illustrates the "Seven Habits of Highly Effective Liberal Leaders" like Covey's book demonstrated universal truths. Those principles are:
1. Ignore BC Liberal cabinet ministers and MLAs; they are nobodies. If they weren't, either Falcon or George Abbott -- who split the support of caucus between them in the contest -- would be premier-designate today.
Falcon had every major cabinet member on his side and Abbott had the "outs" of the cabinet and caucus -- while Clark had only one lonely backbench MLA, Harry Bloy. (Or perhaps Deputy Premier-designate Bloy to you!)
And none of the rest had the political good sense to figure out backing Clark was at least a good bet. But the province depends on their skills to run government -- yikes.
2. Scandals mean jack squat. Clark's family and political connections to the B.C. Legislature raid trial that found ex-BC Liberal ministerial aides David Basi and Bob Virk guilty of breach of trust and fraud did not sink her candidacy.
Nor did the Basi-Virk case stop Campbell from winning two consecutive elections, despite the case lingering like stinky cheese throughout.
And two previous scandals, the NDP's Nanaimo Commonwealth Holding Society affair or the B.C. "Hydrogate" bomb dropped by the BC Liberals on then-premier Glen Clark just weeks before the 1996 provincial election, failed to derail Clark's surprise defeat of Campbell.
3. Big business doesn't matter. If its support made any difference, Falcon would be the incoming premier, as he cornered a phenomenal amount of corporate backing and the most money of any candidate.
Falcon's vaunted "20/20" business fans, including top B.C. big shots, tried their best but put up a second place finisher.
4. Media does matter. Clark's enormous advantage was in having enjoyed a four-year province-wide radio show platform on CKNW AM 980 to not only reach a huge audience but also to carefully hone her populist message with instant feedback.
5. Loyalty is highly overrated. Clark abandoned the Campbell Liberals and never looked back -- until the premiership was available.
After unsuccessfully seeking the Non-Partisan Association nomination for mayor in 2005 and losing to Sam Sullivan, Clark landed at CKNW, where she roasted her former cabinet colleagues in government to such a crisp that none supported her leadership bid.
It brings to mind how veteran Social Credit Health Minister Jim Nielsen reacted in 1986 to the news that Premier Bill Bennett's former principal secretary Bud Smith was going to enter the race to replace his retiring boss.
"I didn't shovel shit in the stables for 10 years to have someone else come in and ride the pony," the colourful Nielsen snorted.
Now Clark is in the saddle and Campbell's cabinet are still cleaning up in the barn.
6. Outsiders are appealing. BC Liberals and voters wanted an "outsider" to replace Campbell, even if Clark is a consummate insider who served as his deputy premier.
Glen Clark successfully became NDP leader and won an election as premier in part by running "against" his own party's previous Mike Harcourt government. The NDP should be very worried another Clark named Christy will try the same trick.
7. Insiders are essential. Clark had ultimate BC Liberal insider Patrick Kinsella on her campaign team and donating money. Exactly the same as he did for Gordon Campbell for years.
Now the challenge for Clark is to further overcome her own and B.C's political history -- and become the first woman elected premier.
Imagine that.
.
22 comments:
If Campbell had enjoyed the admiration and respect that Danny Williams (premier of Newfoundland and Labrador) had when he resigned Falcon would have won on the first ballot.
Campbell is universally despised and 'mini-me' Falcon paid the price.
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Gordon Muir Campbell,born January 12, 1948 - Premier of British Columbia June 5, 2001 - March 14, 2011
Daniel E. "Danny" Williams, QC, born August 4, 1949 - Premier of Newfoundland and Labrador November 6, 2003 – December 3, 2010
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Williams earned a Rhodes Scholarship and Campbell went to an Ivy League school as a 'legacy' brat.
Got something right for a change here Bill when it comes to campaigns.
Wonder what Adrian Dix is learning from all of this?
"If Campbell had enjoyed the admiration and respect that Danny Williams (premier of Newfoundland and Labrador) had when he resigned Falcon would have won on the first ballot.
Campbell is universally despised and 'mini-me' Falcon paid the price."
It wasn't Campbell 100% that led to Falcon's defeat. He simply didn't campaign correctly.
Comparing Danny Williams to Campbell is a bit of a silly comparison as the two are not equal. The two are as different as the provinces they Premiered.
Dear Georgina Bush - CCF 2:40
Stuff those pom poms back into your locker for a sec - the bar has closed now.....and what a mess there is to clean up!! Bummer.
Education - Health care - IPP's - wild salmon - P3's - shadow tolls - millions paid to convicted crooks with our tax dollars - children dying in government care.....but hey - you're number one in Child Poverty in Canada, with the lowest minimum wage!! Go team, GO! Tweet that message out there.
And Grace?....she's left the building along with Wit, Justice and Integrity.
However Greed is always the last one to go - lurking somewhere....follow the Axe body spray.... see if you can pry him away from hitting on BCBabblebabes long enough to stack some chairs - or better yet some corporate boards.
There's heavy helpings of something in your Air Farce report here - but it's not passion I smell.
Note to Christy Clark Fan: I've removed your posting from this afternoon - you are welcome to post here anytime and criticize me all you like but making comments about women's physical attributes is inappropriate and will not be published.
If you want to fawn over women - BC Liberals or otherwise - there are other websites where your attention will be welcome.
I read the Christy Clark fan post before you removed it. This fan does get just a bit bizarre at times.
That said, CC has some interesting tastes as this post on Laila Yuile's blog demonstrates in which she refers to an August 2010 Vancouver Sun article by John Mackie.
http://lailayuile.com/2011/02/27/christy-clark-new-premier-ex-talk-show-host-and-the-woman-who-loves-to-find-out-if-you-can-fart-in-a-bottle-and-save-it-for-later/
Bill is pretty forgiving on this blog so to get removed one must really be nasty.We all have our favorites but some get a bit carried away and go from honest dislike to just plain rude and even stupid.
Out here on the coast a lot of people voted for Christy Clark simply because they liked her radio show.I wouldn't be surprised to see her back as a guest host as the election approaches.
I think you are right on some points. But the MSM was critical and they let her appear as an outsider, despite all the insiders who managed her.
Notwithstanding that, she faced some really awful candidates who made some bad mistakes. It wasn't too hard for her to appear moderately sane.
The other point is that she had a really effective sign-up campaign run by her managers, but even then she only squeaked by.
It may be harder to play the same hand after a few months failing to create jobs, fix families and schools. What will she do about Porcupine Lake and the big oil pipelines plowing through the north.
It won't be just newly recruited Liberals with stars in their eyes who vote. Still, we have a province where the media is controlled by large companies, where Lieberal money to run campaigns and do dirty tricks is nearly unlimited and where the electorate is just plain stupid.
Will the NDP get traction from the BC Rail scandal, failed promises and the mistakes Clark will inevitably make in debates? Who knows? But the gloves have to come off. Let's hope the NDP can muster some good ads. Not like the racist anti-ignatieff ads which pit people who have worked overseas and maybe immigrated against "true" Canadians! Really, Harper is less a Canadian because of his ideology than ignatieff or Layton will ever be.
The Liberals in Ottawa really need to call Harper on his racist attack ads. But that's another matter.
More to the point is whether there will be an accident and that 1 million stack of electronic documents will get dumped on the Internet. Or some one like you, Bill, will keep examining the documents that have been released for more details of the failure of our democratic system.
I remember what Christy said just prior to the 2001 election " the public servants
should feel excited about negotiating with the new Liberal Government there will not
be massive layoffs or firings"
We all know how that turned out!
Fan of the other Premier Clark
Okay, Bill understood... I meant it only kindly and positively.
:-)
"Premier-designate Christy Clark executed a shocking win in the BC Liberal leadership vote Saturday."
Really? What part of the front-runner winning shocked you? Or may be it was the part about the roughly 55,000 voters who were ignored by the roughly 49 Liberal MLA's (over the HST for example) having more say in the election. Because you have trouble with math Bill, allow me to point out that 55,000 is a bigger number than 49.
And with all this insight into the Christy Clark campaign strategy, you picked Falcon? To be fair, you did go out on a limb since you felt it was too close to call. And one of the three nearly equal horses won the race! Truly shocking. Does this exciting column mean that March won't be the much anticipated "Month Of Jake" either?
I feel Campbell isn't going anywhere. I think he will still be directing, the BC Liberal government, behind the scene. Christy will do, as Campbell tells her to do. We also, need to watch out for Harper. He was also in on, the election lie, the HST wasn't on Campbell and Hansen's radar. Hansen's stacked HST panel, I rather doubt that, will bring us any good news. The HST is the absolute worst and destructive tax, the BC people have ever, had forced on them. That tax is pure theft, it doesn't even stay in BC. Harper has it, and the HST is going to big business. Harper just gave the wealthiest corporations, another tax reduction.
Yes, right on...the 7 habits to effectively achieve HER goals but I thought the premier of a province has a calling to achieve the best outcomes for the citizens of the province. Did Stephen Covey write a book about how politicians could achieve a successful society for the benefit of everyone? Maybe we could ask him to write that book!
I think it was an old Greek Guy that said something to the affect that...the best measure to tell how much a society is civilized is to what extent that society cares for it's most vulnerable citizens.
Good analysis Bill, I think you've outlined some of most salient factors in Clark's upset victory. I had assumed throughout that Falcon would win.
And I also agree with some commenters here who've underlined how this is not just about Clark winning, but Falcon losing. It's worth stressing the total, ignominious failure of the Falcon campaign. I guess the boy just didn't have it in him after all. He had every conceivable advantage you could imagine, as you've said: was best positioned for years, had the most money, the most major cabinet support, the most big business backing, the best abilities and record of accomplishments for the ideological BC Liberal base, Campbell's limited but likely significant crypto-support, etc.. etc.. yet he loses to Christy Clark of all people. I guess he would have gotten away with it too if it weren't for all you meddling voters!
It's amusing how underwhelmed the public was with Kevin Falcon--I take it because, partly, he represents the sharpest continuity with Campbell's direction--that Clark could just hop over, out of nowhere, and snatch away the race from him like she did. They don't like you Kevin, they really, really don't like you. Though this was his race, he was supposed to be the new leader, not her. It was his turn, he had earned it. Yes, I'm certainly enjoying how much he and the true believers in the BC Liberals must be suffering right now. The schadenfreude is delicious.
Or here's another factor: what about Abbott's inability to get enough of his supporters to switch their 2nd choice support from Clark to Falcon. Clark didn't get over 40% on the first count, it would have been tough but Falcon could have won with more second choice support. It's kinda funny, Abbott's supporters allegedly trust him and respect his judgment, so who do nearly 40% of them [second round Abbott supporters] end up supporting when Abbott's name drops off, why only the candidate Abbott had the most contempt and criticism for in the race, who he said would be the worst choice for the new leader! Why did his own supporters support him if they didn't care what he had to say?
"I feel Campbell isn't going anywhere. I think he will still be directing, the BC Liberal government, behind the scene. Christy will do, as Campbell tells her to do. "
Not going to happen. Campbell does not have any say in how Christy puts together nor runs the Liberal government.
"We also, need to watch out for Harper. He was also in on, the election lie, the HST wasn't on Campbell and Hansen's radar. Hansen's stacked HST panel, I rather doubt that, will bring us any good news."
Just as stacked panels brought out by the NDP government at the time didn't "bring us good news"??
"The HST is the absolute worst and destructive tax, the BC people have ever, had forced on them. That tax is pure theft, it doesn't even stay in BC. Harper has it, and the HST is going to big business. Harper just gave the wealthiest corporations, another tax reduction."
Nice story. Want to post that to a pro-NDP blog in Nova Scotia? The NDP there raised the HST.
Thanks for reminding me of that classic Jim Nielsen quote. One for the ages.
outsourced again said:
"Will the NDP get traction from the BC Rail scandal, failed promises and the mistakes Clark will inevitably make in debates? Who knows? But the gloves have to come off. Let's hope the NDP can muster some good ads."
Better yet, let's hope enough people get off their ass and get behind a real alternative to the Liberals because the NDP is just as unpopular. We could support ... oh crap, that's right, there is nobody we can trust to not screw us. Go ahead Christy, call the election. Let's get on with the suffering.
"Better yet, let's hope enough people get off their ass and get behind a real alternative to the Liberals because the NDP is just as unpopular. We could support ... oh crap, that's right, there is nobody we can trust to not screw us. Go ahead Christy, call the election. Let's get on with the suffering."
better yet, why not end yours.
The Territories are always open for new residents.
BC people are not satisfied with the results of, the corrupt sale of the BCR. That is still going to hang over the BC Liberals.
The HST is a destructive tax. which was forced on the BC citizens. BC citizens, knew the HST was going to kill this province. And, it has. Campbell and Hansen lied, about the HST bringing jobs. Instead, we have lost over 40,000 jobs. Campbell and Hansen, promised we would save money by the HST. Instead, the HST drove costs up through the roof. All the HST provinces, did very poorly. It seems, the BC NDP support the HST. Campbell gave our BC HST to Harper. Not surprising though, we know Campbell works for Harper. Campbell lied twice to be re-elected, for two different elections.
Layton is now backing Harper, on giving the wealthiest corporations in the world, another tax reduction. This reduction, will be deducted from our paychecks.
This country is rotten with corruption. BC finally beat Quebec out as, the most corrupt province in Canada. So, BC won, we are the number one, most corrupt province. BC the best place to live?? Hmmm. Depends on, how corrupt and how good a thief you are.
Rumours of Bill Tieleman running for the New Democrats in Point Grey may force Christy to run elsewhere!
"Rumours of Bill Tieleman running for the New Democrats in Point Grey may force Christy to run elsewhere!"
Rumors of Bill Tieleman running for the New Demcorats in Point Grey may have Bill being savaged torn part, and eaten alive by right wingers just as a mad, starving dog goes after a piece of raw meat.
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