XPost: bc.politics, van.general, vic.general   
   From: Çons@32%   
      
   I wouldn't have recognized him from the photo, but the past leader of the BC   
   'Liberals' is   
   watching his old party - or the remnants of it - drop in the polls further   
   each day.  And he's   
   taking a shot at the party that he started, but then screwed British   
   Columbians in more ways   
   than we can count - and is now headed for . . . .   
   ___________________________   
   Straight.com   February 9, 2012   
      
   Former B.C. Liberal leader Gordon Wilson foresees party's doom   
      
   Gordon Wilson says a new centre-right coalition could rise and spell the end   
   of the Liberal   
   brand.   
      
   When Gordon Wilson took over the B.C. Liberal party, it was almost dormant.   
   Today, musing about   
   the fortunes of his old party—which was eventually taken away from him by   
   someone named Gordon   
   Campbell—Wilson says it looks like it's moving back to the moribund state in   
   which he found it   
   about 25 years ago.   
   With poll after poll showing the B.C. Liberals in decline, Wilson doubts the   
   party will remain   
   viable if it loses next year's general election. He expects a new centre-right   
   coalition to   
   emerge, much like the conservative-leaning Social Credit during the early   
   1950s.   
      
   “It will be the end of the B.C. Liberal brand…through this coalition,” Wilson   
   told the Georgia   
   Straight in a phone interview. “One has to always remember—and believe me, I   
   learned it the   
   hard way—the forces that are non–New Democrat, that have influence and who   
   have money and are   
   able to affect the outcome of an election, those forces want one party…that   
   they can vote for.   
   And they'll choose one. And they'll literally strangle the other one   
   financially to the point   
   that you cannot possibly compete.”   
      
   In the meantime, current B.C. Liberal premier Christy Clark will become more   
   vulnerable to   
   federal Conservative elements in the party because this known federal Liberal   
   is no longer   
   regarded by voters as their top choice for premier.   
      
   Wilson anticipates “an increasing number of voices internally that are going   
   to be pointing   
   fingers and saying, ‘She can't win, and therefore there's time before the next   
   election to go   
   forward and seek a new leader' ”.   
      
   However, Wilson doesn't believe that Clark will necessarily get the boot. He   
   said it's more   
   likely that members will think they can't win with Clark and therefore stay   
   away from the next   
   election.   
      
   “So you're going to see a number of Liberal MLAs who will simply decide that   
   they've had enough   
   and that they're going to step out,” Wilson said. “And I think that that's   
   more likely than you   
   will have them be able to turf her out. That's not to say there won't be   
   people who would like   
   to see that happen. But if that were to happen, those forces have to organize   
   pretty quickly.”   
      
   According to numbers released by Forum Research Inc. on January 24, B.C.   
   Liberals are heading   
   to a huge electoral defeat.   
      
   Based on current voting intentions, the Toronto polling firm projected the   
   B.C. NDP winning 57   
   out of the 85 seats in the legislative assembly. The Liberals will take 20   
   seats; the B.C.   
   Conservatives will get seven; and independent MLA Vicki Huntington will retain   
   her Delta South   
   seat.   
      
   Times may be rough for the B.C. Liberals, but Victoria-based political   
   observer Norman Ruff   
   doesn't foresee a mutiny against Clark.   
      
   “I don't expect a palace coup, but there could well be some palace exits,”   
   Ruff told the   
   Straight by phone.   
      
   Although many may consider the B.C. Liberals goners already, Wilson said Clark   
   still has a   
   fighting chance. The retired politician also noted with some amusement that he   
   didn't think the   
   Liberal leader was going to listen to his opinions, given that he eventually   
   joined the other   
   side, becoming a cabinet minister in Glen Clark's NDP government.   
      
   *******************************************************   
   "We CAN look after each other better than we do today.   
   We CAN have a fiscally responsible government.   
   We CAN have a strong economy; greater equality; a clean environment.   
   We CAN be a force for peace in the world."                      - Jack Layton   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)