For some reason, the latest political poll casting a shadow of gloom and doom over the B.C. Liberal Party is making headlines across the country.
The poll, conducted by Forum Research Inc., found that, if a provincial election was held today, the NDP would form government with 57 seats.
The poll states the Liberals would be left with 20 seats, while the upstart B.C. Conservatives would win seven ridings. We need yet another poll to state the obvious?
From the moment former premier Gordon Campbell signed his political death warrant by foisting the hated HST upon voters mere weeks after winning an election, the B.C. Liberals have been bound for the afterlife now inhabited by the Social Credit, Progressive Conservative and Progressive Democratic Alliance parties.
And, it does not appear anything will change the party’s fate in time to avoid an unpleasant reckoning when voters go to the polls in precisely 474 days.
Yes, the HST was the dagger that inflicted the most damage, but there are many other wounds spread throughout the B.C. Liberal body.
There is the festering sore than remains the BC Rail scandal and the yet-to-be-answered question as to why taxpayers paid millions to cover the legal bills of two men who pleaded guilty to amended charges stemming from original fraud charges.
There is the increased cost of living under the current government, which, while boasting low income-tax rates, remains in the business of raising all manner of fees for services, which are simply another phrase for “taxes.”
Stretched homeowners will feel like rubber as 2012 progresses, based on the dizzying array of increases coming their way.
And, the Liberals are afflicted with a leader who simply has not captured the public’s imagination.
The latest poll found Christy Clark’s disapproval rate among voters to be at 46 per cent — a double-digit not conducive to re-election and one not surprising considering Clark barely won the Point Grey byelection that got her into the legislature.
Short of a rapid unite-the-right movement, British Columbia voters can expect to be referring to “Premier” Adrian Dix in about 16 months.
– Black Press