Kathleen Cross: She had little caucus and party elite support, which, without the media appeal would have buried her. She overcame this by her multi-year strategy to keep in the media while awaiting the perfect opportunity to come back into politics. She should have been seen as a politi- cal opportunist - having tried to run for Vancouver mayoral candidate but retreating from that. But she counted on short memories of her own history in the provincial Liberals and the visceral frustration of many party members due to the flip flop on the HST by the Campbell government.
Marjorie Griffin Cohen: Her two main weakness were her poor command of policy issues and the lack of support from the Liberal caucus. She had to backtrack on several policy issues -- most nota- bly one dealing with the HST (she said she would hold a vote in the legislature, rather than have a referendum, which had been promised), and that she would hold health care spending each year to economic growth. As her opponents pointed out, this would create an huge, huge drop in funding to health care. Only one of the Liberal caucus, a backbencher, supported her.
Doug McArthur: Her main weakness is superficial- ity. She had some problems with this - if she had been seen as more substantive she would have had a much larger win.
Jeanette Ashe: What many observe as a weakness may be considered a strength – being an outsider placed her at a greater distance from some of Gor- don Campbell’s more unpopular policies, such as the HST, than the other contenders. Some view being a woman in leadership con- tests as a weakness – however – the specific con- text that led to the contest put CC at an advan- tage. Typically, when a party is faring poorly in the public opinion polls – and the BC Liberals were - women are more likely chosen as the leader to ‘nurse the party back to health’. Once the party is stronger women tend to be pushed aside by some disaffected ‘group’ made up of elected members and activists who work to replace her with a man. She may face the same kind of fate Carole James did. This scenario is not altogether unlikely to oc- cur again in BC in light of the kind of support she received from caucus. Perhaps this scenario would seem less likely to repeat itself If she had won on the first ballot.
3. Were there opportunities that she took advan- tage of that her opponents didn’t?
Kathleen Cross: She was well positioned to play a mild ‘moral outrage’ card against the implemen- tation of the HST because she had not been in Cabinet, and had left politics under questionable circumstances (she said at the time she was leav- ing to spend more time with her family, but the general consensus was that she was unhappy with the Campbell government).
She took advantage
of this by suggesting, albeit carefully, that the pro- vincial government was not listening and needed a major overhaul. Her opponents were not, and could not be, as successful at distancing themselves from Campbell and his decade of governing.
In addition to building bridges between herself and her opponents, she needs to move the BC Liberal brand away from
the Gordon Campbell legacy. Jeanette Ashe
Marjorie Griffin Cohen: She signed up more voters than the opponents did and she realized that with the new system of voting in the Liberal Party she needed to sign them up across the province.
Doug McArthur:The main one was to run against the Campbell government. She was able to project as a kind of opposition candidate and an outsider.
Jeanette Ashe: She distanced herself from the ‘pack’ by taking a risk and backing some controversial policy issues – such as the HST vote, early election, and a new holiday.
4. What do you think of George Abbott and Kevin Falcon attacks on Christy Clark and her campaign? Did they hurt or help? Kathleen Cross: Such attacks likely helped in the party elite and the funders, but only served to make them appear part of the ‘old’ Campbell gov- ernment and therefore unable to change the di- rection of government. Falcon had huge financial support from the major business funders, leading to arrogance on his part that did not speak to the membership. Although it was an extremely close race with Falcon in the end, I believe it was her populace appeal and his arrogance that gave her the edge.
April 2011 | Campaigns & Elections 11
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