Routley calls Clark’s decision to wait until 2013 for an election just another policy ‘surprise’
A two-year delay in B.C.’s next election is just another surprise from the Liberal majority government, Nanaimo-North Cowichan MLA Doug Routley says.
“The Liberals have governed by surprise for 10 years — surprise, we’re selling B.C. Rail; surprise, we’re friends with First Nations; surprise, we’ve adopted the HST.
“Now surprise, we’ll tell you the new election date.”
Routley was responding to Wednesday’s news from Premier Christy Clark that voters would next head to the polls under B.C.’s fixed election law stipulating a May 2013 ballot, not an earlier election date Clark previously suggested.
She has denied recent public defeat of the harmonized sales tax, or party polling changed her mind, in a report in the Vancouver Sun.
In various interviews, Clark emphasized instability of the world economy and the lack of a public appetite for another election this year delayed the next voting date.
Not so, Routley signalled.
“It’s more the numbers (Liberals) seeing in their own polling.
“They were focused on selling the HST to B.C. but people saw through (HST sales job) and now people will see through the reason for new a vote,” he told the News Leader Pictorial, explaining folks want job creation, not more Liberal talk.
“How many tens of thousands of jobs in core industries does this province need to lose?
B.C.’s election law specifies a provincial election every four years, but reserves government’s traditional right to deal with unusual circumstances such as a death or resignation, the Sun indicated.
But to Routley, the Liberals are buying time after the recent HST referendum loss.
“The HST serves as a reminder that people will only take so much insult to their integrity in politics.
“It was the biggest non-confidence vote ever. The Liberals have run out of ideas.”
B.C.’s legislature holds two independent members, 34 NDP MLAs and, and 49 Liberals as the house heads back Oct. 4.
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