When someone yearns for the spotlight and dreams of becoming premier, yet shows little interest in policy ideas and little patience or ability for the details of public administration, they risk becoming a political caricature. Th at is why, upon Christy Clark's accession to the leadership of the BC Liberal Party in early 2011, I predicted that she would be a "disaster". Despite being the heir apparent of the Liberal Party for years, her reocrd as Minister of Education and Deputy Premier had revealed her as someone who had little taste for policy or administration. The fact that she audaciously ran for mayor without spending any time on Council did little to dispel that impression. Even Albertans can see that this is someone who seeks the limelight but has little affection for the details of thinking and governing. This might be seen as Clark's last chance to win on an issue; instead she has mangled that political opportunity as perfectly as she mangled the HST. Calgary Herald columnist Don Braid had this to say about Clark's behavior last week during her visit to Alberta, including the premier describing the benefits of the $5 billion Enbridge pipeline as "chump change" compared to B.C.'s plans for liquefied natural gas."She is, by a wide measure, the most inconsistent, self-contradictory and desperate politician in Canada," Braid wrote, also describing her as a "peculiar unelected premier, who can seem perfectly normal for about five minutes."
But dear readers, if I was so prophetically astute about Christy Clark, why won't more people listen to what I have to say about Adrian Dix? He is the Stephen Harper of the Left, so methodical and professional in his control-and-spin ways that he will have many people yearning for the days of goofy amateurishness, and the environment of open, democratic politics that that allows for.
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