When someone asked why this blog had no forecast on the BC election, the only answer was “Are you crazy? Nobody knows how BC voters will finally vote.”
And they did it again on Tuesday. You might disagree with what they did but, as usual, they made it a surprise. British Columbia voters are so convoluted in their voting, they even deny their vote after they cast it. It goes back to the days of Wacky Bennett who served as Premier for 20 years and you could never find a voter who would admit they voted for him. There is some sort of fog that envelopes the province just before the election that tells everyone how to confuse the pollsters this time.
One of the reasons for this dilemma is that all the parties in BC provincial politics are basically the same. They are right wing, further right wing, extremely right wing and to the right of Attila the Hun. The BC Liberal Party is run by a bunch of Conservatives. It has become extremely rare for the provincial New Democrats to have a left-wing thought. A BC union leader once explained it as “What do you expect when even the union members are right wing?”
It is a big part of the ‘lotus land’ mystique. It is the culture in BC to confuse those of us east of the Rocky Mountains. What if all those easterners decided to migrate west? There would be nobody left in Ottawa to run the country.
It would hardly matter in BC. What they do in the Lower Mainland is send all the provincial politicians to the Island in hopes that the ferry will sink. Federal politicians in BC are rather strange creatures but if you send them to Ottawa, maybe they will stay there and not come back to bother anyone.
In case you had not noticed in the party leadership contests for the Liberals and the New Democrats, the real mavericks in those races came from BC. These were very creative people who were out to embarrass their respective parties by acting intelligently. You noticed, of course, that Justin Trudeau tried to convince people that he was an honorary BCer because his mother was a Sinclair of BC fame.
But there are many of us easterners who know and love British Columbia. We know you for the beauty and majesty of your land, your coast and your islands. We know you for your wonderful sense of humour. We also know you for your political shenanigans.
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Copyright 2013 © Peter Lowry
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