Here's every scandalous revelation about Christy Clark that came to light in just the last 2 months
Three in five British Columbians who cast votes last week said they want a change in government, yet Christy Clark is still trying to cling to power.
But has the BC Premier's dodgy behaviour damaged her reputation past the point of repair?
According to some of her own party's supporters, the answer is yes – one former BC Liberal finance minister blames the party's weak election night results on Clark's "ethical issues."
And Clark's "ethical issues" always seem closely linked to her government's close ties to wealthy Chinese and corporate donors. Corporate donors alone gave the BC Liberals $7.7 million in 2016, nearly two-thirds of all money raised by the party. Do you think they now expect something in return?
Let's take a quick look at the scandalous revelations that only surfaced in the last two months while the campaign was in full swing:
• Clark's BC Liberals are now under investigation by the RCMP and a special prosecutor over $93,000 in illegal donations made by corporate lobbyists.
• A report released by Integrity BC showed the top 177 BC Liberal donors received $15 billion in contracts, subsidies and other special favours from the BC Government over the last decade.
• Another report by the Dogwood Initiative found companies that donated to the BC Liberals received over $750 million in paving and road maintenance contracts since 2013.
• CTV News reported half of all people Clark's government appointed the boards of various agencies, crown corporations and other public institutions were BC Liberal donors, giving Clark's party a combined $5 million.
• MetroNews Canada reported the BC government outsourced oversight responsibility for the $3.3 billion Port Mann bridge to accounting giant KPMG, a $368,989 BC Liberal donor, at the same time as KPMG was contracted to conduct other audits and reviews on the same project they were also responsible for scrutinizing.
• A former BC Liberal MLA was awarded $140,000 to study earthquakes. Justice Minister Suzanne Anton wouldn't say if there was an open competition for the job or if they offered it to anyone else.
• A report from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives found oil and gas companies that gave millions to the BC Liberals also lobbied the BC government, cabinet ministers and even the Premier's Office over ten thousand times to shape policy on climate change, corporate taxes and "Aboriginal relations issues."
• In April, Clark was recorded having a private, off-the-record meeting on the patio of the Sheraton Vancouver Wall Centre Hotel with billionaire real estate mogul Peter Wall. Wall had recently donated $400,000 to Clark's BC Liberals.
• Despite portraying herself as a defender of free trade, Clark's BC Liberals took close to half a million dollars from the company leading the charge against Canadian softwood lumber and the company that built Vancouver's Trump Tower.
• Clark's BC Liberals have received $1.2 million from Asian, and out-of-province corporations since 2015.
• An analysis by PressProgress revealed two-thirds of Christy Clark's official, taxpayer-funded photo-ops over the last six months promoted BC Liberal donors.
• Local media were unable to find any evidence Clark "rents" property anywhere near her West Kelowna riding, which is fitting since other reports say the premier is renting a $3.7 million Vancouver home owned by a close business associate of a major BC Liberal donor who also has extensive business dealings with the province.
• Where does Clark park her Buick Enclave? During the election, it was revealed that Clark's luxury SUV is being leased by the BC Liberals from a car dealership owned by a BC Liberal donor and director of the BC Lottery Corporation (also significant since Clark previously claimed she stopped receiving a $50,000 salary top up from the BC Liberals, something she described as a "car allowance").
• A scathing report from BC's ombudsperson found the Government of BC led a flawed investigation resulting in the wrongful firings of eight Health Ministry researchers – one of whom later committed suicide. Court documents filed by one of the fired researchers alleges his research, looking at the side-effects of "very profitable drugs," had the potential to disrupt business deals with "large pharmaceutical companies" who are "major" donors to the BC Liberals.
And that's only what came out in the last two months!
Additional Noxious and Odious News.....
Don't listen to the headlines. Christy Clark absolutely did not 'win' a minority government
As British Columbians woke up the morning after Tuesday's provincial election, many headlines reported Christy Clark's BC Liberals had "won a minority government."
Just one problem – the BC Liberals did not "win" a minority government.
Leaving aside the fact that 176,000 absentee ballots remain to be counted – enough votes to shake-up the final seat count, so it's still anybody's ball game – these kinds of headlines paint a dangerously misleading picture of how Canadian democracy actually works.
Canada is a representative Westminster democracy – that means voters don't directly elect governments or premiers or prime ministers, we only elect parliaments (or legislatures).
Why does splitting hairs over this detail matter? Because in the Canadian system, the government is not chosen by voters – voters choose representatives and representatives work together to form governments. That's just how things work.
In British Columbia and all across Canada, governments are led by whoever is able to command the confidence of the House (or Legislature). As BC political blogger Steve Tweedale recently explained:
"Assuming the preliminary count holds up, the outcome of the election is a hung parliament (sometimes called a minority parliament), meaning that no single party has a majority of seats. Under B.C.'s parliamentary system of government, elections determine the composition of the Legislative Assembly; they do not determine the composition of the government."
So, as DeSmog Canada summed it up:
"It's false to report the election resulted in a B.C. Liberal minority government."
Yet that's exactly what many headlines said Wednesday morning:
While it's true the BC Liberals are currently leading in the seat count, they do not have enough seats to form government on their own and they definitely did not win the right to form government either.
Here's the Mowat Centre's Mark D. Jarvis explaining how governments in Canada are formed:
So, whoever has the most MLAs would get first crack at putting together a new government. But if the party with the most MLAs can't secure the confidence of a majority of all MLAs in the BC Legislature, then the opposition parties can try to make a deal to win the confidence of the Legislature.
In this case, if the current seat count more or less holds up, it looks like it might fall on Andrew Weaver's Greens to decide if they'll prop up Clark's Liberals or work with the NDP to remove Clark from power.
It's understandable if this all seems confusing – Clark herself seems to be going out of her way to sow confusion and create false impressions.
Then again, Clark's faux victory speech shows she doesn't want to let go of the reins of power – and headlines claiming she "won" something she did not actually "win" only help her create the false impression she is the only one with the authority to govern.
She is not.
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