Pubdate: Sat, 22 Apr 2017
Source: Prince George Citizen (CN BC)
Copyright: 2017 Prince George Citizen
Contact:  http://www.princegeorgecitizen.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/350
Author: Neil Godbout
Page: 6

CLARK BOBS, WEAVES LIKE A PRO

What a difference four years makes. When Premier Christy Clark sat
down for her exclusive election interview with The Citizen in April
2013, there was a grim urgency to her visit and it was reflected in
the cover shot chosen to accompany the story. She was down in the
polls and there was chatter that the Liberal caucus was kicking her to
the curb the instant the results were in. Locally, Pat Bell had
abruptly dropped out of the race in February, leaving Mike Morris to
step in as the Prince George-Mackenzie candidate with no notice.

During that 2013 interview, she spoke with the passion of someone who
felt it all slipping away. She just had to keep going, in hopes people
would finally start listening and believe in her.

Fast forward to Friday afternoon. Clark walked in with the champion's
swagger, accompanied by Morris, Shirley Bond and the party entourage.
She still speaks with passion about jobs, young people and the future
of the province but she does so now with the overwhelming confidence
of a proven winner. Four years ago, she knew she might lose. Now,
defeat seems as inconceivable as the sun rising from the west.

An already polished speaker and political performer in 2013, she's now
even more relaxed, more assured in her manner and her words. She talks
about the NDP and 1990s like a bad dream and John Horgan as a
pretender to the throne, while four years ago, she seemed genuinely
fearful of the prospect of Premier Adrian Dix.

She's more careful, however, artfully dodging the tricky
questions.

When asked how the "remember the NDP and the dirty 1990s" is supposed
to attract young voters, she insisted that people in their 20s heard
their parents talking back in the day about those hard times, before
pivoting to "how well we're doing now."

The honest answer would have been is the internal polling still shows
"the 1990s" resonates with older, wealthier voters, the kind who will
turn up to cast a ballot and support the centreright party.

She didn't want to talk about marijuana much, deflecting the question
of what she will do to promote the industrial growth and production of
legal pot that could dwarf the rest of the provincial agricultural
sector, create thousands of jobs and pour hundreds of million of
dollars into the tax coffers.

On one hand, she made it sound like it was some distant potential
development (like LNG?) but then admitted that much has to be decided
by the end of the year.

When pressed, she made a weak case that pot shouldn't be sold in
liquor stores ("we shouldn't have the two intoxicants in the same
place"), for the ridiculous reason that people buying alcohol don't
want to see packets of marijuana on the shelves.

That logic is as ridiculous as saying Scotch aficionados want their
own store because they'd rather not be slumming with the beer and wine
drinkers.

She simply stated the obvious about "doing it right" and "keeping it
out of the hands of kids."

No mature adult would disagree with that, nor would any NDP or Green
candidate.

Four years ago, Clark was more willing to tackle those kind of thorny
issues head on. Now she bobs and weaves around the landmines, talking
but saying little.

Steady as she goes. Four more years. Trust in the proven
winner.

It's the same message as 2013 but the tone and the delivery in 2017 is
noticeably different.

- - Managing editor Neil Godbout
- ---
MAP posted-by: Matt