It’s not like she had a choice.
Premier Christy Clark decided Wednesday that her desire for a fall election, on second thought, might not be such a good idea after all.
Coming just days after the Liberals lost the HST referendum, and all the tax dollars and possibilities that a victory would have created, it’s not at all surprising.
Gee, the electorate, although not a huge majority, but still a majority nevertheless, had just told the Liberals that the HST fiasco had been a mess from beginning to its painful end.
And maybe Gordon Campbell was gone too but the legacy of the introduction of the hugely unpopular tax was still hanging around the neck of the Liberals to the point that rushing into an election now would be foolhardy.
Almost as foolhardy as the way the Liberals introduced the HST plan in the first place.
Suddenly the premier’s wishes for a real mandate from the public seems like a moot point.
It makes much more sense to take the next 19 months and try to lead this province forward and at least attempt to regain the trust and confidence of a majority of British Columbians.
It’s hard to gauge how many votes against the HST were a by-product of wanting to punish the Liberals for putting us in this situation, but it’s likely substantial.
Substantial enough for even the most optimistic of Liberal strategists to acknowledge that the party would be in tough if there was an election this fall.
They already threw the dice on the HST in a referendum and lost. The odds of the same happening in a provincial election were too much to risk, no matter what Clark and the Liberals are saying this week. Not to mention, that except for the premier, nobody wanted one in the first place.
