Christy Clark's first message: Families, prosperity and unity are her top priorities
By Post Media News
By Paul Bucci
Liberal leadership contender Christy Clark will become British Columbia’s next premier after winning the party’s top political job. Clark thanked all of her supporters in a gleeful victory speech.
“We all have great reason to be proud,” she said.
Clark used the speech to reach out directly to voters.
“I want you to be my partners in change in Victoria. I want you to be my partners in bringing opening government. You can count on me to listen. You can count on me to engage.”
Clark said her top priority will be to make families first.
“This is the building block of our communities,” she said. “This is the foundation of our future.”
Clark said she will also focus on creating jobs, fighting poverty, driving innovation and making “rural B.C. a full partner in our prosperity.”
“Creating jobs in rural areas is crucial to meeting our goal,” she said.
Clark thanked new and long-time Liberal members. “Our party is a coalition and it’s a great coalition,” Clark said in a message of party unity.
She reached out to her leadership rivals — George Abbott, Kevin Falcon, Mike de Jong, Moira Stilwell and Ed Mayne — saying their efforts have made the B.C. Liberals stronger and “more vital.”
She thanked each of her fellow leadership contenders with a personal message.
“I have always admired you,” Clark said to Falcon. “We need to work together and keep doing this work.”
Clark said that Abbott had been a colleague for nine years, adding that his ability to build concensus will be needed like never before.
Of de Jong, Clark said that he has been an “incredible, tireless salesman for all of British Columbia.” “Thank you so much, Mike, for everything,” she added.
Clark, as her former rivals took the stage with her, said “we are going to shape the future of B.C. together. We are going to shape a bigger, stronger coalition together.”
Clark took the race after three ballots with 52 per cent of the vote, or 4,420 votes.
Prior to Clark’s speech, Falcon said he would work hard to make sure that Conservative support will remain behind Clark.
“It was an exciting race,” Falcon said, adding that he was “thrilled for Christy.”
Caucus members came on to the stage in a show of unity as Clark hugged and shook hands with many of them.
“What an incredible team we have up here tonight,” Clark said triumphantly. “Look at this… What a great group.”
The group chanted her name — CHRIS–TY! CHRIS–TY! CHRIS–TY! — as she once again took the microphone.
Clark thanked Gordon Campbell and also said she wanted to work closely with the federal government.
“Gordon, you leave B.C. far better off than when you took it over in 2001 and I am privileged for the honor of building on your legacy.”
Clark called out to caucus members, saying she understood that many of them had supported other leadership candidates. “Now we work together,” she said.
Clark said that British Columbians should know that “change begins tonight.”
She ended her speech by saying, “Ladies and gentlemen, let’s get started.”
Falcon, in an interview after Clark’s speech, said; “She will make a great premier and I will be behind her 100 per cent.”
Falcon said government is all about public policy.
“I’ll be encouraging all of my supporters to get right behind her,” he said.
Falcon said “a big part of me” was relieved by his loss because he could now spend more time with his family “and maybe take a vacation.”
“We left nothing on the table,” Falcon said of his campaign team. “We gave it everything we could and we came so close.”
Clark, in a post speech news conference, said she is focusing on priorities for the government.
Clark said she will seek a by-election “as quick as I can,” saying there is a possibility she might run in Gordon Campbell’s riding if he were to give it up.
Clark once again stressed that she wanted to work as collaboratively as possible with the federal government.
“I’ve just got off the phone with the prime minister. He was good enough to call me as soon as I got off the stage, and we talked about our relationship,” Clark said.
Meanwhle, to take the race, contenders needed more than 4,251 votes to win.
Third and final ballots were:
4,080 Kevin Falcon
4,420 Christy Clark
Second ballot results were:
2,361 George Abbott
2,564 Kevin Falcon
3,575 Christy Clark
First ballot results were:
789 Mike de Jong
2,091 George Abbott
2,411 Kevin Falcon
3,209 Christy Clark
Just before announcing the results, party president Mickey Patryluk, said Gordon Campbell is very much “in our hearts.” When B.C. Liberals come together in a few months, “we will honour him for his commitment, his vision and his sheer determination to what is right for the province.”
Abbott, who was dropped from the ballot after the second result was announced, said he had hoped that his supporters would vote for Falcon as their second choice.
However, he said party unity will be very important going forward. “We have to be united,” Abbott said, who thanked his supporters and volunteers.
“Our campaign people worked their hearts out.”
de Jong, who fell out of the race after the first ballot, joined Abbott and echoed his call for party unity.
“We’ll make it work,” de Jong said.
Thousands of B.C. Liberals voted electronically today for their choice for B.C.’s next premier.
Party members gathered at the Vancouver Convention Centre as the race pulled into its final minutes.
The race — marred in recent days with concerns over voters having trouble obtaining PIN numbers — had its first official results announced at about 6:15 p.m. The second ballot’s results were announced mere minutes after that. The final results were announced around 6:30 p.m.
Norman Stowe, Falcon’s campaign manager, said he was feeling “very good” after the results of the first ballot, saying most of Abbott’s support would likely go to Falcon.
Clark aived at the convention centre just before 6 p.m.
Mike McDonald, one of her key organizers, said prior to the first ballot that “over 57,000 individual members made their choice today. The proof will be in the pudding.”
Clark, a former education minister and deputy premier, left government and became a CKNW radio host prior to an unpopular decision by former premier Gordon Campbell to enact the Harmonized Sales Tax on July 1, 2010.
A ferocious backlash against that tax and a dramatic plunge in approval ratings led to Campbell’s sudden resignation in November.
de Jong appeared upbeat as he was interviewed at the Vancouver Convention centre.
“It’s fun, it’s exciting. It’s democracy,” de Jong said prior to the results of the first ballot. “For a party that everyone said was dead a few months ago, look what’s happening.”
de Jong said whoever emerges as leader “will require support of all the candidates” and “all the people here.”
NDP MLA Mike Farnworth sid he didn’t care who won the
race. “It doesn’t matter to me who it is,” said Farnworth, who incidentally is running to be leader of the NDP. “They’re all cut from the same cloth and they all sat around the cabinet table.”
After the second ballot, Palmer said if Clark does take the race, she’ll have a big job in dealing with party divisions.
NDP leadership candidate Adrian Dix said he’d be happy to face Clark or Falcon in an election. “None of these candidates represent change,” he said. “The only party to represent change is the NDP.”
“We’d love to run against her record,” Dix said of Clark.
Farnworth said “whenever we go to the polls, the voters will be ready to turf them out.”
© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun. Reprinted with permission from Postmedia.
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