Thar blows the poll

British Columbia political tides are shifting and there are unseen sandbars, deadheads and submerged rocks ahead.

New Angus Reid Public Opinion poll charts the latest waters in BC's political sea

Geezer newsrooms and political back rooms have their jibs aflutter about the poll (click here for: Angus Reid Public Opinion poll) showing the BC Liberal and NDP parties are dead-even at 36%, revealing that the west coast prefers its politics leaderless.

The numbers are telling tales of mutinies in the recent headlines.

Reading Desolation Sound; a history, by Heather Harbord, it's surprising how many captains shipwrecked in the early days on the Sunshine Coast.

When captains are left too long and fall asleep at the rudder, the ship oft runs aground. Rats scamper, as was seen when Gordon Campbell's ship started taking on water and almost capsized before he relinquished command; as is happening in the aftermath of the Jenny Kwan-led sedition that scuttled Carole James.

First to summon all hands on deck, and frantically manning the bilge pumps, The Liberals. According to the winds of change that polls track, the first to get shipshape and become seaworthy. The NDP is just now limping into harbour where it will remain in dry dock until the barnacles are scraped from its rusty hull and a new captain emerges to muster unity.

And, most critically, who will be O Captain! My Captain!... From fearful trip, the victor ship, comes in with object won...?"

At the Liberal helm, if Angus Reid's cyphering of the sextant readings holds until the convention in 12 weeks? A woman. Bad luck?

It was long considered bad luck to permit women to sail on board naval vessels. To do so would invite a terrible storm that would wreck the ship. The only women that were welcomed on board were figureheads mounted on the prow of the ship. - Wikipedia

Carole James was made to walk the gangplank - actually, more myth than pirate precedent. But tell that Jenny Kwan who, incidentally, polls even with Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson - who Robertson will not be a leadership contender for either party, so forget about it - at 27% behind front-runner Mike Farnworth with 34%.

The Liberal admiralty and officers - all-male opponents who would dismiss Ms. Clarke's seamanship - threaten to gang-up and the front-runner overboard as harbinger of an ill-fated voyage after bringing-about on the HST to set a prior course for a free vote by MLAs. (Read: Ian Bailey's story in The Globe and Mail) But Clark has been ashore for a while. She's listened and learned. There is strategy in her tack.

Aye, the HST, the tax that three-in-five British Columbians are against, is the albatross around both party's necks. But which mariner will shoot the bird dead and which will wear it dead around their neck, is a rime yet written.




  

The 'Kwan-dary' of NDP unity in BC

Kwan with James - Happier times
or eye-on-the-camera?

Catherine de'Medici left no
permanent legacy

Interviewed by  Evan Solomon on CBC's Power and Politics today (watch: full interview), Jenny Kwan - speaking out of the left-side of her mouth about "values" being what unites the British Columbia NDP - brought to mind Catherine de' Medici. A dowager queen of the NDP, if you will.

Values, indeed. Ms. Kwan's values split the NDP and led to the abdication of the ethical, if not electable, Carole James.

The longest continuous serving New Democrat MLA in BC and decidedly on the left-wing of the party, Ms. Kwan told Solomon that she has no leadership aspirations. How could she? She has shown none of the values of leadership in this ugly mugging. But on which candidate will she place her de' Medici touch?

If the NDP emerges united it would be well advised to exclude Ms. Kwan from important political decisions and dispense with her advice and, so-called, values. She should be left with no permanent legacy.

Nuovi Democratici di British Columbia cosa nostra

British Columbia's New Democrats need a Joseph Valachi to reveal its inner workings after the hit on leader Carole James by the parties Gang of 13. 



For the good of the party, there will be nothing like the "Valachi Papers" coming from Ms. James, Joseph 'Joe Cargo' Valachi's testimony before US Senate committees in the early 60s named names, gave history and structure, revealed that American mafiosi referred to their organization by the term cosa nostra ("our thing" or "this thing of ours").


The public knows only some of the names after the two sides went to the mattresses in the NDP's all-out gang war. The Gang of 13 have been identified, led by longtime, made-NDPers Jenny Kwan, Harry Lali and Leonard Krog, and the likes of hypocritical Laura "The Bag Lady" Popham who accused James of commanding "same old, same old" party politics despite doing the same.      


Whose thing is the NDP in BC? Has the Gang of 13 taken over? Is labour pulling the strings? 


This much is clear after union leaders played middle-man in 11th hour dealings that left James with an offer she could not refuse (read: The Globe and Mail's Gary Mason, A timeline of the downfall of Carole James), the NDP are leaning left from the centre that James had been attempting to drag the party. Whose side was labour on in this turf-war? It is doubtful they wanted James to succeed in making the NDP more legitimate to business. 


Back in the day, back on the prairie where Canadian socialism was bred, we learned quickly that the party was run like the mafia. It still is run as "their thing," But back then loyalty was demanded, unlike this thing of theirs today.