A couple of things.
First, BC Liberal MLA Randy Hawes criticizes his own party over its handling of the Community Living BC file.
Then he's joined in this criticism by another BC Liberal MLA, John van Dongen.
Then, courtesy of Adrian Dix, we get wind that there could be a leak within the BC Liberal caucus, as explained by Vaughn Palmer in the Vancouver Sun:
A rougher characterization came from New Democratic Party leader Adrian Dix.
He baited Clark during question period Wednesday with his interpretation of what she'd meant by the previous evening's comments in the caucus room: "Shut up or I'll call the election."
The premier brushed him off, saying his supposed quote was made up.But it must have been somewhat chilling for her to discover, after just seven months in office, that her caucus room had sprung a leak that flowed directly to the leader of the Opposition.
Sacha Peter at BC Election 2013 helps explain why Hawes and van Dongen are being more forthright than would be expected:
The take-home message as it impacts the upcoming 2013 provincial election is that it makes it highly probable that those two candidates will not be running in the next election, likely due to the fact that premier Christy Clark will be forcing nomination contests in such ridings to install her own caucus supporters.
Christy Clark didn't have a lot of caucus support to begin with when she became leader of the party. In a push to get some more friendly faces in the room, she could be putting the stability of her party at risk.
More from Bill Tieleman in The Tyee. In the Globe and Mail, Gary Mason finds the whole thing "perplexing:"
Undermining her authority, or at least creating the impression that she doesn’t have a firm grip on her caucus, is not what the Liberals need right now. Unless, of course, they want to ensure the party goes down in flames in the next election. In that case, caucus members should continue planting seeds of dissent.
It may well be that the biggest trouble makers in caucus could care less because they’re not planning to run again anyway. So maybe there is some score settling here. That fact that more than a handful of them just can’t warm to the new leader makes supporting her harder.
Bonus irony: As Keith Baldrey pointed out in The Richmond News last week, the NDP, which had its own caucus troubles over former leader Carole James' resignation, is now a more unified party than the BC Liberals. My how times change.
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