Congratulations to all who ran for office, winners and losers, and to their families, campaign volunteers and supporters. The Fat Lady has sung. It is over.
In one of the most stunning comebacks in Canadian political history, the B.C. Liberals secured a majority government on Tuesday night. Absolutely everyone got it wrong except the inner circle of the campaign team whose internal polling on "E Day" showed there was hope.
Professors, pundits and pollsters all messed up. As Christy Clark said the day after, "the media gets these polls for free... you get what you pay for." Most are scrambling to wipe the egg from their faces, but at the end of the day, the Clark team has to pat itself on the back for sticking to the messaging around jobs and a strong economy.
Obviously, the idea of a continued strong economy has resonated with the majority of British Columbians.
Early support for the John Cummins-led Conservative Party that looked to take away from the Liberals ultimately disappeared after a series of gaffes proved too much to overcome. Cummins lost badly to Mary Polak and not one Conservative candidate was elected.
As the Toronto Maple Leafs of B.C. politics, the NDP will have to do some collective soul searching over the coming weeks to understand how they could squander a nine-point lead on election day that ultimately turned in to a 14-point swing for the Liberals in the aftermath.
Adrian Dix had an open goal but he missed the net. Will the current left of centre party ever get an opportunity like it had on Tuesday again? Not Likely.
It would appear that nice guys do indeed finish last and the Dix campaign's strategy of avoiding negative campaigning ultimately failed.
The NDP flip-flop on the Kinder Morgan issue did not help either.
People and politicians love to talk about balance between the environment and the economy. Clearly, the attempt by the NDP to collect green support by overly supporting the environment side on the Kinder Morgan issue failed.
B.C. has always been a resource-based province and simply dismissing resource development and trade opportunity is not a realistic approach for establishing an effective economic strategy. Ignoring the importance and collective economic benefit to all British Columbians from the development and trade of natural resources is woefully naive.
In our region, congrats to independent Vicki Huntington, who ran a slick campaign, and to Liberal Scott Hamilton in Delta North, who prevailed in a tough battle with Sylvia Bishop of the NDP.
Huntington's independent colleagues did not get re-elected so the independent movement has taken a step backward. Huntington has appeared to again garner NDP votes. It will be interesting to see how one independent will work toward dealing with our land use and infrastructure issues.
It may be that our municipal government will have a stronger voice in Victoria over the next few years. Delta South Liberal candidate Bruce McDonald and fellow long-time civic councillor Hamilton have relationships with the majority Liberal government that can be leveraged for the good of our communities. This is a promising opportunity to develop a solid working relationship with decision makers.
Would a higher voter turnout have made a difference? Tough to tell but in the words of Thomas Jefferson, "You get the government you deserve."
