Christy Clark’s Struggles Despite Being Called a Great Communicator

Sept 6, 2012

Many in the media, when discussing the current difficulties of the BC Liberals, suggest that Christy Clark might pull them out of the ditch because she is a “great communicator”. It seems a strange assessment of a Premier who is losing appeal rapidly, whose ratings with women are less than 15% and who seems to have no coherent message.

To be upfront with my personal bias, I believe Christy Clark is completely unqualified to be Premier. She seems a kind of Barbie Doll figure who behaves as if a bright smile and a perky walk imply a substance that she lacks. When she opens her mouth, she uses jargon; and, yucky phrases like “families first” that are totally meaningless and made a mockery by her government’s policies and actions. Her agenda seems focused only on the increasingly desperate objective of getting Christy Clark re-elected and proving she is maintaining the “free-enterprise coalition”. When she is challenged about policy or her previous record on things like BC Rail she becomes defensive or exits stage left, letting her handlers stop the conversation.

Clark is about to embark on her third trip to Asia within a year. I interpret the move as one of keeping her out of the public eye to avoid her “communicating”. That would belie the myth of Christy the Great Communicator. Then again, maybe Christy is a great communicator in Chinese. Or maybe she is popular there because she is willing to sell off BC for a pittance. After all, she believes BC’s future prosperity is tied to Asia and China. Maybe she’ll recruit a few more Chinese students to attend our universities and schools while she’s there. Those, after all, are part of her “job creation” and “families first” strategies for BC.

Clark shuffled her cabinet to compensate for the departure of many experienced senior ministers. For the most part, she promoted steady performers so the Cabinet itself can’t be criticized. She kept the cabinet small and didn’t use the shuffle as an opportunity to reward a bunch of backbenchers.

Clark calls this a “renewal” cabinet, another meaningless term, or, considering the definition, a concept that is misused by the premier. I imagine she thinks voters will think that “renewal” means that this group of people – same people, different jobs – will bring new ideas, new direction, new energy to the BC Liberals. Ultimately, they want to maintain a competent-government-and-happy-family facade in an attempt to improve the BC Liberals chances for re-election going into the May 2013 election.

The on-line definition of renewal is:

1. The action of extending the period of validity of a license, subscription, or contract.
2. An instance of resuming an activity or state after an interruption.

Those definitions, rather than some pretense at difference are closer to reality for the BC Liberals. Clark certainly wants “to extend the period of validity of a license … or contract” (i.e. to govern) but that has nothing to do with the BC Liberals changing to better represent the people of BC. As Sarah Palin says, you can put lipstick on a pig but it is still a pig.

The second definition is probably closer to reality for Clark and her merry troupe of cabinet boosters. I call them that because when they were appointed, they universally sang the praises of Clark as a great premier and great communicator and oh so different from Gordon Campbell who is the real reason for the fractured Liberal brand. It might be good to pull out the photos of those same people celebrating with Gordon Campbell on election day 2009 or clapping the red mittens with him at the Olympics. But revisionist history is the norm in politics so why quibble.

As I’ve said, I think Clark is unqualified so when they say otherwise, I question the judgment of her team members. I also imagine that the people who have announced they aren’t running and who claimed it has nothing to do with Clark and her leadership are not completely honest – the take-one-for-the-team phenomenon. And more time with family or wanting to pursue other opportunities are certainly legitimate reasons to quit, especially if you are likely to lose.

Under definition 2, this cabinet simply resumes the BC Liberals activity and agenda after the resignations caused a brief interruption. Despite the lipstick, this is same old BC Liberal government with different people who will play their roles indistinguishably from their predecessors.