Premier Campbell should urgently consider Retirement for the good of the BC Liberal Party

Back from his 2-week European holiday on Wednesday, BC Premier Gordon Campbell addressed his critics that he should announce that he is retiring as Leader of the BC Liberal Party.  See my blog post here on the media coverage

However, I now find myself, with deep regret, having to join the ranks of Blair Lekstrom, Scott Nelson and Sheila Orr asking BC Premier Gordon Campbell to retire as Leader of the BC Liberal Party to ensure that there is a political party capable of taking on Carole James and the BC NDP in May of 2013, given there is no guarantee that the BC NDP will change their Leader at their convention in November of 2011

However, before I go further, I should explain why I feel this way...

For months now, I have tried to convince BC Liberals’ privately, via numerous emails/phone calls, that the provincial government’s communication strategy vis-a-vis the HST and the future of Gordon Campbell is woefully inadequate and needs to change before the voters’ stop listening to us as BC Liberals’. 

With the Premier’s recent media comments that there is not really a problem within the BC Liberal Party, I am now compelled to state my personal opinion that Campbell must retire before more political harm to the BC Liberals’ is done. 

My real sense and fear is that Gordon Campbell does not/chooses not to recognize that there is a problem (HST, Possible Recalls, etc) that needs addressing and I’d like to quote him from his September 8^th (Wednesday) TV interview with Global-BC reporter Ted Chernecki when he says:

“I feel fortunate that I have support of the (BC Liberal) Party, support of the Caucus and support of Cabinet”

Gordon Campbell no doubt retains the support of both the Caucus and Cabinet – after all, he is the “Boss”

However, he does not now have, in my view, the support of rank and file BC Liberal Party members’ – like Blair Lekstrom, Scott Nelson, Sheila Orr and myself.  And admittedly, the best thing to do right now is to take the advice that Independent Peace River-South MLA Blair Lekstrom gives us all (and endorsed by Health Minister Kevin Falcon) – apologize on how the HST was rolled out and have a discussion on the HST with the public and to make amendments, where necessary.  It is clear that we, as a party, have taken a good economic policy like HST and had it been properly rolled out to the public, would have done great economic things for the Province however people like Chris Delaney/Bill Vander Zalm have spun the HST as “bad” and we genuinely failed to counter bad information with good information until it was clear, to me anyways, that the public was not going to listen to the Provincial Government on all of the wonderful benefits of the HST (roadside protests, successful HST Initiative Petition)

When one is not willing to look objectively at political realities for the best of their political party, then sometimes others have to step in and decide your own political fate and in this case, if Gordon Campbell is not willing, on his own, to do what is right for the BC Liberal Party and the Province, as a whole, then perhaps the time has come to state what has been discussed privately – Gordon Campbell must announce his retirement plans before November of 2011 otherwise he easily risks becoming the “lightning rod” for recall campaigns in November and for those MLA’s who barely won their ridings like Donna Barnett (Cariboo-Chilcotin, Terry Lake (Kamloops-North Thompson) and Pat Pimm (Peace River-North), these MLA’s could easily become “ex-MLA’s” come Spring/Summer 2011.  I know I didn’t bust my butt in Cariboo-Chilcotin (like many others) to help get Donna Barnett elected in 2009 to only have Donna Barnett be recalled by the same voters a little less than 2 years later.  Moreover, let us be clear – recalled BC Liberal MLA’s will equal new BC NDP MLA’s.    In addition, if Premier Campbell is not willing to lay out a retirement plan very soon, you can bet, like a morning sunrise, that the voters of BC on May 14^th, 2013 will hold their noses and vote for the opposing party (BC NDP).  , regardless of their platform.  BC Political History has demonstrated this repeatedly.  Remember 1991 (BC NDP massively defeats Social Credit) and 2001 (BC Liberals wiped out BC NDP)

I personally do not take pride or pleasure in asking Premier Campbell to retire and he's done some wonderful things in my region in the 9 years he's been Premier of British Columbia but it is a necessary call to make, in my view, otherwise we could see Recall Campaigns become successes