As announced yesterday, John Cummins, former Richmond-Delta East MP, announced his intention to seek the Leadership of the BC Conservative Party
See Alan Forseth's (BC Conservative Party's Kamloops Regional Director) take on this here and here
However - both Jay Hill, former MP for PG-Peace River, and Stockwell Day, former MP for Okanagan-Coquihalla & Federal President of the Treasury Board expressed dismay at their colleagues move. See here
Unlike BC Conservative Party spin, Mr. Cummins and the BC Conservative Party will need to address the following questions:
1) Why haven't more people decided to seek the Leadership of this "upstart" political party
2) How does Mr. Cummins resolve his previous position, as a Conservative MP, to support the HST for both BC and Ontario and now his stated intention to remove the HST, if he is both elected Leader of the BC Conservative Party and then Premier of BC?
But, at the end of the day, BC Liberals, like myself, should be and are likely a little concerned about this development but unless the BC Conservatives field a 85 candidate slate in the next Provincial Election or get more than 9% of the vote then it's likely they'll not have too much of a political impact on the 40th Provincial General Election
1 comment:
No matter who was, or wasn't considering a run for the leadership, John Cummins is a hand-on guy that is not afraid to roll up his sleeves and get his hands dirty.
Not only does he have contacts from 20 years of political experience, people across the province will be able to relate to a guys that could put in a days work on oil rigs, in construction of BC hydro dams, plying the waters of BC as a commercial fisherman, and who has also been a teacher.
As to the HST, yes he voted for it in the federal parliament, BUT he wanted to see a reduction in the provincial portion of the tax so that the impact of it was negated.
He has NOT stated he will remove the tax, nor should he. He has said however that he will support our wishes as taxpapers when we vote on this issue.
He has also stated that the way the HST was implimented by the BC Liberals runs contrary to BC Conservative beliefs that government be open, transparent, and accountable.
BC Liberals should indeed, "be and are likely a little concerned about this development"
Conservative roots in this province run deep :)
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