My Top 3 Provincial Political Stories in 2011

Although there was plenty occuring on the provincial political scene - there are 3 provincial political stories that stood out in 2011:

1) 3 New Provincial Party Leaders in BC
2) HST goes down in defeat...
3) 2 BC Liberal MLA's call it a day...

On #1:

Change was the key theme for provincial political parties in 2011.  Firstly, we saw Christy Clark beat out others like Mike DeJong, Kevin Falcon and George Abbott to assume the leadership of the BC Liberals in late February and assumed the post of Premier of BC.  Later on in April - Adrian Dix beat out people like John Horgan and Mike Farnworth to become leader of the BC New Democrats and thus became Leader of Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition then in June - former Delta-East MP John Cummins was acclaimed as leader of the BC Conservatives' where no others in that party put their name forward

On #2:

After the use of the Initiative Petition, as part of the Recall/Initiative Act, and after referred to the Select Standing Committee on Legislative Initiatives and the Committee deciding to refer the Petition to a province-wide vote and subsequent decision by former BC Premier Gordon Campbell to submit the referendum vote from a double-majority decision to simple majority - the HST went down to defeat on August 26th by a vote of 54% to kill the tax with 46% voting to keep the tax.  As of today, discussions are ongoing to revert back to the old PST/GST with Bill Vander Zalm of the Fight HST group openly musing of a class-action lawsuit to force Victoria to get on with the conversion - see the article from the Globe and Mail here

On #3:

2 BC Liberal MLA's decided to call it a day in politics including Iain Black from Port Moody and Barry Penner from Chillwack.  Both of their ridings face mandatory by-election deadlines by April or May of 2012.  As of today - the BC Conservatives have declared candidates in Port Moody and Chillwack with the NDP have a candidate ready in Port Moody consisting of former Port Moody Mayor Joe Transolini.  The governing BC Liberals' have yet to name candidates in Port Moody/Chilliwack

It'll be interesting to see if this is a trend or just 2 people who were "burned out" and needed a change of pace

One thing for sure - 2012 will be interesting in provincial politics just like 2011 with the two upcoming by-elections and other issues sure to dominate the provincial political scene