Christy Clark optimistic as BC election approaches halfway mark

Valentin says in that outcome, about 27 per cent of Green supporters would like to see leader Andrew Weaver siding with the NDP, while there is essentially no support for him working with the Liberals.

The NDP are running George Chow, himself a two-term Vancouver City Councillor with Vision Vancouver, and a former BC Hydro senior engineer. Her calendar showed no such meeting, however.

“For the B.C. Liberals to say from the first-class lounge that the big lobbyists and the big donors don’t have influence, I’ll leave that to your readers to decide”, Horgan said. “Attacking Miss Clark on the one hand for taking money from corporations and unions, and at the same time accepting them yourself”. We’re not going to go down that rabbit hole.

“We are out there, getting into new markets”, she said, in close concert with the federal government.

The Liberals countered again by calling on the NDP to return the Steelworkers’ money because of donations the union made to U.S. Rep. Peter Defazio, who has criticized Canadian lumber imports.

Horgan says the BC Liberals built a $4.5-billion bridge but expect one community to pay for it, says Kelowna not tolled on their bridge. “I can’t believe you just said that, John”. “But the thing is, does the donation change your decision?”

– Clark says she would have balked had she been the only person involved in negotiations on softwood lumber.

The softwood lumber agreement has been expired for well over a year.

Christian St. Cyr says losing forestry jobs was in the cards regardless of whether the USA put a tax on Canadian softwood lumber or not.

The threats from south of the border to impose tariffs on B.C. lumber loomed large over the leaders debate as well. If elected, the B.C. NDP appears ready to slam the door on hard-working activists and entrepreneurs, including Jodie and Marc Emery, who’ve taken enormous risks and paid a high price to try to end the scourge of marijuana prohibition.

“Both of these men have spent most of their political careers trying to fight against jobs in B.C.”, said Clark. “I think we are finally beginning to understand why you never even raised it in the Legislature”.

Asked about the likelihood of an income-tax hike, Horgan said he was not prepared to speculate on the panel’s conclusions.

Researcher Clark Williams-Derry said it is hard to underestimate the impact a ban on thermal coal exports would have for the coal industry in the western U.S.

Horgan was pressing the issue of housing affordability at a campaign stop in Burnaby Wednesday.

Weaver has matched NDP leader John Horgan’s promise of a dedicated mental health ministry and adds another ministry for “health promotion, disease prevention and active lifestyles”.

This is a big night in BC politics.

The leader with nearly nothing to lose looked to land most of the hits during the televised B.C. election TV debate in Vancouver on Wednesday night.

The renters’ tax credit amounts to little more than a dollar a day, Clark said.