When Justin Trudeau announced he would step down as Liberal Leader, former B.C. premier Christy Clark seriously considered throwing her hat in the ring for the federal leadership race.
It was her lack of fluency in French that ultimately led her to bow out, and Mark Carney won the vote in a landslide.
With a new leader in place, Clark is now considering running as a federal Liberal in B.C. in the next election.
“I really believe in this party,” said Clark.
“I believe in Mark Carney, and I believe in what we need to do to grow our country’s economy and lessen our dependance on the United States. So I am seriously thinking about running in this election to support the Liberal Party.”
In an interview with CTV Vancouver, Clark praised Carney and sharpened her attacks on Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre.
“I hear a lot of Canadians saying they are not confident that Pierre Poilievre is going to have the mettle to stand up to Donald Trump. Too many of his members and his partisans and the people that are organizing for him really believe in what Donald Trump is doing. They’re MAGA north,” said Clark.
“We need someone from our team on the ice leading the offence, not somebody who hasn’t decided which team they’re on.”
Clark says she is eager to serve the Liberal party, either as a candidate or a surrogate in B.C.
“I will do whatever I can do, and whatever I am asked to do,” she said.
“I don’t think that anything is more important to the majority of Canadians than making sure our candidate, our country, is being led by someone who is fighting for this country, not someone who’s a sympathizer with the kind of operation they’re running down south of the border.”
Polls were predicting a large Conservative majority just a few weeks ago, but Clark believes Carney’s win changes everything.
“You never know what’s going to happen in the election. I mean, we went in 22 points behind, and then we ended up with more seats than we had before the election in a majority,“ said Clark.
“Everything’s up for grabs, I think. And I think Canadians are really thinking hard about the character and the commitment of the person they want to lead our country, because right now we’re not playing games here. This isn’t just partisan bickering. This is the future of Canada we’re talking about. And that has to be in the right hands.”
Veteran British Columbia pollster Mario Canseco with Research Co. believes Clark is an example of a star candidate the Liberals could not have attracted in B.C. had Justin Trudeau remained prime minister.
“I think it’s ultimately about the recruitment of the candidates. There was a moment when it seemed easy for the Conservatives to win every single seat. And you’re looking at the Liberal incumbents going, well, maybe they’ll hold onto a couple of areas. Now it’s a different ball game because of the way in which people will get involved in effectively trying to get some of those nominations in place,” said Canseco.
He believes the Conservatives should be looking at bolstering their roster in B.C.
“I’m surprised that they decided to disqualify people like Anita Huberman or Mike De Jong, who are exceptionally well known and exceptionally respected in this province,” Cansesco said.
“That certainly speaks about a disconnect in the way the Ottawa campaign is looking at things in B.C., or maybe people were promised their shot because they’ve been with Poilievre for so long. But if you don’t have that caliber of a candidate, it’s going to be difficult to win some of those races.”
The pollster said what looked like a blow-out federal election just a few months ago could end up being competitive.
“The complexity for Poilievre is that he hasn’t really established an emotional connection that isn’t based on people hating the prime minister at the time,” he said.
“Now, you have the ability as a voter to compare what Poilievre has been saying for the past couple of years with what Mark Carney could actually do now that he’s in office. So that essentially changes things to a level that we haven’t seen before,” Canseco said, predicting that the upcoming election will “be a real, actual contest.”
