No knockout blow in BC leader’s debate
Posted Apr 29, 2013 10:40 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
There was no clearcut winner in the BC leader’s debate, at least not as far as most political pundits were concerned.
But that doesn’t mean it was only softball questions.
The debate was less than 10 minutes old when BC Liberal leader Christy Clark was asked about her much-publicized running of a red traffic light at the suggestion of her 11-year-old son. Clark apologized calling it a parenting mistake.
Going in, the debate as NDP leader Adrian Dix’s to lose and he did nothing to jeopardize his position in the polls. Dix did skirt around specifics when it came to twinning the Kinder Morgan Pipeline and how he plans to pay for what would be a deficit budget over three years.
When asked about the infamous memo-to-file incident where he admitted backdating a memo for former premier Glen Clark, Dix says “I was responsible for my mistakes. I have not run one negative ad.”
Clark too was grilled on her budgeting ability. She was asked by moderator Jennifer Burke about her claims that Moody’s Investor Services has said her budget was balanced when they have made no such claims.
“When I was became premier, I started on working on getting government spending under control. Then we worked on balancing the budget, which we’ve done. Now that we are balanced, we are in a position to start eliminating the debt for our kids,” said Clark.
BC Conservative leader John Cummins wasn’t holding back during his opening remarks.
“Everyone knows that the Liberals can’t win this election,” said Cummins. “So you’ve probably tuned in to see what Adrian Dix will look like as a premier.”
Cummins later had to defend his party’s background checks for candidates after four were fired during the campaign.
Green Party leader Jane Sterk sided with Dix on certain environmental issues including restricting oil tanker traffic on the BC coast but did not deliver any political haymakers.
