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Premier Christy Clark apologizes


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Dix when busted did not raise previous scandals and claim as others have done wrong it somehow lessens his wrongs - he took responsibility. Our current leaders supporters are seeming to want to blame mistakes of others in the past as reasons not to

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Anyone who actually believes her apology and meant it. Give your head a shake. She's only sorry that she got caught. This whole issue had to go through the Premier's office and she has to ok it. Political Insiders are saying she was forced by her caucus to issue the apology. It wasn't her idea. She was too scared and chicken crap that she had Coleman deliver the apology in the house. Gotta love ones like Bell who are implicated in shady dealings and when questioned about it, they respond "I don't recall any meetings", etc. Yeah, right. In Bell's case we now know why he's stepping away and using a Medical Condition as a cover.

12 years is enough of the BC Liars of ruining this province and British Columbian lives. They need to get decimated, deserve 1 seat and not be recognized as the official opposition and give them a office in the brom casket - Do exactly what they did to the NDP, when they got wiped out. Payback is a bitch.

Christy can go crawling back to CKNW to be with her sugar daddy Bill Good. For someone that is suppose to be highly intelligent and a great leader, sure isn't very bright at all. I will give her credit for being a world class liar. Because she is. Look at her eyes when she talks and tongue twists her words.

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And here we go...

http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Christy+Clark+deputy+chief+staff+resigns+over+ethnic+voters/8037464/story.html

VICTORIA — Premier Christy Clark’s deputy chief of staff, who was involved in circulating a widely denounced memo plotting a B.C. Liberal strategy to woo ethnic voters, resigned late Friday.

“Today, I accepted the resignation of Kim Haakstad,” Clark said in a brief written statement.

“Kim reached her decision after much consideration of her roles and responsibilities,” she added. “Consistent with circumstances of resignations, no severance payment applies.”

Haakstad has been at Clark’s side for more than a decade, working as her executive assistant, and then ministerial assistant, during Clark’s early days in provincial politics.

Haakstad became executive director of the Alliance of Beverage Licensees during Clark’s political hiatus, but returned as a key figure in Clark’s failed run for the Non-Partisan Association mayoral nomination in Vancouver, and again during Clark’s successful bid for the B.C. Liberal leadership.

Haakstad’s resignation was announced four hours after the government released details about the conduct of an internal investigation launched by Clark on Thursday.

The investigation, to be conducted by four senior civil servants, promises to determine whether taxpayer dollars have been misappropriated, or whether anyone in Clark’s government had breached the Public Service Act.

Some in Clark’s cabinet were not convinced Friday’s moves would be enough, saying before the news of Haakstad’s resignation that they expected Clark to take “appropriate action.”

“My colleagues and I are certainly looking for an explanation about the announcement regarding the investigation,” Minister of Social Development Moira Stilwell told The Vancouver Sun early Friday afternoon.

“You can see the situation breaks into two separate issues. One is that staff clearly contemplated doing things that weren’t just wrong but were offensive and inappropriate and potentially illegal,” she said.

“That doesn’t require an investigation. That requires action.”

She said that in addition to immediate disciplinary action, she supports a thorough investigation to root out systemic issues that allowed the memo to be created and circulated.

Stilwell said she believes Clark had been let down by her staff, and appeared to signal that the caucus and cabinet was watching Clark’s moves as closely as was the Opposition and the public.

“She (Clark) is above this and I think she needs to take action to make sure people see that,” said Stilwell.

Other B.C. Liberal MLAs made similar calls for accountability early Friday afternoon.

“What I personally think, and what most British Columbians think, is that (the people) who have done this should be dismissed,” said MLA Dave Hayer.

“First of all you can’t cross the line between government funding and political parties — we have always been clear that government and the party should stay away (from each other) — and also we should not be involved in trying to have quick wins to get some votes.”

Speaking to reporters earlier in the day in Prince George on Friday, Clark gave no signal of the coming resignation, or that she was poised to take any immediate actions.

“Things happen in politics. People make mistakes and they make bad judgment calls and clearly that’s happened at the staff level,” said Clark, when asked point blank if Haakstad should be fired for her role in distributing the document.

“We sure do want to get to the bottom of it because everyone in the public service needs to know you cannot mix public money and partisan purposes. It didn’t happen in this case, but somebody way down the chain apparently thought that it could, and that was wrong.”

Made public by the New Democratic Party during question period on Wednesday, the memo in question laid out a detailed and blunt strategy for how the B.C. Liberal government could use its taxpayer-funded resources to help the B.C. Liberal Party win over ethnic voters during the coming election.

On Friday evening, NDP house leader John Horgan said Haakstad’s resignation displays “an acknowledgment that this is a serious problem.

“I’ve been trying to hear some contrition from the premier to this point in time, and I’ve yet to hear it,” he added.

“Certainly Ms. Haakstad has been at the epicentre of this and her resignation is a demonstration of the seriousness of the issue.”

Horgan added he is concerned the terms of reference for the coming investigation released Friday did not include a reference to announcements such as that by Clark that B.C. will host the Times of India Film Awards.

“I didn’t see any direct reference to the Bollywood awards show,” he said.

“If it was a result of the multicultural strategy then I think the public should know about that. That’s certainly my hunch and that doesn’t seem to be captured in the scope.”

Meanwhile, in Richmond Friday, the political damage done by the leaked memo was making itself known as members of the Chinese community slammed the government for displaying “callousness and disrespect.”

Bill Chu, president of a group called Canadians for Reconciliation Society, predicted the surfacing of the memo will have “serious implications” in the coming B.C. election.

He was accompanied by lawyer and longtime activist Tommy Tao; Hanson Lau, who ran a Chinese radio program for 25 years and now operates a travel agency in Richmond; and Thekla Lit, co-chair of the Canada Association for Learning & Preserving the History of WWII in Asia.

Lit has been quoted in news reports as being a supporter of Gabriel Yiu, NDP candidate in Vancouver-Fraserview.

Chu and Lau have been billed as “special guests” to at least one of Yiu’s fundraisers.

The group — which on Friday said it was non-partisan — took particular issue with an apology on the Chinese head tax the B.C. Liberals have said could come as early as next week.

“An apology without sincerity is not just empty words but it is also an insult to the victims,” said Lit.

Lit said an apology can only be meaningful if it is accompanied by historical research, an acknowledgment of history, consultation with all concerned parties, preservation of historical sites, community education and a recording of historical injustice in school curricula.

Chu added that in past, the B.C. Liberal government has confused the Chinese head tax, which is a federal matter that has already been redressed, with past B.C. government policies and laws discriminating against the Chinese community. These have not been addressed.

“I wonder if the Liberal government know what they are apologizing for,” said Lit.

“It wasn’t Ontario, it wasn’t Newfoundland, it wasn’t Nova Scotia, it wasn’t all the other provinces that discriminated badly against us,” said Chu.

“It was B.C. without a doubt. It’s very important for us in B.C. to realize that.”
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Anyone who actually believes her apology and meant it. Give your head a shake. She's only sorry that she got caught. This whole issue had to go through the Premier's office and she has to ok it. Political Insiders are saying she was forced by her caucus to issue the apology. It wasn't her idea. She was too scared and chicken crap that she had Coleman deliver the apology in the house. Gotta love ones like Bell who are implicated in shady dealings and when questioned about it, they respond "I don't recall any meetings", etc. Yeah, right. In Bell's case we now know why he's stepping away and using a Medical Condition as a cover.

12 years is enough of the BC Liars of ruining this province and British Columbian lives. They need to get decimated, deserve 1 seat and not be recognized as the official opposition and give them a office in the brom casket - Do exactly what they did to the NDP, when they got wiped out. Payback is a bitch.

Christie can go crawling back to CKNW to be with her sugar daddy Bill Good. For someone that is suppose to be highly intelligent and a great leader, sure isn't very bright at all. I will give her credit for being a world class liar. Because she is. Look at her eyes when she talks and tongue twists her words.

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This latest scandal is FAR from over. Now you can add another wave of exodus from the BC Liberal party over the "ethnic vote" leaked document. http://www.cbc.ca/ne...l-division.html

What I found interesting about this story is the video of Christy Clrak that accompanies it. In the video she tells reporters " Here's the thing to remember, at the moment, it appears that no government money was spent on it" Of course, she's refering to the leaked document that came out of her office.

Christy is choosing her words VERY carefully. The key words there being "at the moment" LOL

Grits grapple with resignations amid 'ethnic vote' conflict.

As B.C. Liberals deal with the aftermath surrounding the leak of a controversial document outlining a plan to win the "ethnic vote" in the upcoming provincial election, the party is also grappling with the recent resignations of several local representatives.

James Plett resigned from the Liberals' Surrey-Tynehead riding association on Friday.

On his blog, Plett said he was "appalled" by the recent controversy and said the B.C. Liberal Party had a "pattern of arrogance, deceit, and downright unethical behavior."

'I am horribly embarrassed that my name was still associated with that party.'
—James Plett, former vice president of Surrey-Tynehead riding

"I am horribly embarrassed that my name was still associated with that party," Plett wrote. "I'm not the only one who feels this way."

The Liberals also recently lost riding presidents in Surrey-Whalley, Surrey-Fleetwood, and Surrey-Green Timbers, although two of the resignations came well before the "Multicultural Strategy" was leaked.

Earlier this week, the president of the B.C. Liberal Riding Association for Abbotsford Mission stepped down, too.

Cory Cassel, a Liberal for 13 years, became a member of the Green Party of B.C.

"My experience with the B.C. Liberal Party is that the people that are involved in the local riding associations are nothing more than procedure," Cassel said.

They are "there to fill a legal obligation and to give a perception that the party actually cares about what the people in communities care about."

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It really is a separate issue but I'll post it here

CBC is reporting that the bc liberals have called an emergency cabinet meeting for today at 4pm

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2013/03/03/bc-premier-christy-clark-cabinet-meeting-ethnic-vote.html

And on the province they are saying its not an emergency meeting - just an extra called planning session before they meet the next day as planned.

http://www.theprovince.com/news/Christy+Clark+calls+last+minute+cabinet+meeting+Sunday+discuss+week+ahead/8041749/story.html

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http://www.cbc.ca/m/touch/canada/britishcolumbia/story/2013/03/03/bc-premier-christy-clark-cabinet-meeting-ethnic-vote.html

Surrey liberals call for her to step down.

At this point there is no time to get a new leader in place and have time for them to lay out any new plans.

In my opinion the planning for the next election has begun and should any vote occur before the writ is dropped I see the bc liberals falling early

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It really is a separate issue but I'll post it here

CBC is reporting that the bc liberals have called an emergency cabinet meeting for today at 4pm

http://www.cbc.ca/ne...thnic-vote.html

And on the province they are saying its not an emergency meeting - just an extra called planning session before they meet the next day as planned.

http://www.theprovin...1749/story.html

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The issue that has arisen here is purely ethical. They didn't do anything illegal, it's just the fact that the things they had planned to do were not sincere. They were purely political and that is why it is so embarrassing to the party. Trying to secure the ethnic vote is not only a good idea but it's necessary. Too bad that the conduct as the leaks have shown were nothing more than self serving rather than being done to accept responsibility.

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