Past mistakes, soul-searching feature in first B.C. Liberal debate
SURREY, B.C. — Six of the candidates running to lead British Columbia’s Liberals laid out their ideas to rebuild the party Sunday in a debate that dwelled at times on what went wrong in last spring’s election.
The field of candidates includes three members of Christy Clark’s pre-election cabinet and two of them did some soul-searching on why the party lost seats and was eventually dumped from power in a confidence vote after 16 years in office.
Andrew Wilkinson said the party spent too much time talking about its wider economic success and didn’t listen to voters who were feeling the pinch.
“We were preaching at people from 30,000 feet. Telling them about credit ratings, telling them about our debt-to-GDP ratio,” said the one-time attorney general. “It meant nothing in their living rooms. The NDP were in their living rooms offering them a cheaper way of life.”