In politics, you have to at least look like you know what you are doing.
That is NOT what is happening in BC right now at the provincial legislature, where all heck is breaking loose within the official opposition, as an attempted takeover is spilling out into the public domain.
The so-called “leadership of the Conservative Party of B.C. released an official statement saying that John Rustad had been removed “removed” as Leader of the Opposition because he was ”professionally incapacitated.”
A majority of their provincial reps had installed Trevor Halford as interim leader, but apparently no one sat down with Rustad to work things out because he took his seat in the legislature as usual and says he is “not going anywhere.”
Brushing aside the outrageous assertion that he is “professionally incapacitated” (whatever that means), no political party can afford to be this incompetent and disorganized in public if you want to be taken seriously.
There is a process to go through, like when the Federal Liberals chose Mark Carney in a leadership race to replace Justin Trudeau.
Back in 2003 though it wasn’t so pretty when my namesake (Paul Martin) completed his open and hostile takeover after challenging then Prime Minister Jean Chretien openly , which would lead to a minority government the following election and eventually losing to Stephen Harper and the Conservatives.
People will often tolerate mistakes and even corruption i government, but rarely incompetence. Any political party that can’t even sing the same tune internally is not one that often gets rewarded by the voters with a symphony of success on election night.
I’m Paul Martin and that’s what I see looking Beyond the Headlines.
