"Just what we need, another unprincipled politician."
That line was aimed like a dagger at the heart of the B.C. Conservative Party. But it may be more like a boomerang, coming back to smack the ruling provincial Liberals.
Late last week, the party of Premier Christy Clark released two radio ads attacking John Cummins, the longtime federal Reform and Conservative MP who once represented Delta-Richmond East - and now has taken over the B.C.
Conservatives, which had long come in at the bottom of the ballot, barely getting more votes than the Marxist-Leninists in provincial elections.
Cummins hopes to drag the party back into contention for the first time in more than 60 years. The BC Liberals apparently believe he has a shot at stealing enough of their votes to at least give the NDP a victory. So with 18 months to the next election, they launched www.canttrustcummins.ca, and the spectacularly misconceived radio ads.
Each ad is a conversation between a man and a woman. Although "conversation" may be generous: inside 30 seconds, each ad turns into a string of accusations directed at Cummins.
"Just what we need, another unprincipled politician," the woman snaps in the second ad. Unprincipled? As unprincipled as springing a massive tax shift on voters right after a general election?
The Liberals have been in power for more than a decade. For many of the province's younger voters, the NDP are a fuzzy memory, and the Socreds are ancient history. But the Liberals. well, like any party that clings to power for this long, they've racked up their share of blunders, mis-steps, and fibs.
Attacking Cummins's policies is fine. But the Liberals should have taken a long look in the mirror before booking ads with such a mean-spirited tone.
