LETTER – Will Milobar set his sights on stepping up to the federal level?

On Wednesday we witnessed the 11th & 12th of the 44 originally elected BC Conservative members having freely left or been forced out of the party since election night, that’s 27% of caucus gone in 22 months.  What was a slow oozing under Rustad has turned into uncontrollable hemorrhaging under Findlay as more former BC Liberals are expected to bleed out.  Five members alone have left in the past 2 weeks, even Piere Poillieve hasn’t seen this type of exodus.

The 51-49 leadership convention vote should have been a bright red flashing sign that the leadership needed to tact to a more centrist position but they’ve gone all Albertan, as in Republican Party of Alberta extreme right with the hiring of a key separations party organizer as the Director of Operations for the BC Conservatives.   As a result of this hiring and the almost clear cutting of the entire party senior staff, we are all now witnessing the implosion before our very eyes sooner than any of us expected.

Even the firing of the Trump disciple Wednesday won’t stem the bleeding from Findlay’s self inflicted wounds.  Considering the times in BC I can’t imagine how out of touch someone has to be to hire a wanna be American Trumper. I wonder how many former BC Liberals will be jumping ship if an election is called this fall rather than be walking the plank as Findlay continues to purify the party?

Oh, and the Eby attack ad with the communist-esque anthem and Eby dressed in a Stalinist type dictators uniform with menacing facial expressions, now that was a beauty, not at all over the top.  I’m sure lower mainland voters will appreciate the subtlety.

Albertan conservatism no longer has the magnetism that it once held in BC.  The interior, once a stronghold not only lost Milobar and Prince George-Valemount’s Rosalyn Bird but also Amelia Boultbee who has left the party and recently joined the NDP.   Moreover, liberal Stephen Fuhr just won his MP’s seat in Kelowna, the historic bastion of Bennett conservatism.

As for Milobar and the conservatives, this was nothing more than a marriage of convenience.  I don’t see this as revenge by Milobar at all but rather a furthering or pivoting on a stepping stone.  Sure he wanted to become the Premier but the conservatives were nothing more than a rung on a ladder, I doubt he thought the extreme of this party was anything more than useful idiots on his political ascension.

Now that that goal of Premier is off the table for the short term why not continue to step on these tories using them as a launching pad into federal politics.  Carney has shown himself to be a “Blue Liberal”, one who’s results driven and Milobar has been proven to be electoral gold in a riding the federal Liberals have been shut out in over the past 15 elections dating back to 1974.  Has the courtship of another marriage of convenience begun the dating phase?

I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if the Kamloops—Shuswap—Central Rockies riding becomes a little more Kamloops and a little less Central Rockies by the next election and Milobar challenging what’s his face from Salmon Arm.  And why wouldn’t Milobar want to step up to the big leagues, he’s been a councillor, a mayor, an MLA, isn’t being an MP the next progression not to mention the near doubling of salary?

As far as the desires of being the Premier, maybe he uses the federal Liberals as another spring board once this dogs breakfast of a conservative party completes the self-annihilation and the ashes are swept up, worked out for Jason Kenney.  Well, at least for a little while before Danielle Smith and the crazies took over.

And who will follow the crown Prince Milobar and his 8-0 record, well Dennis Giesbrecht is still around and he seems to think Kerry-Lynne Findlay is just peachy.

MAC GORDON