Ian Tootill...

...is toast., as I predicted he would be.  Why?  Because the B.C. Conservatives may grab a handful of seats this time out and don't want their best shot at respectability in ages queered by weirdos.

PS.  I am totally enjoying the B.C. election right now.  We're up to, what four candidates who've had to step down for dumb shit they've said on the Internet?  I'm flashing back to the 2008 federal, where BCLSB alone forced two candidates and one campaign manager to resign.  That was the golden age of CDN political blogging, as far as I'm concerned.

The Stench Of Death Engulfs Them

BC Libs are going down in flames, and I don't care.  They're lucky the BC Conservatives have imploded.  That might mean the difference between a mere thumping and a Dix Super-Majority.

That is all.

B.C. Is Special

From The G&M:

The Conservatives have always seemed like a party that was a few slices short of a loaf. For years it hung around the fringes of the B.C. political scene, switching mostly unknown leaders between elections while fighting a reputation for attracting oddballs and religious zealots. To the extent that it existed at all, it existed mostly in name only.

[...]

Clearly, the Conservatives are in complete turmoil. Mr. Cummins can attempt to minimize the problem if he wants, but plugging his ears and wishing his troubles away won’t help. Last month’s leadership vote clearly did not address internal issues. At this point, Mr. Cummins would seem to have little choice but to either resign or announce that he is willing to face a challenge from other candidates.

Gary Mason, author of the above, apparently thinks having a divisive leadership race that will end a couple weeks before next year's election is called will somehow put the B.C. Tories into contention.  But let's face it--Cummins is the provincial equivalent of Elizabeth May: a mainstream figure drafted-in to make a party of  largely weirdos appear normal to mainstream--to, in this case, non-Zalmoids.   The "rank and file" should be kissing his ass, but instead they seem intent on dumping him and reclaiming the fringe right.

And if you want to meet the jilted Tory lunatic who's largely behind the internal revolt, well that would be Dean Skoreyko.  If Christy Clark wins again, something that can no longer be consider beyond possibility, she should appoint him to something.

Tory Turmoil In Beautiful B.C.

You heard it here first…

It was only a matter of time before John Cummins’ bovine stubbornness and deep-seeded arrogance would be rewarded with a full-on mutiny.

And you thought the federal Libs were fratricidal.  And this is all apparently over the fat that Cummins'
actually wants to draw a salary from party coffers rather than rely on his MP's pension.  Way to self-immolate, B.C. Conservatives.

John Cummins To Bail On B.C. Conservatives?

Dean Skoreyko may be a few cans short of a six-pack, but he does seem to have an in with the B.C. Conservative Party.  So when he writes that party leader John Cummins will resign next week, I would certainly pay attention, through perhaps not place any bets on the matter.  And when I read that one of the reasons party rebels are down on Cummins is that he actually wants to get paid to lead them to a political breakthrough in next year's provincial election (instead of relying entirely on his MP's pension) I think...yeah, that sounds like B.C. politics.

Somewhere, Christy Clark is smiling.

PS.  Worth noting that the B.C. Conservatives booted Dean's ass out of the party a few years back and he's been pissed-off at them ever since.  Although, to be honest, Dean seems permanently pissed-off.

Crazy Guy Has Inside Track On BC Conservatives

Dean Skoreyko is an angry flake, perhaps best known for getting thrown out of the BC Conservative Party. But he still seems to have connections in that particular political clan, and he was blogging the story of an incipient party coup for weeks before the MSM caught on.  The short story, the dickey doo, as we Irish say, is that factions in the party want to oust their leader John Cummins and replace him with a nobody just a few months before a provincial election where they might actually win a bunch of seats for the very first time.  And Dean is cheering them on!  Someone in Christy Clark's war-room is smiling tonight.

Attack Ads That Must Go Unwritten

 B.C's Conservative Party took a step towards reswpectability today by refusing the membership application of one Dean Skoreyko.  Dean, who blogs as B.C. Blue, is best known as the BC Con spokesperson who, when confronted with potential floor crosser MLA Blair Lekstrom, said:

It's too late for Lekstrom to reverse his HST position.... "You can't stand up in the house when 85 per cent of B.C. is against it according to the polls and support it, then stand up a few weeks later and say you're against it," he said. "A rat is a rat is a rat."

In other words, the B.C. Tories know teh krazy when they see it.  But their gain is the B.C. Liberal Party's loss; someone in Christy Clark's war-room is crying tonight.