Andrew MacLeod, Tyee
Delegates to the BC Liberal Party convention in Kelowna defeated resolutions related to mental healthcare, childcare and housing affordability.
And motions on ending the clawback of child support payments from single parents’ disability cheques, writing a poverty reduction strategy and reducing ferry fares didn’t even make it to the floor for debate.
“We’re not the party of tax more spend more,” Premier Christy Clark told reporters following her keynote address to the convention. “We’re the party of grow the economy so that we have more resources so people can have more money in their own pockets to spend and so we have more money to look after people.”
Of the 80 resolutions constituency associations and party committees submitted, just 18 were debated in the two hours scheduled for the policy session. Ahead of it each delegate could pick their top five priorities to debate, with the order of debate based on the rankings. Motions on balancing the budget and limiting taxes led the way….
“We are engaging in more debate over more issues than I think we did over the last ten years,” said Clark, whose leadership received a 98.8 percent vote of approval. “That reflects my view that political parties are a place for debate.”….