CLARK FOR THE WIN

Last night’s by-election win for Premier Christy Clark should keep her perma-smile in place for the next month or so, at least pending the results of the HST referendum in June.

Although her margin of victory was slim, 600 votes, the win is huge for Clark. A loss would have been seen as a major defeat for the newly minted Liberal leader, especially at a time when her party is trying to rebound from several publicly perceived negative years.

Clark is particularly lucky that her NDP challenger was viewed, by many, as being on the extreme left. Had she faced off with a more main stream centre left candidate, I think the result would have been far different.

Clark should also be thankful that the BC Conservatives did not field a candidate in the riding. That very well could have split the vote, sending the NDP candidate up the middle to victory.

Bottom line, the electorate liked Christy Clark more than David Eby. This should send a strong message to NDP leader Adrian Dix, who is also seen to be on the far left of the party.

Over the next month, Clark will face her first real challenge as premier as she tackles the HST referendum and a lack of voter appetite for the tax.

So far though, Clark appears to be made of Teflon as nothing seems to stick.

You can fool some of the people some of the time, but it will be interesting to see if she can fool all of the people. With the HST issue, Clark will be flying by the seat of hear pants, but she should remember in Peter Pan you could see the wires.