B.C. Liberal Leadership Floodgates Open With Watts And Wilkinson Leading The Pack Of Wanna-Be Leaders

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In an interesting move, former B.C. environment minister Mary Polak is backing Wilkinson as the person who can help rebuild the Liberal party and bring it back to victory. She has history with Watts but the former Surrey civic politicians feud is well known and that’s the reason Polak decided to support a federal Liberal Wilkinson. The contest is expected to come down to a battle between Watts  and Wilkinson as most of the other candidates are not expected to really be contenders.

By R. Paul Dhillon

VICTORIA – The race to replace former premier Christy Clark is now littered with BC Liberal leadership candidates as a flurry of announcements were made this week following the official declaration by front-runner Dianne Watts.

Following Watts announcement on Sunday, former Liberal cabinet minister Andrew Wilkinson announced his intention to seek the leadership Monday morning.

He was quickly joined by both former education minister Mike Bernier and past finance minister Mike de Jong, who made it official Monday afternoon.

Former transportation minister Todd Stone put out a video saying he is carefully considering a decision, and then added that under his leadership the B.C. Liberal Party would not accept taxpayer subsidies as proposed by the NDP.

Vancouver Liberal Michael Lee also announced Monday that he will join the field that includes Terrace businesswoman Lucy Sagar and backbench Liberal Sam Sullivan in the contest to lead B.C.’s Opposition.

In an interesting move, former B.C. environment minister Mary Polak is backing Wilkinson as the person who can help rebuild the Liberal party and bring it back to victory. She has history with Watts but the former Surrey civic politicians feud is well known and that’s the reason Polak decided to support a federal Liberal Wilkinson.

Wilkinson says he’s running for party leader because B.C. needs a person who understands every part of the province.

The contest is expected to come down to a battle between Watts  and Wilkinson as most of the other candidates are not expected to really be contenders.

Watts announced Sunday she was resigning from federal politics to focus on a run for leadership of the BC Liberal Party.

“I have served in public office as a city councillor, mayor, and Member of Parliament. And I believe that I can bring a much-needed new vision and common sense approach to the BC Liberal Party,” says Watts.

There will be six debates for leadership candidates — the first one is happening on October 15th in Surrey. The party will choose a new leader next February.