Change Has Come... To British Columbia

I realize the title is a bit 'Obama-esqe', but I honestly believe that something dramatic happened in Vancouver on Saturday evening.  Christy Clark won the Liberal Leadership race and will likely officially become BC's next Premier sometime this week when she takes the oath.

I was in the room as the announcement was made and while she gave her first speech.  I realize that politicians say many things  but the sense I got was that she has some very clear ideas about what needs to happen with government.  The irony in politics is that while it's all about serving people and leading people, the reality is that sometimes politicians become isolated from the very people they have been elected to serve.  That's not a knock on the people who do the job.  It's just an observation about the nature of what happens to people who do the job over time.  What's interesting to me about a former politician, columnist and talk show host becoming Premier is that for the past few years, she's had the opportunity to hear what the voters really think and what they are really saying.  (I don't think you can get a much rawer sample than what happens on talk radio....)  In my mind that's a distinct advantage in the short term, especially if she's able to remember what she's heard people say for the past 3 years.

The downside of being a former talk show host who has now become Premier is that you've said a lot of things, some fairly provocative and outrageous that are all a matter of public record.  I'm guessing there will be a few things our new Premier might regret having said over the past few years.  (There's probably an easy lesson in there about the power of the tongue, but we'll leave that for another day....)

There are some significant challenges.  She has the uneviable task of building a team made up of people who were hoping someone else would win.  She needs to form an inner team (Cabinet) that will help forge a new vision and direction.  She needs to win a seat...

These will be interesting days in BC.  We need you to pray.  The future depends on it!

They're BAAACK!!!

After 253 days, the Legislature resumed sitting.  I said to someone that it felt a bit like the first day of school.  Given the current leadership races, the session is a bit unusual in several ways....
1) It's only a 4 day session and two of the days have been completely dedicated to the Throne Speech and the Budget Speech.

2)  Many of the usual players during Question Period aren't asking or taking questions.  They are also all sitting in different seats.  It's a bit like musical chairs at the Legislature at the moment.

3) While the current session is more of a technical necessity, that things are quiet on the political side.  On the contrary it's an intensely political time with everyone posturing and positioning themselves for the leadership race.  It's important to align yourself with a winner and no one wants to make the wrong choice.

4) The Liberals will choose their leader on Feb 26.  We want to encourage you to make this a matter of prayer next week.  We will be publishing a special prayer bulletin on our PrayBC blog to help you participate with us.  Over 90,000 BC Liberals will be choosing a new leader next weekend.  It would be great to have at least that many praying about that decision over the next week.  Please join us!