Looks to me that it was a shotgun wedding, Ben, with the bride carrying the double-pump action and the BC Liberal caucus the reluctant groom!

And breaking with tradition, there was a shower AFTER the ceremony - a cold shower.

Talk to you later this morning on air.

well the party better get it together.... the should be working together as a team. They had better quit whinning and start cooperating. This voter is tired of all the conflict and people acting like children.

"The vote and the support of Clark is not the kind of thing that most leaders would welcome. In the second ballot, Clark had 3575 compared to 2544 for Falcon, and 2361 for George Abbot."

I look at at totally differently.

There was one big loser and that was de Jong. He could not muster a thousand votes. So, he was the loser.

When I look at the three votes, Clark outpaced each by over a thousandc votes or a third more than either of the other two.

Then when you look at the political spectrum they represented, I consider Falcon to represent the far right of the party. The far right lost big time.

When the far right and the middle of the road "insiders" got together, they still delivered another thousand votes to the so called "outsisder".

George apparently let it be known that the second vote should go to Falcon. So, he seemed to deliver almost twice as many votes to Falcon as to Christy.

To me, that tells me that George is the turncoat to his political ideals and was thinking more like anyone but Clark.

That's politics folks.

Sounds like only about 10,000 voted of the 90,000 or so members with 50,000 or so thousand new members.

Wonder who were old party faithfulls versus the ones that virtually got their memberships because a friend a friend of a friend coerced them into buying one.

Worth looking at from the point of view of where do you put in your effort for the greatest effect.

As far as Christy being an outsider goes. Well, too bad. She was an insider since she got a cabinet post. Outsiders do not get powerful cabinet posts. She has opinions, and her opinions may not have been well liked and that may have influenced here decision to step down.

Remember people, we were essentially being given the cast offs of Gordon Campbell. The ones who did not make it but hung on for dear life.

Now we have someone who can look out for herself. One who does not sit around taking the bs. She is not one who did what people are accusing all other Campbell followers of doing.

So get with it. YTime to realize you are talking out of both sides of your mouths. Which, of course, leads me to think you are the ones who are anti BCLiberals. Which begs the question, why would we want to listen to you since you have not say in the matter at this level. You will have a say in the matter when it comes to the eventual general election which Christy might give all of us much sooner than it is supposed to and much sooner than the others would have.

It will be interestinng what advice her caucus has on that question.

So, her first order of business, who will be her key ministers. Will she make an intial appointment which reflects the current situation except for a few key posts and then shuffle after the spring, or will she deliver a considerably reshuffled deck with a few newcomers?

Come on pundits, show how good you are at understaning this situation and put it out in the open before she starts giving hints.

Gus, the numbers are not votes - they are points! Each of the 85 ridings was given 100 points, so the magic number to win was 1/2 of 8,500 plus 1 = 4,251 at the very minimum!

Voter participation was over 61% so you take 61% of 90,000. About 55,000 roughly.

61% is a relatively high turnout as elections go.

Furthermore, after the voting closed at 5pm, the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th place choices had been made by each member who marked the ballot.

Then, the final (unchangeable) choices were entered into the computer which decided for each riding how many points the 1st choice candidate (as indicated on the ballots) would get as a percentage (out of one hundred points) of the total VOTES cast in that particular riding.

And so forth, as far as 2nd and 3rd and 4th place votes were concerned and depending on the number of rounds required.

At the occasion of revelation (at the gathering in Vancouver) of the outcome of the computations not one of the four candidates had any opportunity to become a turncoat of ANYTHING, as the votes as cast by the voters would determine the number of POINTS awarded in each round in each riding until one candidate would get 50% plus one or more points.

This is a fair and democratic way to elect somebody. We are still stuck on thinking of votes, when it is in fact a point system.

:-)

Both Bond and Bell (B&B) in PG supported Falcon. The decision of Clark in choosing her cabinet will tell a lot about the course of action, Clark has in her mind: change or status quo?

If she gives 2 cabinet posts to both B&B in her cabinet, then it is status quo and not change. If she keeps Bond out of the cabinet, then it is more change than status quo. The reality is that Bond's performance in all her cabinet posts has been terrible. In the PG context, her mandate as higher education minister corresponds to the deterioration of management in UNBC and spread of discrimination and favouritism. Her mandate as Health minister corresponds to the deterioration of management in Northern Health too.

Let's see what Clark will do with Shirley and her close friends in Northern Health and UNBC boards. Shirley, Jago and other friends are status quo and not change.

Gordo gonna give Christy a phone number to get in touch with someone from the Bilderberg Group for the next meeting? Just sayin'.

univ, are you crazy? Shirley has done a fantastic job. You haven't a clue what you are talking about. Come out from under that rock that you are under.

And just what has she done that Campbell hasn't told her to do. Nothing.