Former Surrey mayor and MP Dianne Watts says her outsider status as the only non-MLA in the B.C. Liberal leadership race has so far been an advantage, but might also come with a downside if her opponents unite in an anyone-but-Watts movement in the final weeks of the race.
“I understand that there’s a group of people that have worked together that are friends and have had friendships for many, many years,” Watts said Tuesday. “They are going to work together and coalesce, and I think that’s natural. For myself, though, I am considered the outsider. I am the outsider. I view that as an asset. I know that we saw during the last election a losing of 11 seats. Through travelling the province, people have an appetite for change.”
As the only one of the six leadership candidates who isn’t a sitting Liberal MLA, Watts has used her distance to sharply criticize her competitors for the party’s performance in last year’s election and its subsequent desperate reversal on dozens of promises to try to stay in power with a last-ditch throne speech. The Liberals have lost touch on key issues like housing affordability and transit in Metro Vancouver, Watts has said.
But as the campaign nears voting day Feb. 3, there is worry within the Watts camp that her competitors, stung by what some perceive as her front-runner status, could be negotiating to support each other through the party’s preferential ballot system. That could solidify a movement to freeze out Watts on second and third ballots if she can’t win it all on her own on the first vote.
The party’s voting system allows members to rank their votes, and campaigns can encourage their supporters to throw their second and third votes to other candidates in the event that they’re knocked out of the race early.
The other contenders include MLAs Mike de Jong, Sam Sullivan, Todd Stone, Andrew Wilkinson and Michael Lee. Stone, de Jong and Wilkinson, in particular, have worked together in cabinet under former premier Christy Clark.
“It’s absolutely a double-edged sword,” Watts said of not being a sitting MLA.
During her campaign Watts has promised to eliminate government dividend payments by ICBC and restore the seniors’ discount on B.C. Ferries.
On housing affordability, she has called for more resources to municipalities to help with permit approval, fewer development cost or amenity charges, and the creative use of local zoning approval through things like allowing bonus density when developers add more rental stock.
But her campaign has often defaulted back on her outsider call for change, with her tag line: “New Voice, New Vision.”
“It comes down to do people want to push the reset button and have a fresh start for the party going forward or not?” Watts said. “Because everybody there ran on the last platform, voted for the throne speech. That’s what differentiates me on that front.”
Activity around the Liberal leadership race has begun to ramp up. Lee has claimed to hold a lead in new membership sign-ups. De Jong was recently endorsed by interim Liberal leader Rich Coleman. Stone announced Tuesday that he now has 100 endorsements, including that of former B.C. Liberal leader Gordon Wilson.
