Stone’s path to Liberal leadership not clear
KAMLOOPS — Todd Stone will reveal the worst-kept secret in BC politics next Tuesday. He’s banking that everyone remembers the last person to cannonball into the swimming pool, not the first one.
It will be interesting to see whether the Liberals’ disappointing performance in the spring election will help or hamper Stone’s chances in the party’s leadership race. The failure to gain a mandate certainly led to Christy Clark’s eventual resignation, and that opened the door for Stone to make a run for the leadership. It may be a little sooner than he was hoping or predicting, but the door is open nonetheless and at this point, it wouldn’t make sense for him to wait.
But one thing that may hurt him is the way the support broke down in May. The divide between urban and rural support was stark, with the NDP taking ridings in the Lower Mainland while the Liberals dominated everywhere else. If the Liberals want to rebuild their support, they know it’s the cities in Metro Vancouver where it needs to happen. That might lead them to lean toward Dianne Watts, the popular former Surrey mayor who was elected to represent the Conservatives in Ottawa in 2015. Watts may be seen as the key to making inroads back into the Lower Mainland.