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By Janet Steffenhagen - Vancouver Sun – 9 Oct 2009

Former education minister Christy Clark’s interview with current minister Margaret MacDiarmid on CKNW radio today is definitely worth a listen. (Find it on NW’s audio vault just after 1 p.m or Click Play > on the bar just below the photo to the left.)

The feisty Clark began her interview by asking the minister about a letter protesting Liberal education funding that was sent to her this week by the presidents of the B.C. School Trustees’ Association, the B.C. Confederation of Parent Advisory Councils, the B.C. Teachers’ Federation and the Canadian Union of Public Employees.
Download audio file (20091009 -CKNW-CC-Show-Education-Minister-Interview.mp3)
Click Play > to listen to the interview and caller questions.

In particular, Clark challenged MacDiarmid on whether the education budget this year was sufficient to cover negotiated salary increases for teachers. “You aren’t even funding the increases to the teachers’ salaries that your government imposed on them,” she insisted, although MacDiarmid said that was wrong.

Good for her to raise that issue, but one can’t help but think back to 2002 when Clark was minister and had to tell trustees that her government would not fund the salary increases that were part of a contract imposed on the BCTF in January of that year. That decision put a multi-million dent in school district budgets, from which some say they still haven’t recovered.

Clark took another swing at the minister over the government’s decision to cut funding to B.C. School Sports while announcing a $500,000 new program to help teachers deliver Olympic lessons to their students. Clark called it a “marketing program for the Olympics”, but the minister denied that and said it was a solid curriculum developed by B.C. teachers. The minister went on to describe one part of the curriculum that encourages students to create a nutritious meal plan for an Olympic athlete.

Clark shot back: “So you think it’s more important to teach kids about how to provide a nutritious meal plan for an Olympian than it is to actually encourage them to get physically active because that’s the program that’s seen some cuts.”

Then she asked MacDiarmid point blank how much money the government has cut from school sports. The minister couldn’t answer. “I’m sorry, it’s the Healthy Living and Sports Ministry. I know there’s $40 million being provided this year but I don’t have in my mind the reduction. I apologize for that.

“I’d be guessing. It might be in the order of $10 or $15 million but I don’t know the number for sure.”

After the interview, Clark expressed surprise that the minister didn’t have the answer. “How many people have told her that, right? How many people have talked to her about the fact that school sports funding has been cut. Wasn’t she listening?”

Later she said to another radio personality: “I was talking to the education minister and she doesn’t know how much she’s cut school sports. I mean, come on. That doesn’t give me a whole lot of confidence.”

Clark recalled that when she was minister she avoided answering a question about how many schools had been closed under her watch.  “That was when I learned that you really should answer those questions cuz I think that’s what she was doing.”

Christy Clark told CBC News on Thursday that she thought it was “sneaky” of the Campbell government to announce the HST after the May provincial election.

Clark said it seems impossible the tax wasn’t contemplated before the spring ballot.

“I just don’t think it’s possible that that could be the case,” said Clark, who was appointed deputy premier by Campbell in 2001. She quit provincial politics in 2005.

B.C. Finance Minister Colin Hansen has said the HST was not on the Liberals’ radar until after the election.

Clark said business groups and senior financial officials had recommended a harmonized sales tax for years but the Campbell government said nothing until July.

“It was quite clear the government was going to be faced with this decision in March when Ontario adopted it, and they never thought to mention it to the voting public. I mean, it’s just sneaky all around and I don’t think that sits well with people,” Clark said.

Clark said she thinks the Campbell government really believes the new tax is good public policy but they didn’t adopt it until the federal government came up with money to ease the transition.

“The combination of their sense of justice about it and the big bribe from the federal government, I believe that’s what persuaded them to do it,” Clark said.

B.C. would receive $1.6 billion from the federal government under a formula that provides transition funds to provinces that agree to move to a harmonized tax.

Clark said there are legitimate arguments for the HST, but the government hasn’t been doing a good job of making them.

“I think it could come at a very high political cost for them,” Clark said.

For the original CBC article CLICK HERE.

Calls for the dismissal of Bruce Allen from a key position on the 2010 Olympics ceremonies committee continued yesterday following a storm of controversy over the concert promoter’s radio comments — comments some have labelled as racist.

“He is a person who will have important influence in the opening and closing ceremonies and, judging from his comments, I don’t think he will reflect Canadian values,” said MLA Harry Bains, the NDP Olympics critic, last night.

“His comments are very, very disappointing and have left a lot of people angry,” added Bains.

“He is not the right person to be representing Canadian values at our opening and closing ceremonies and if he has any influence we will be embarrassed.”

Allen, a veteran music-industry heavyweight and manager of a stable of Canadian music stars, including Michael Bublé and Bryan Adams, was introduced Thursday as one of 10 members on a creative team shaping the ceremonies and entertainment at the Vancouver and Whistler Olympic Games.

In his regular Reality Check radio comment on CKNW Sept. 13, Allen stated “special interest groups” expect rules for themselves.

“There is the door. If you don’t like the rules, hit it,” said Allen. “We don’t need you here. You have another place to go. It’s called home. See ya.”

Added Allen: “This is simple. We have laws in this country. They are spelled out and easy to get a hold of. If you’re immigrating here and you don’t like the rules in place, you have the right to choose not to live here. If you choose to come to Canada, shut up and fit in. We are a democracy, but it seems more and more that we are being pilloried by special interest groups that want special rules for themselves.”

Indira Prahst, a sociology instructor at Langara College who specializes in race and ethnic relations, said she was “shocked” when she first heard Allen’s comments.

She also said Allen’s subsequent appearance on Christy Clark’s CKNW show last week would have been an opportunity to show his remorse at the comments. “He could have apologized,” she said. “I think the people representing the Olympics should be culturally sensitive. I think there should be some very serious consideration about his role with the Olympics.”

Allen, in a lively exchange with Clark, was unrepentant over his comments. He called the controversy “a bunch of crap dredged up by some people who don’t get it. I’m not hate-mongering. I’m an editorialist. I hate people playing the race card . . . I make people think. That’s my job.”

Both the CRTC and CKNW have been sent letters of concern from some in the South Asian community regarding Allen’s comments.

Calls to VANOC’s media department were not returned.

VANCOUVER — Bruce Allen, the veteran, outspoken manager of many Canadian music stars including Michael Bublé and Bryan Adams, is facing calls for his removal from the 2010 Winter Olympics’ creative team over controversial remarks he made about immigrants.

In one of his regular commentaries on radio station CKNW, Mr. Allen charged last week that Canada is being pilloried by “special-interest groups” who want special rules for themselves.

He mentioned “turban-wearing Mounties,” those who complain about having to wear motorcycle helmets over their turbans, and the controversy over whether veiled women should be allowed to vote.

“If you choose to come to a place like Canada, then shut up and fit in,” Mr. Allen declared, adding that demands from special-interest groups are easy to solve.

“There is the door. If you don’t like the rules, hit it. We don’t need you here. You have another place to go. It’s called home. See ya.”

Mr. Allen’s comments evoked a storm of outrage within the Indo-Canadian community. Punjabi radio hot-line shows have been deluged by angry callers demanding some kind of action be taken against Mr. Allen. At least one complaint has been lodged with the CRTC.

Yesterday, NDP Olympics critic Harry Bains called for Mr. Allen’s removal from the 10-member Olympics team charged with putting on the Games’ signature opening and closing ceremonies.

The team, headed by Australian whiz choreographer David Atkins, was announced on Thursday. Mr. Allen was one of three music industry heavyweights included on the roster.

Mr. Bains said that, with his comments, Mr. Allen has shown himself unable to represent the multicultural nature of Canadian society that should be reflected in the Games ceremonies.

“I respect his right as a journalist to make his views known. But I think he went overboard. He crossed the line, and he has upset a large segment of our multicultural society,” the NDP critic said.

“He’s talking about a community that has been here for over a hundred years. They are as Canadian as Mr. Allen is. Who is he to decide what the rules are here?”

Sukhpreet Singh of the Canadian Organization of Sikh Students said his group also intends to press for Mr. Allen’s removal from the Olympics team.

“It is a public position, involving the spending of Canadian tax dollars, and his views do not reflect Canadian values. He is clearly not in line with what Canada is all about,” Mr. Singh said.

He added that he has written letters of complaint to the CRTC and CKNW. “At the very least, we want an apology from Mr. Allen.”

But, in an occasionally heated exchange yesterday with CKNW hot-liner Christie Clark, Mr. Allen was unrepentant.

He termed the controversy “a bunch of crap dredged up by some people who don’t get it. I’m not hate-mongering. I’m an editorialist. I hate people playing the race card … I make people think. That’s my job.”

Ms. Clark, who defended Mr. Allen’s right to express his views, shot back: “Just because you’re an old white guy doesn’t mean they [immigrants] have to meet your standards.”

Although he did not make it clear in his commentary, Mr. Allen said to Ms. Clark that he opposed the refusal of Canadian passport officials to accept photos of three Sikh youths who wore religious headgear.

And he thought immigration bureaucrats were wrong to refuse admission to prospective Sikh immigrants who used only Singh or Kaur as their surnames.

“That’s race-bashing, and I don’t like it,” Mr. Allen said.

But there was no back-tracking on his opinion that those who don’t like the rules of Canada should leave. “We don’t need you,” he repeated. He termed demands for his removal from the Winter Games creative team “insane. I shouldn’t get out of there because I’m a bald-headed white guy.”

Toward the end of his debate with Ms. Clark, however, Mr. Allen did say: “If I offended people, I’m sorry … it was not a personal attack on anyone.”

VANOC officials declined comment on the escalating wrangle.

At the announcement of the Games’ ceremony planning team, VANOC president John Furlong said one of the main goals of the ceremonies is to “promote international peace, celebrate humanity.”

VANCOUVER – Christy Clark is ready to take on public opinion again, not as a politician this time, but on her own CKNW talk show.

CKNW 980 will launch the Christy Clark Show starting Aug. 27, airing Monday to Friday from 12:30 p.m. to 3 p.m. It will be a daily, caller-driven show that puts politicians in the hot seat but also includes lifestyle programming the radio station says.

Clark, a former B.C. education minister and deputy premier, insists she does not plan to use the job as a springboard to get back into politics.

She says she is ready to let people know what she thinks about everything from local community issues to politics, health and home.

“I said what I thought when I was in politics. I’ll say it on the radio too,” Clark said in an interview after announcing the deal on Bill Good’s show on Friday.

Clark’s background includes a controversial stint as education minister and deputy premier under Gordon Campbell, and an unsuccessful run in 2005 for the NPA mayoral nomination against Sam Sullivan.

She doesn’t think her background as a political insider and the close relationships, good and bad, she still has with local politicians will cramp her style.

If anything, she thinks it will help. “I used to be the politician. I know how they are going to try and dodge the questions.”

She plans to bring an opinion to the table every day, and get answers.

“I’m not afraid to ask the tough questions of anybody. I’m used to fighting with these people behind closed doors.”

As for friend Gordon Campbell and foe Sam Sullivan, “I’ll be tough and fair on both of them.”

Clark says she’ll be provocative, put politicians in the hot seat and take plenty of calls from listeners. But she hopes to broaden the focus beyond breaking news and issues, to include lifestyle programming.

“I’m no Martha Stewart or Oprah Winfrey,” laughed Clark. “You won’t get an hour about chocolate out of me. I’m going to do issue-driven lifestyle stuff. Education, kids in school, health, cancer, issue-driven lifestyle stuff we all deal with every day.”

The two years she’s been out of politics have been good for her, said Clark, allowing her to spend precious time with her son Hamish, who starts Grade 1 in September. “I have recovered possession of my personality and my soul,” she said with a laugh.

“In politics you are always wrong,” she said. “It’s a pretty unforgiving job, and people hate you for it.”

Clark insists she will not return to politics, but says the show will allow her to continue to participate in public discourse.

“CKNW is a station that informs public policy,” said Clark. “Listening to this station got me interested in politics when I was growing up.”

Clark has been a presence on radio for some time and is a familiar voice to Vancouver listeners after filling in frequently for Bill Good and former CKNW host Jennifer Mather.

Clark, who said she does not belong to any political party now, is looking forward to being able to speak her mind in a way that politics didn’t always allow. “I want people to get a feel for what I stand for, and I want them to disagree with me.”

CKNW news director Tom Plasteras said he hopes Clark’s political background will provide listeners with an “insider’s perspective” on issues that affect Lower Mainlanders.

When Clark takes over the midday slot at CKNW, Adler Online with Charles Adler will move to the 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. weeknight slot.

Audio link of CKNW host Bill Good speaking with Christy Clark.

Clark will be the host of her own mid-day talk show after a couple of years of back-up hosting. Clark told CKNW’s Bill Good this morning she’s put politics behind her – for now.

“One day I was in doing your show and somebody from management came in and said gosh you know, the way you handled those calls you could be right back into politics and I turned to him and I said, I don’t want to get back into politics, I want to be a talk show host at CKNW, so that was where we sort of started the negotiations.”

“So is that for sure? Have you put your political life behind you?”

“I have yeah, I mean as much as you ever do I guess.”

“The Christy Clark Show” begins August 27th.  “Adler Online” will move to the evening position, replacing “Nightline BC.”

And so when ex-politician Christy Clark, 39, answers the door with her cell phone in hand, dressed in a black velour track suit, her auburn hair neatly styled and hazel eyes carefully outlined and shaded, she seems the belle of this casual and composed street. There is nothing to suggest that anything ulterior lies behind these polished rows of uniform houses.

After exchanging pleasantries, she quickly relieves me of any preconceptions a visitor may have about Heritage Mountain. Sure, it’s upscale. But this very street, she says conspiratorially, has been the scene of some of the biggest marijuana grow-op busts in the suburb.

Clark gets a kick out of revealing that her neighbourhood is a known marijuana hotbed. She likes an audience, and in the estimations of provincial Liberal party insiders, she was the most articulate and media-savvy minister in government. Her star rose quickly and she was compared to Carole Taylor: smart, well-connected, photogenic and amiable.

As an MLA from 1996 – when she won her seat in Port Moody-Burnaby Mountain – until this past spring when she chose not to run for re-election, she was also brash, even occasionally off-colour. She exhibited a candor that is refreshing in the political realm where most people are programmed to carefully self-censor. Christy Clark was a B.C. politician worth keeping an eye on.

But she’s been out of office for three months already and has yet to aim any of her well-honed barbs in Gordon Campbell’s direction. Even now, while she has no qualms discussing her street’s unsavory past, she remains remarkably on-message regarding the issue of grow-ops in general. She easily works her government’s record into the conversation by mentioning a bill the Liberals introduced to permit seizure of property used for grow-ops.

Five minutes into the conversation it’s clear that Christy Clark can take herself out of politics – but you can’t take the politics out of her.

Since she was first elected, Clark has seldom strayed far from the spotlight. She made her name as an aggressive opposition critic with her dogged pursuit and frequent cornering of cabinet minister Moe Sihota, then known as the NDP’s prize pit bull. She was a controversial education minister and served as Campbell’s deputy premier (a job she accepted when she was seven months pregnant). She briefly served as minister of children and families, but announced last fall that she wouldn’t run for re-election in 2005, saying she wanted to spend more time with her three-year-old son, Hamish. Just as her exit created a stir of speculation, with many wondering if there was a rift between Campbell and his talented young deputy, it’s likely that her time away will be anything but private.

Even as a backbencher she managed to pack a press conference and inspire months of newspaper columns and letters to the editor for her suggestion that parents receive tax breaks on expenses for their kids’ extracurricular sports and arts programs.
 
So what does a young career politician do when she quits her job? Her skills could be useful in any number of professions, she knows how to convey the point of an official report overflowing with graphs and numbers; she can defend ideas in hostile environments, she is an expert in negotiating the minefields of personal and partisan ambitions. Many politicians develop these abilities, but few have the kind of personality that attracts attention after their departure from Victoria. Clark is one who does. Will she take those talents to a boardroom, the 2010 Olympic Games or a more powerful political position? Into which spotlight will Christy Clark jump next?
 
Former cabinet colleague Gary Collins says she needs to find something as stimulating as politics, “There are endless things she could do, but I think if she didn’t find something where she was challenged on a regular basis, she would get bored. That would not be good for Christy.”
 
Clark will not admit that she is planning a return to her former life. “It’s all about timing,” she says with a smile. Her son, almost four, is a demanding preschooler who was born in August 2001, soon after Clark began her job as education minister. She took a month off and then went back to work, juggling ministerial and motherly duties. Dividing her time between her apartment in Victoria and the family home in Port Moody was a challenge with an infant in hand. Her Monday mornings began at 5 a.m.; by 8 a.m. she was en route to the Helijet pad in downtown Vancouver to unload her suitcase, diaper bag, briefcase and baby. By 10 a.m. she was in her first meeting in Victoria after handing Hamish off to the nanny. “If he hadn’t barfed on me by the time I got to the Legislature,” she says, “that was a bonus.”

Her husband Mark Marrissen, 38, a senior partner of lobbying firm Burrard Communications, also commuted back and forth. Complicating the family’s schedule was Marrissen’s other role as the chief organizer in B.C. for Paul Martin’s federal Liberal leadership and election campaigns. But despite their packed schedules, her closest staff say Clark went to great lengths to make sure one of them was available to retrieve Hamish from daycare (he was enrolled full-time at age two-and-a-half) and she still shudders remembering the day he spent there from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. “Our lives were manic,” she says. “I’m so glad I’m not doing that anymore.”

Hamish has dibs on Clark’s time at this juncture. But she has made it clear to others that she wants to be premier one day. Gary Collins, who considers himself a good friend, says he thinks a return to politics is somewhere in her future. “There are other levels of politics if she wants to do that, although I don’t know if that’s on her radar screen right now. But I expect at some point it will be.” Others close to her, when asked to describe her, trot out the same two or three adjectives (”charming, energetic”) and conclude with, “She has a great political mind.”
“It’s like she can see around corners,” says former MLA Lynn Stephens. “She can anticipate events and plan around them.”
 
Leaving what was seen as a staunchly ideological administration and stepping out on her own is one way of forging her own public identity. As a future candidate for the premier’s office (and one day, the prime minister’s? Imagine a leadership showdown between Clark and Belinda Stronach) she nevertheless must portray herself as someone with talents and ambitions that are not solely political. People loved or hated Christy Clark as a Liberal MLA. Now she can be herself.

Let’s examine her options:

OPTION 1: The Executive
In the private sector, Clark would have to rely on skills other than her silver tongue. People she has consulted about her future point to her sense of strategy and keen understanding of how things ply out in public, which may be useful in corporate life.
 
Casey Forrest, of executive search firm Pinton, Forrest and Madden, Says her ability to manage large groups of people, to think on her feet and to deal with very complex problems would serve her well in a big business environment. But Forrest wonders whether she has the financial acumen for the role. Gary Collins, now CEO of Harmony Airlines, was in high demand in the corporate world because he knew how to parse the numbers. “Most business people were really impressed with what a tremendous grasp of the financial pieces of the government he had.”

For his part, Collins insists, “[Christy is] very talented, very ambitious and very motivated and I think she could choose any number of paths”, but he warns of the possible let downs of life after the Ledge. “I hope she finds something that is stimulating. Despite all of the time demands and scrutiny of politics and government, the work is incredibly stimulating. I think if she didn’t find something where she was challenged on a regular basis, she would get bored. That would be not good for Christy.”

No one doubts her willingness to tackle a difficult assignment, but that isn’t enough to guarantee that every door opens. “That’s both her main talent and achilles heel,” says former UVic political scientist Norman Ruff. “She’s perhaps too articulate and too confident sometimes for her own good. It served her in good stead in the Legislature but I think sometimes it got her out on a limb in terms of implementation.”
 
As education minister she pushed certain initiatives that sounded great, like making phys. ed. mandatory, standardizing report cards and informing parents what portion of their school district’s education budget is allocated to each school. These ideas garnered equal amounts of attention and criticism, and were seen by many teachers and school boards as patronizing. To no one’s surprise, they were dropped by her successor Tom Christensen.

OPTION 2: The Spokeswoman
Clark has talked to Marion Lay, CEO of Legacies now, about getting involved with the not-for-profit society that promotes sports programs. “I think the Olympics is just a golden opportunity to get a whole generations of British Columbians off the couch and moving,” Clark says, using the rhetoric of an former education minister. “I think the Olympics should be in every single school, it should be part of the curriculum. I just think the opportunity to infuse society with that culture of achievement and get kids interested in physical activity is so huge.”

In her early days in politics, Clark made an impression with her own health kick, quitting a two-pack-a-day habit in 1996 and losing a significant amount of weight with a 25-km a week running program.

She recently pursued a meeting with VANOC CEO John Furlong, perhaps to discuss options for employment. Working for VANOC would be more than promoting a “culture of achievement” it would give Clark the chance to be associated with a winning team and a shot at national and international exposure. Learning fundraising skills could only help her in any future run at public office.

OPTION 3: The Talking Head
As a cabinet minister, Clark was a frequent guest on CKNW’s talk shows and attracted the attention of the station’s executive producer, Ian Koenigsfest. He called her after her resignation, hoping to hire her as an political analyst and host. A high-energy, combative personality. Live radio. A perfect marriage.

During her first day as guest host on CKNW’s Jennifer Mather Show in June, Clark was forced to put BC Ferries CEO David Hahn on hold in order to deal with news of the Michael Jackson verdict. I arrived an hour into the show because Koenigsfest had asked me to give her time to “get comfortable.” I suspect Clark, who was calmly composing an email on her Blackberry when I stepped into the studio, didn’t need this time. As the long list of verdicts is read out on the air, she ignored the CNN feed and chatted to program director Tom Plasteras about her recent trip to Hawaii. “You know how everyone goes to those beaches where there’s sweet F.A. to do?” she asked, tossing off one of her trademark expletives. “Well, we didn’t do that. We went to Waikiki and stayed on a strip with McDonald’s and Denny’s. It was awesome.”

Clark was known in government as an informal speaker with a distaste for bureaucratic language, so it’s no wonder that she already has some broadcasting experience on her résumé. She was sought after by several television stations to offer commentary during the May election and settled on Global as a traveling act with former NDP leader Joy McPhail. The pair made much of the strange-bedfellows partnership, also writing guest columns in the Vancouver Sun. While Clark’s writing often came off as stiff and premeditated as a Liberal party press release, she shone on television with breezy and intelligent analysis.

Later, she co-hosted the Early Edition with Rick Cluff on CBC Radio and sat in as guest host on Mather’s show, prompting many rumours that she would take over the position after Mather’s expected departure. She again showed her flair for the medium, chatting comfortably on any given topic. Did her party bent flatten her remarks? Apparently not. Commenting on Carole Taylor’s appointment as finance minister, she said she was glad a woman was named to the position, even though it was surprising for the premier to choose a rookie. “Mind you, she’s got a $2-billion surplus,” Clark commented on air. “How hard can it be?”

During the June guest host spot Clark’s personability came across as she conversed with callers about Jackson’s child-molestation trial, deftly fielding all comments regardless of their inanity. Example: “If I had all that money, I’d probably build a ranch and have all the neighbourhood kids over too!” says Doug from Coquitlam. “All right then!” Clark laughs, then changes tack to comment on the tragedy of the former child star. She found a much better platform with Hahn, with whom she discussed pending fare increases due to fuel surcharges. She asked whether the corporation will “go local” for the purchase of new boats, alluding to the controversy caused when BC Ferries awarded a lucrative contract to a German company in 2003. Hahn answered that negotiations with three bidders, two of them local, are underway; he can’t comment, but he’s “hopeful.”

“George MacPherson, the president of the ferry workers union, will be delighted to her that,” Clark quipped. “Maybe he’ll drop his lawsuit against you!”

There’s a bit of irony here since Clark’s Liberals restructured BC Ferries into an independent entity able to make its own decisions on issues like boat-building contracts. You can see that she might get a kick out of this job, playing with tensions that her government stirred up in the first place. The part she misses most about politics is question period. She used to challenge herself to go in to the Legislature without notes and face any criticism “naked”. The opportunity now to turn those questions on her former colleagues or rivals, whoever they are, must be cathartic.

Koenigsfest later said he was impressed with Clark’s on-air abilities, noting her commentaries on the new cabinet and the sensitivity she showed on the 20th anniversary of the Air India crash. She read an editorial in which she asked why Vancouver has no memorial for the victims who died in the crash and asked callers what they were doing to mourn. The feedback has been “outstanding,” he said, and she showed that she can be fair when interviewing former government colleagues. Very few people complained about her political bias, and when one caller got onto the air and growled an insult at her (”A fucking Liberal hack,” Clark recalls cheerfully) she handled it with ease. “I think she’s got a great future and we hope it will be at this radio station,” he says.

But near the end of June, CKNW announced that it would be broadcasting the Charles Adler Show to replace Jennifer Mather, who is leaving because her husband Brian Burke accepted a job as general manager of the Anaheim Mighty Ducks. The decision to bring in a syndicated program from Winnipeg in a time slot traditionally oriented towards local and provincial issues was clearly a budget-driven call by Corus, the station’s parent company in Toronto. However, Koenigsfest insists Clark soon realized hosting a show was a full-time commitment, a role she wasn’t ready for. He adds that with just three weeks of radio under her belt, it was too soon to be talking about moving her into such high-profile position. There may also have been stumbling blocks in the negotiations; Clark was said to be unhappy with her relief host wages, expecting something closer to the reported three-year, $150,000-per-annum deal taken home by Mather. Those frustrations aside, she’s signed on to be a ‘permanent’ relief host for Bill Good’s show, starting in September.

On the day I visited, I wondered whether Clark was almost too comfortable in the host seat. She hinted at this as we left the studio, “I’m going to see someone about a job,” she confided, but “I can’t tell you what!” This is the elusive thing about Clark. Yes, she’s charming, but it’s always clear there’s something else on her horizon. Perhaps she’s looking for a bigger audience, one provided by a national stage.

OPTION 4: The Federal Politician
Clark’s political career began as a toddler. Her father Jim ran twice unsuccessfully for the provincial Liberals in 1971 and 1975, and he took his kids along to knock on doors and observe all-candidates meetings. Her first speeches at age five were simple – “Will you vote for my daddy?” – and the experience left her with the sense that politics was an ordinary, accessible career choice. She became involved in student government at Simon Fraser University, winning the student council presidency but losing the bid after the opposition launched an appeal based on a technicality. The charged that he has left posters up on election day and then failed to pay the resulting fine on time. That aside, she was named president of the SFU Young Liberals in 1987.
 

In 1993 Clark landed a position in Ottawa as assistant to then-Transport Minister Doug Young. She saw the difficulty federal politicians faced in dealing with the large bureaucratic maze. Three years later, when Gordon Campbell invited her to run provincially in 1996, she happily returned home.

Those who have watched her career have trouble believing that she’ll stay out of public life for long. “I don’t think she’ll be able to handle it,” says Jeff Rudd, legislative reporter for the Times-Colonist. Clark laughs when she hears that. She says leaving politics is like breaking up with a boyfriend. “In the first six months after you leave you still remember all the reasons why you left,” she says. “And then a couple years down the road you’re sitting alone at night by yourself in your living room, maybe into a glass of wine, and you’re thinking, ‘God, that guy was great! I miss him so much!’ And you pick up the phone and dial.”

So who would she call? Some speculate that Clark’s return would be federal. Globe and Mail pundit Jane Taber gave Clark a “hot” rating in her column after seeing her at the Liberal Party of Canada’s biennial convention in April, and speculated that she may one day challenge for the party leadership. Although Clark didn’t have an official role, she struck Taber with her wide-ranging network and a comfort level in Ottawa. “She’s somebody to watch,” Taber explains, “In a world where it’s still very much an old boys’ network, there’s very few women who stand out or are allowed to stand out, and Christy seems to have broken through. And once you’ve mastered B.C. politics I think federal politics would be a piece of cake.”

But when she’s asked about her federal ambitions, Clark firmly says no. First of all, she wouldn’t want to be separated from her family and she’s not enthusiastic about moving to the capital. “Anyone who would choose Ottawa over Vancouver needs to be medicated,” she says.

OPTION 5: The Premier of B.C.
Clark’s work with the provincial Liberal party included a bizarre recruiting drive across B.C. in 1991, with a crucial election looming for the Liberals, a party with no seats and no money. She and fellow SFU student Mike MacDonald traveled all over the B.C. Interior in a borrowed van with the goal of finding enough local candidates to convince the organizers of the televised leaders’ debate that the Liberals were a real party and that then-leader Gordon Wilson deserved to be included.

“I made the connections but Christy closed the deals,” recalls MacDonald, who marveled at Clark’s persuasive powers. The line-up of candidates they recruited sounds like a movie script, especially the way she tells it. She remembers one in particular, Darwin Netzel, a coroner, mustard-manufacturer, lawyer and, most importantly, the only Liberal in Quesnel. He said he would run if they invested in his mustard factory. “So we tentatively agreed and then of course bailed after he signed the nomination papers. We had no money. We couldn’t even pay our speeding ticket.” In the end the Liberals fielded 74 candidates, missing only one riding and Wilson earned his spot on the broadcast.

If it’s true that her heart is in B.C., many think it’s also set on the top job. She avoids the question whether she wants to be premier. “At the moment I want to be on the radio. You know what? My number one priority right now is to be a great mother.” But in private conversations she has made it clear that she has her eye on the job.

“I always had the feeling she would be the first woman elected as premier,” says Norman Ruff. “Up until her stepping down I would say yeah, she would be a major contender. Now I think there’s a question mark, whether she’ll maintain the status she’s always enjoyed within the party but also in the public. And we also could be seeing the rise of another major female contender in the form of Carole Taylor.” If she’s out of the public eye, he notes, there’s no telling how long her celebrity aura will last. But one key to her longevity is her overwhelming popularity among young Liberals, whose support may pay off well into the future.

A successful leadership big would, of course, involve husband Mark Marrissen, Prime Minister Paul Martin’s most powerful organizer in B.C. Even Clark acknowledges that her husband is the federal Liberal “Godfather” in the west having orchestrated takeovers of several riding associations to bring in candidates who are Martin sympathizers. Spousal support aside, she has her own flair for gathering support and thrives on the legwork of campaigning.
 

Global legislative reporter Keith Baldrey thinks Clark is better positioned to realize leadership ambitions now that she’s “out of the tent” and doesn’t have to carry responsibility for unpopular party decisions. The time spent away, especially if she gets known as a radio host, may help ease the anger caused by her battles with the teacher’s union, instigated by the government’s limitation of their right to strike, the imposition of a wage settlement and her introduction of an act which gave districts the responsibility of determining class size, which had previously been protected in teachers’ contracts. One teacher emailed CKNW to tell her that he hated her as education minister but enjoyed listening to her now. “I had no idea you were so reasonable,” he wrote.

In some quarters, Clark was certainly not considered reasonable, especially while she waged the power struggle with the union over the B.C. College of Teachers, begun when she fired the board which included 15 elected members and replaced them with appointees. It was dubbed “Christy’s college” by furious union members who refused to pay their annual dues. The issue, says Baldrey, became a “quagmire”.

“She fell into the trap that I think young politicians fall into, which is to think that if you’re tough and aggressive and pick a fight, you can win the fight and therefore look better. She’s brash and that brashness didn’t always work.”

Clark served as a loyal soldier under Premier Gordon Campbell, and a mark of how skilled she was is how her old sparring partners respect her. When asked about Clark’s weaknesses, Joy McPhail answers that it was her constant defense of Campbell’s agenda. “I know that sounds funny to say that’s a weakness, but when the leader required a good talking-to rather than blind loyalty, I suspect Christy leans more toward the loyal side. But being a strong party person myself, I understand that. And mind you, she did choose her family in the end.”

When Clark was shifted to the children and families portfolio in January 2004, some speculated that it was Campbell’s attempt to ease the mounting tensions with the union. The premier maintains that he chose Clark to head the ministry because he knew she was capable of handling the difficult job. That’s an optimistic way of putting it. Another way might be that it’s an impossible task. Previous governments and a succession of ministers in the position have found the patchwork of social service agencies baffling. One former executive director describes it like trying to separate scrambled eggs: the agencies often battle each other, work at cross-purposes and can’t reach consensus on the best approach to certain problems. The ministry, under different governments, has also struggled with chronic fiscal mismanagement. Although it’s an important job, it does not carry the same prestige as economic portfolios like finance or forestry.

Several of her former colleagues say that Clark’s role as deputy premier, under Campbell, was a token appointment without any real power. Regardless of the speculations on her exit, the gossip from Victoria adds up to one perception; Clark held the party line as a backbencher but her next appearance in the Legislature will be on her own terms.

At the end of three weeks as host of the Jennifer Mather Show, Clark is smitten. She loves the work and it seems she is far more challenged than she expected. It’s just like politics, she says: when you screw up, everybody hears it. One day she did an interview about skateboard parks at vacation spots and the phones didn’t ring. “When nobody calls, you know you’ve been boring people to tears.” But she’s learning. Her interview skills are improving, and her questions are more pointed.

She’s been so wrapped up in the radio work that she hasn’t had time for other things she was considering two months ago when we first talked. She hasn’t worked on her garden, taken up volunteering or pursued a role with Legacies Now. Has she perhaps found herself alone in the evening with a glass of wine, wondering why she every left that political career? Wondering if she should pick up the phone? Not once, she says.

“In the last three weeks I have found another thing that I love to do – and I can’t believe I’m saying this – as much as politics,” she raves. “And I really do love it that much.” An hour later, however, I get an email from her and she is back to form, carefully measuring the impact of every word. “I hereby revoke that comment about liking radio better. I am loving the radio work but there’s nothing better than politics.”

So, what’s in there …?

- A bus transfer.

- A shopping list: shiitake mushrooms, chili, green beans.

- Williams Lake and Ucluelet lapel pins.

- Collar stays from her husband’s shirt saved from demise at the drycleaner.

- A Japanese punk rock CD.

- Laura Mercier terra cotta lip liner and tea rose lipstick.

- A Taiwanese good luck charm.

- A Blackberry and cell phone.