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Liberals pumped out an urgent-looking mass fundraising email hours after the throne speech. Uncertain and unstable situation. We could be back in another election any time, went the pitch.

It was a dire warning from new Technology, Innovation and Citizen Services Minister Jas Johal: The NDP are planning to take power with the support of the Green Party, and implement an agenda thats dangerous for jobs, families and communities throughout B.C.

But wait a minute. That dangerous agenda is the one the B.C. Liberals just ransacked and cut-and-pasted into their own throne speech. How can you ask people for help in fighting an ominous threat to jobs, families and communities throughout B.C, when you just borrowed huge gobs of that dangerous agenda and made it your own?

Any other time this would be a fairly significant question. But the Liberals have so many discrepancies and contradictions piling up, this one is just of passing interest.

As the import of Thursdays quick and dirty emergency remake of the Liberal government sinks in, its starting to look like the leadership of the B.C. Liberal Party is as uncertain and unstable as the situation itself.

It was pretty delusional to expect a quick course change would break an MLA or two loose from the deal the NDP and the Greens put together to unseat the Liberals. All 44 of them signed their names to it just 23 days ago.

The idea of someone bolting because Clark has seen the light was improbable. But that seems to have been the premise the speech was based on.

Clark could have bowed to the inevitable and surrendered on a few key things such as campaign finance reform and welfare-rate increases. That would have signalled that lessons were learned and serve as a marker for the new approach theyll be needing in opposition.

But to abandon positions they held for years and shoplift new ones from their opponents, then promise a billion-dollar spending spree on top of it, boxes them into some new corners.

Its increasingly likely the Liberals and NDP will switch government and opposition seats next week. How does Clark plan to critique an NDP throne speech this summer, after shes just finished adopting much of it?

The Liberals standard line of attack on NDP fiscal ineptitude is going to look a little weak, when she just promised to spend every surplus nickel at hand.

It will take some imagination to criticize NDP child-care policies, when she just promised a ludicrous expansion of programs that is likely physically impossible to come anywhere close to fruition.

And further out, how will she differentiate the Liberals, when everybody looks to be in the mushy middle now?

The one enduring characteristic of the party through 16 years in power is that the leader can do literally anything he or she wants. Party members dont spend a lot of time agonizing over policy or doctrine. They contribute time and money to maintaining a formidable political organization, then they entrust it to a leadership to use as they see fit.

Former premier Gordon Campbell made huge swerves on issues such as First Nations rights and climate change without consulting anyone in the party. Members scarcely batted an eye.

Its amusing to turn the tables and picture NDP Leader John Horgan attempting what Clark tried to do this week. The party would have a collective stroke. The purity of the doctrine committee, or some such thing, would be in emergency session and Horgan would be called up on charges before the provincial council.

But a B.C. Liberal leader has command and control of the whole enterprise. All they have to do is keep winning. Clark hasnt lost yet, but the remarkably grim array of faces on the government side during the speech made it clear they expect it to happen soon.

When moving day comes and they have to find new desks on the other side of the aisle, Opposition Leader Christy Clark might have to spend some time doing something Liberal leaders rarely have to do explain herself to her party and reassure members she knows what shes doing.

lleyne@timescolonist.com

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Les Leyne: Liberals boxed in as endgame nears - Times Colonist

Outgoing Liberal party federal director Andrew Bragg (left) shakes hands with Andrew Hirst, the new party director in Sydney on Friday. Photograph: Dan Himbrechts/AAP

Australias Liberal party has launched a new website that it says will help seduce swing voters its way and challenge rival campaigning organisations such as Getup!.

The acting Liberal party director, Andrew Bragg, launched The Fair Go website on Saturday, which is operated by the party.

Bragg used his speech to the partys federal council as a call to arms to modernise or perish. He said the party had to deal with a cashed up cabal of opposition to its interests.

Senior members of government and Liberal figures have been taking aim at organisations such as Getup!, which have excelled at developing novel and effective digital campaigns at a time when the Liberal party has struggled to keep pace.

The Fair Go site appears to be, in part, a response to some of these new types of campaigning and, according to Bragg, will help bolster the partys efforts to seize the opportunities in the digital age.

The WordPress site includes posts with titles such as Women are just people, Whos your grand-daddy? and From laissez-faire to much, much fairer.

It also includes three words of the week that will change weekly. The inaugural locutions are needs based, union and slamming.

A review of the partys last election campaign by Andrew Robb set out a series of concerns with the Liberal partys election campaign efforts, and found they were being outgunned and outspent by Labor and progressive activist groups.

Bragg told the federal council: Publish or perish must be our credo.

He said the website will be a publication which reaches beyond the existing cohort of fellow travellers to speak to undecided and swing voters.

It is designed to support the Coalitions overarching narrative into social platforms and arm supporters with bottom up perspectives on public policy issues.

The website appears to feature a cast of characters mostly linked to the Liberal party.

Parnell McGuiness, a communications consultant who is the managing director of Thought Broker, is listed as the editor of the site. Penny Fischer, a Camden Liberal councillor and the daughter of Pru Goward, has also produced work for the site. Brigid Meney, a policy officer at Cornerstone Group Australia and former Liberal party political adviser, has contributed as well.

The sites privacy policy makes it clear that the Liberal party collects users personal information and may contact them if they sign up to the site.

It is Braggs final speech in his role as acting director of the party following Brian Loughnanes departure. Former Liberal party staffer Andrew Hirst has been named the new director.

It is not the first time major parties have attempted more aggressive communication strategies.

The Labor party launched the Labor Herald in 2015, which produced news and analysis for the party faithful.

It no longer publishes content, and the website now directs users to a page that says it is currently on hiatus.

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Liberals launch website to lure swing voters and take on activist groups - The Guardian

Kevin DrumJun. 23, 2017 2:33 PM

A couple of days ago I wrote a post responding to Peter Beinarts recent article about Democrats and illegal immigration. It was a bit of a dogs breakfast. I intended to write one thing and then ended up writing something else, which made the post a little disjointed. Then it turned out Id made an arithmetic mistake, and had to rewrite a chunk of the piece on the fly. Blecch.

But I did promise to eventually write the piece I initially had in mind, so here it is. Im a little pressed for time, so Ill keep it short.

Statistics aside, one of Beinarts main points was not that liberals should become big opponents of immigration, but that they should be willing to admit that there are drawbacks as well as benefits to large flows of illegal immigration. Its complicated stuff.

I agree completely, and this is hardly a problem limited to immigration. Its the way almost everything has evolved. I blame it mostly on conservatives, but I imagine conservatives blame it mostly on liberals, so Ill skip trying to assign blame. Either way, the upshot is that there never appears to be any political advantage to admitting that an issue has both upsides and downsides. But every issue important enough to be worth talking about does. Its just that theres hardly any audience left that cares.

I have no idea what, if anything, we can do about this. But I will say this. I lurk on a number of message boards populated by liberals, and what they say privately is very often more nuanced than what they say publicly. On immigration, there are probably lots of liberals willing to concede that there needs to be a limit to the flow of undocumented workers. There are cultural, economic, and nationalistic reasons for this. But theres little benefit to saying so in public. It just invites massive, social media swarms insisting that youre a closet racist.

Ive long been on record as a moderate liberal on immigration. I think there are benefits to keeping illegal immigration to a moderate level, and details aside, I think the answer is a rigorous version of E-Verify along with tough employer sanctions. In my own personal utopia, Id pair this up with a national ID card. Basically, if undocumented immigrants cant get jobs, theyll stop coming. Theres no need for a wall.

I wonder how many liberals agree with me, more or less? I wonder how many are waiting for someone else to say it before they do? I wonder how many just flatly dont consider it worth the blowback, so they stay quiet? Questions, questions.

As you might imagine, this is partly because the boards Im attracted to arent run by shouters and nutballs. Still, Im curious: is the same true of moderate conservative boards? Any wingers out there care to comment?

And drawbacks to getting too tough on illegal immigration. There are good reasons to protect our borders, but there economic, humanitarian, and police state reasons not to have a goal of zero illegal immigration.

Mother Jones is a nonprofit, and stories like this are made possible by readers like you. Donate or subscribe to help fund independent journalism.

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Liberals and Immigration - Mother Jones

BY: Washington Free Beacon Staff June 23, 2017 5:05 pm

Washington Free Beaconeporter Alex Griswold discussed his storyabout the recent surge of threats on Republican congressmen Friday on Fox News, saying the political Left should do a better job of calling out illiberal behavior by their supporters.

Host Neil Cavuto introduced the topic by playing a recent recording of a Nebraska Democratic official who said he was "glad" House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R., La.) got shot last week and wished he was dead.

Griswold reported this week that 30 Republicans in Congress have been either attacked or received death threats since May. In addition to the shooting of Scalise at a Republican baseball practice, Reps. Jason Chaffetz (R., Utah), Steve Stivers (R., Ohio) and Claudia Tenney (R., N.Y.) have been among those getting death threats.

"Most liberals are better than this," Griswold said. "We talk about why isn't the media calling this sort of behavior out. Liberals, it's on you, too. You should be calling this out as well. This is not part of your tradition. It's not liberal at all. It's not even American."

Griswold said he couldn't believe how many GOP representatives had been under duress when he first looked into the story.

"It was just mind-boggling," he said.

Cavuto wondered how the media would treat the story if the politics of the shooter and victim were reversed, as last week it was a Bernie Sanders supporter attacking Republicans. Griswold pointed to how the press treated the shooting of Arizona Congresswoman Gabby Giffords in 2011, leaping to blame of Republicans like Sarah Palin for heated rhetoric, when it was later revealed the shooter had been obsessed with Giffords for years.

He and Cavuto agreed the anger in politics was out of control, with some of it even coming from the celebrity community. The most recent performer to receive attention for charged language was Johnny Depp on Thursday after he joked about assassinating President Donald Trump.

"It is nuts," Griswold said. "I'd like to think it's probably the worst that we've seen since at least the Civil War, politicization of this factor. It's been fomenting for years as we all know, but this is the first time we've seen it get really as violent as it has."

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Griswold on Rise of Threats Against GOP Congressmen: Liberals Should Call It Out More - Washington Free Beacon

'I think theres likely to be some real angst today on the part of business and fiscal conservatives': former Liberal MLA Bill Bennett says of Thursday's throne speech. CHAD HIPOLITO / THE CANADIAN PRESS

Former B.C. Liberal cabinet ministers reacted with shock and worry that the partys free-enterprise coalition could be at risk at the abrupt policy turnarounds outlined in Premier Christy Clarks throne speech Thursday.

Bill Bennett, a former mining and energy minister who represented Kootenay East for the Liberals, said Friday the abrupt changes will put pressure on the free-enterprise coalition of centre-left liberals and right-wing conservatives.

I think theres likely to be some real angst today on the part of business and fiscal conservatives, said Bennett, who held his seat from 2001 to 2017, and chose not to run in the May election.

Clarks government which campaigned on job creation and fiscally prudent government borrowed heavily for the throne speech from the NDP and Green platforms, promising to roll out a $1-billion daycare program, to ban union and corporate donations to political parties, to increase welfare payments and to create a separate ministry for mental health and addiction.

In total, there were more than two dozen policy reversals and new policies not in the Liberals election platform.

In many cases, the Clark government adopted policies and positions that they had argued were fiscally irresponsible. For example, Finance Minister Mike de Jong had said removing tolls on the Port Mann and Golden Ears bridges would jeopardize the provinces credit rating.

The B.C. Liberals said an unexpectedly high budget surplus indicates B.C. has the money for the new spending.

The policy turnarounds were couched as measures to show the Liberals have listened to the voters and to potentially allow the Liberals to lead a minority government. But NDP Leader John Horgan and Green Leader Andrew Weaver say they still intend to bring down the government in a non-confidence vote next week and then call on Lt.-Gov. Judith Guichon to let them form a government with their slim one-seat majority alliance.

Bennett said the resource sector is likely to be particularly concerned about increasing the carbon tax by $5 a tonne starting in 2019, although the promise to offset it with provincial sales tax cuts may help. The Liberals had campaigned on a freeze until 2021.

The challenge will be to deliver the new promises while not compromising the basic principle to balance the budget, pay down debt and maintain the provinces AAA credit rating, said Bennett.That is going to be a tall order given some of the new commitments, he said.

Blair Lekstrom, who held a seat for the Liberals in the Peace River region from 2001 to 2013, said he was surprised by the policy turnarounds.

While he said he has no doubt the policy adoptions are well-meaning, the question is whether they are affordable.

Im not sure thats the case, said Lekstrom, a former energy and mining minister and now a business consultant.

Lekstrom said the government cant count on large budget surpluses to continue every year.

B.C. Premier Christy Clark speaks with colleagues before the speech from throne in Victoria on Thursday, June 22, 2017. JONATHAN HAYWARD / CP

He said he had little doubt the policy turnabouts would be viewed with cynicism by the public.

Former cabinet minister Kevin Falcon, who held a seat in Surrey from 2001 to 2013 and is now a real estate-development executive, said he has strong views but would not comment Friday on the throne speech specifics because was still in shock.

Falcon, who held transportation and finance cabinet posts, said he wanted to look deeper in the implications of the spending that would underlie the new policies.

Im still trying to deal with the magnitude of the shifts, said Falcon, who lost the Liberal leadership race to Clark in 2011.

Asked if he would consider attempting to lead the Liberal party, which has now shifted so radically from the business-friendly, small government policies that Clark ran on, Falcon said: Thats easy. No.

Max Cameron, a University of B.C. political scientist, said Friday its clear that on one level the sweeping realignment by Clark is a cynical move made for political gain, meant to rattle the NDP-Green alliance and set the Liberals up for the next election.

But the bald-faced turnaround could have major consequences if it signals a move of the B.C. Liberals to the centre, or centre-left, where they would join the NDP and Greens on the political spectrum, said Cameron.

It is now almost impossible for the Liberals to fight the next election on its earlier platform, said Cameron.

Either Clark transforms her party, or it will be her as there is a reassertion from within the party of the centre-right, free-enterprise coalition, noted Cameron.

I dont know which of those will happen, he said.

However, Liberal MLA Darryl Plecas said Friday that the sudden spending on social issues has been building inside the Liberal caucus for some time.

Plecas, parliamentary secretary for mental health, told supporters in his riding of Abbotsford South on election night that the Liberals needed to do more to help those in need and to do more on mental health and housing affordability, including increased spending.

The throne speech finally reflected that, he said Friday in an interview.

The business community had a muted response Friday to the abrupt policy changes and tax implications in the throne speech.

Chris Gardner of theIndependent Contractors and Businesses Association of British Columbia said his group was pleased to see Clarks re-commitment to construction of the $7.9-billion Site C hydroelectric project, as well as new promises for large-scale spending projects that would create construction jobs.

But he said no one in business is expecting Clarks throne speech vision to survive more than a week.

The Business Council of B.C. said no official was available Friday to comment.

Teck Resources, the Liberals largest political donor, declined to comment Friday.

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Clark's left turn worries her party's conservatives, could endanger Liberals free-enterprise coalition - Vancouver Sun