The Liberal leadership campaign made a stop in Sechelt Saturday morning (Jan. 29) with George Abbott pledging to reach out to all sectors of the province and to restore faith and trust in government.
Abbott, one of six candidates seeking the Liberal leadership, (other candidates include Christy Clark, Mike de Jong, Kevin Falcon, Ed Mayne and Moira Stillwell) was invited by the Powell River-Sunshine Coast Riding Association for a luncheon.
Abbott talked about his history as a politician, his personal life, his candidacy and why he should be the chosen candidate to be the next Liberal leader and premier of the province, and answered a few questions from about 40 members of the riding association.
"We have fundamentally lost the trust and confidence of many British Columbians, including many members of our own B.C. Liberal Party," Abbott said. "We have an enormous amount of work over the next two years to rebuild that trust and confidence. I am not one who will go to a snap election. We will take the next two and a half years to show British Columbians that we will lead by not only our words but by our actions that we do government differently than we've done in the last two years.
"We need to re-establish the fact that we will listen to people, that we will honour the voices of British Columbians again, that we will respect the diverse array of opinions that exist in this province and that we will include the public in public policy again."
Abbott said the biggest barrier to re-electing a Liberal government in 2013 is, in fact, the Liberal government itself.
"If we do business as we should for the next two and a half years, I believe we will completely kick the butts of the NDP in 2013," he said. "If we behave like we have for the past year and a half over the next two and a half years, we will not win, I can tell you that. No matter how smooth, or sharp or bubbly or flashy we will be, and I suspect I'm none of those things, no matter what we say, it will not matter if we don't do the business of government differently. We won't be re-elected and rightly so, because we won't deserve the confidence and respect of British Columbians."
Abbott said the party needs to have a different type of demeanor, approach and style to government to rebuild the province, and he thinks that he can do that.
"We're not competing against New Democrats. We are competing against friends and colleagues, so that makes this campaign unique," he said during an interview with Coast Reporter prior to his address. "One of the things I did early in the race was to call all the competitors and congratulate them on entering the race and to say that I would be proud to serve in a government in which they led. That's the tone we've been trying to bring to this campaign. It's important that we be united as a party when we emerge from this on Feb. 27. The long game here is May 2013. The long game is to ensure that we form a free enterprise government again."
The party will hold a province-wide leadership vote on Feb. 26. Voting will be on-line and via telephone.
