Vancouver Province
for April 30, 1999

OK already, so I'm wrong. Gordon Wilson isn't the premier – yet. And Clark's making brave noises like he's staying the course encouraged, evidently, because his pal the friendly contractor has had his charges downgraded from running a gaming house to merely being one of the players.

This, according to Mr Clark, exonerates him to which anyone who has been paying the slightest attention says, "whoa there buddy, your sin has nothing to do with charges against Mr Pilarinos but the clear perception that you as Premier took a benefit from someone who was seeking a gaming licence from your government."

Is it safe now to say that the premier did get a benefit from Mr

Pilarinos? Will Mr Clark's gilt edged lawyer, paid for by us taxpayers, lay a lawsuit on us if we dare whisper such a thing – as he threatened when he was first retained?

I think not after my interview of Mr Clark a week ago when I asked him three times whether or not he had paid for the labour on the two jobs done by Pilarinos, inviting the Premier to put paid to the story by confirming he had. All I got was the Bill "Clintonesque" response "I paid every invoice I received."

Let me now, dear friends, vouchsafe unto you the inner thoughts of the Liberal pols, the chaps who raise the dough for the party. They are praying that Clark stays on. Indeed I met a jolly bagman in a well known club the other night and I'm sure I saw him, a devout Catholic, reach for his rosary when I mentioned the possibility of Clark staying. All he could say, with as much conviction as he could summon up, "God they can't be that dumb, can they?"

Why wouldn't the Liberals who know something about winning elections (for Bill Bennett, incidentally, because that's where most of them come from) slaver at the thought of pushing Glen Clark from office?

Because they know that even Gordon Campbell can't blow a 40 point lead if he stays. Glen Clark is the personification of everything that's gone wrong for the past 8 years (ye gods, has it only been eight years?) But they also know that Campbell pitted against Gordon Wilson is quite another matter. Wilson has a great advantage – he is not the author of his party's worst policies but is on record as having actually railed against them in opposition.

But the problem is not just Wilson. The Liberals I talk to don't think

Campbell can beat Ujjal Dosanjh either. He could beat Joy McPhail but that's because she's a Clark clone with the same strong ties to labour but, they say, Campbell's not tough enough for Wilson. Nor do people like him.

Why is this? Well, Bill Vander Zalm, in a rare moment of lucidity, once said that no one likes Gordon Campbell and no one knows why. And that's how it seems.

I like Gordon Campbell and admire him if only because he's been able to keep his caucus united through the gut wrenching Calgary Declaration and Nisga'a issues where they have stood against the Federal party to whom so many of them also owe allegiance. But liking him is one thing – thinking he can win a head to head, down and dirty fight is quite another. And if he goes against Wilson you can bet the condo at Whistler the fight will be that.

The Wilson strategy would be, of course, to best Campbell punching

matches whether face to face or long distance through the media. Campbell is best when carefully coifed, neatly turned out, with a couple of cute one-liners for each occasion where Wilson is like Bill Bennett – not necessarily a good speaker or even a good debater but with a keen instinct for the jugular.

Bennett was once heckled in the Legislature "you're Daddy's boy"

(referring of course to W.A.C. Bennett.) Bennett shot back "at least I know who my father is" to his tormenter, a foundling. Another time an opposition frontbencher who in his youth had been in prison, heckled Bennett about his government's record. "I'll stack our record against yours any time" was the vicious but very effective reply.

Bill Bennett with his focussed style won every election he was ever in against the flamboyant and popular Dave Barrett.

And that's why the Liberal insiders pray that Glen Clark who is no Dave Barrett and is mortally wounded, stays right where he is.