New Democrat Leader Adrian Dix made it clear Wednesday what鈥檚 driving the Opposition鈥檚 zealous pursuit of details about the ethnic-outreach scandal that B.C. Liberals insist is over and done with.
The motivation stems from his belief the Liberals cheated in the run-up to the May election.
鈥淭hey were cheating, that鈥檚 plain. They were cheating,鈥� he told reporters. And the nature of the emails 鈥� most of them from personal, not government accounts 鈥� shows 鈥渢hey know they were cheating.鈥�
It would be a small comfort for Dix at this point to cling to the belief that the Liberals beat him by cheating. Because it would counter the view that he blew the election.
It鈥檚 impossible to weigh all the reasons for the election outcome, but it didn鈥檛 look at the time as if ethnic-outreach was a big factor.
The effort was revealed in a draft strategy that was leaked to the NDP in February. Premier Christy Clark responded with a profuse apology and ordered a quick investigation by top deputies, including deputy to the premier John Dyble.
They condemned the 鈥渙ffensive鈥� plan, found misconduct and misuse of public funds and named a few names of staffers who departed government post haste.
But another one of Dyble鈥檚 conclusions was hotly disputed in the legislature Wednesday.
It was his finding that no action was taken on executing the dubious ideas outlined in the draft strategy.
The NDP said evidence that eventually came to light this week in the thousands of pages released after the election raises questions about that.
The strategy called for creation of lists of names in targeted ethnic communities, but Dyble concluded there was no evidence of a database.
A buried e-mail, written months after the strategy was drafted, refers to database management.
Dix went out of his way not to attack Dyble directly, but it鈥檚 clear they believe the report didn鈥檛 get to the bottom of the scandal.
There鈥檚 also the email written months later about a staffer 鈥� Sepideh Sarrafpour 鈥� who was apparently fretting about something. It referred to offering her a job or money, and explaining how if she did something it would damage the premier.
Sarrafpour told Global TV she did get a job offer from former cabinet minister Harry Bloy.
Dix said that contradicts Premier Christy Clark鈥檚 assertion that nothing came of the emailed suggestion. He insists that Dyble did not talk to Sarrafpour, and should have.
Various NDP critics played tag team over the issue. MLA Bruce Ralston said: 鈥淭he premier鈥檚 claim that this scheme was never implemented simply isn鈥檛 believable.鈥�
He said Sarrafpour collected lists according to the strategy and when a damaging release became a possibility 鈥渢hey planned to offer her a job or money to shut her up.鈥�
Cabinet ministers Teresa Wat and Andrew Wilkinson defended the government during a half-hour joust, but deflected a lot more questions than they answered.
There鈥檚 a skeptical view on the part of many that everybody plays the ethnic-outreach game these days, with distinctly mixed results.
And there鈥檚 always been a murky grey area between working for the public and working on efforts that cross over to partisan politics.
Finance Minister Mike de Jong sounded that note by producing a 19-year-old memo from then-NDP cabinet minister Moe Sihota, urging colleagues to get a team together to 鈥済et government off our backs ... to focus on politics ...鈥�
Still stung by the election loss, the Opposition certainly has the motivation to pursue this for the remaining few days of the session. But they鈥檒l probably need to break down the brick walls at the doors of the Liberal caucus and the party to make much more headway.
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Just So You Know: Rich Coleman is deputy premier, not Andrew Wilkinson, as I wrote Wednesday.
