MLA Van Dongen shakes balance of power in B.C. politics with shocking exit from Liberals to join B.C. Conservatives
By John Twigg
The lure of "a broadly based, credible free enterprise option in the next provincial election" and the alleged lack of accountability in Premier Christy Clark's B.C. Liberal Party government have caused 17-year Liberal MLA John van Dongen to suddenly join the upstart and until-now seatless B.C. Conservative Party.
"When more and more decisions are being made for the wrong reasons, then you have an organization that is heading for failure," an even-voiced van Dongen told the hushed Legislative Assembly on Monday afternoon in a personal statement right after Question Period, calmly and quietly sending an earthquake through the structures of B.C.'s partisan politics.
Van Dongen explained he has been concerned for more than a year about what he alleged were inconsistencies in what Clark told people about what her own role had been in the B.C. Rail sale when she was running for the party leadership, which she narrowly won one year ago this month, and about other concerns such as the $6-million settlement for Basi and Virk in the BCR scandal as well as certain other issues.
