Canada PoliticsB.C. Premier Christy Clark pushed to schedule Bollywood awards show before May election: report
Nobody should be surprised because this has become the Christy Clark government's modus operendi in British Columbia.
But it appears the governing Liberals were playing politics with regard to holding a Bollywood awards show in Vancouver.
According to a story in the Globe and Mail, a team led by Clark was in negotiations to bring the International Film Academy Awards (IIFA) to British Columbia for $15 million — IIFA was held in Toronto in 2011.
But there was a glitch. The IIFA were in June while a provincial election was scheduled for May.
Sabbas Joseph, a spokesman for the International Indian Film Academy Awards, said provincial government officials made a “request that was almost a demand” that the glitzy awards take place ahead of the provincial election scheduled for May 14.
When [organizers] held firm that the International Indian date would not change, he said “that’s when the funding fell. And then from a high level of interest, it became a low level of interest … It was apparent that they wanted us to reject it.”
Instead the Liberals went with the less prestigious Times of India Film Awards, which will be staged at Vancouver's B.C. Place on April 6. These awards will cost taxpayers $11 million.
[ Related: Vancouver to host new Bollywood awards ]
The story reeks of a flailing government that is desperate for votes.
It comes on the heels a damning report which indicated that the Liberal Party misused government resources as part of a comprehensive ethnic outreach plan.
The report was made necessary after the opposition NDP revealed a leaked 17-page multicultural outreach strategy late last month, outlining the party's plan to win ethnic votes in the May election.
One excerpt from the document which called for 'quick wins' in ethnic communities by making apologies for historical wrongs (for example, apologizing for the Komagata Maru incident)
[ Related: Report into B.C.’s ethnic outreach scandal indicates misuse of government resources ]
Was the $11 million taxpayer funded award show considered a 'quick win?'
I think only the die-hard Liberal supporters would think otherwise — and there's not many of them left.
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