Could a Shipbuilding Contract Buoy Clark, Post-HST?

Could the silver lining in the provincial government's humiliation in the HST referendum come in the form of a shipbuilding contract? Premier Christy Clark, fresh from the slap upside the head from B.C. voters in the HST referendum, has wisely put off the next election for 18 months. Did she have any other choice? The referendum that reversed the HST was a massive political blow that killed all chances of an early election.

By Tony Wanless / September 7, 2011

Could the silver lining in the provincial government’s humiliation in the HST referendum come in the form of a shipbuilding contract?

Premier Christy Clark, fresh from the slap upside the head from B.C. voters in the HST referendum, has wisely put off the next election for 18 months.

Did she have any other choice? The referendum that reversed the HST was a massive political blow that killed all chances of an early election.

After the voters spoke – or, screamed – the provincial Liberal government immediately had to figure out how it was going to save its political hide from a voting population that was heady with victory.

Throw-the-bums-out thinking is still everywhere, goaded by the massive (unofficial, of course) NDP effort to humble the government and thus set the scene for a further humbling in the next election.

So Clark had to put off the election for as long as she could. Meanwhile, she has trotted out the agenda for the next 18 months – it’s about jobs, jobs, jobs. This is of course a reasonable promise. It never hurts your political chances to promise to create more jobs.

But there’s another opportunity coming for the Libs and it might clear up a problem at the same time.

You see, there’s that little matter of the $1.6 billion the feds threw at us to implement the hated tax. Now it has to be paid back, the feds hardly being able to forgive the debt lest other provinces start getting ideas as well.

However, at the same time, B.C. is vying for two federal shipbuilding contracts worth some $33 billion. The bid is being backed by all four Western Canadian provinces.

See the equation here? The feds don’t forgive the HST implementation costs. But they do arrange it so that B.C. gets at least one of the shipyard contracts.

Look for a little intergovernmental back-scratching here. Clark can go into an election in two years claiming she’s delivered on her jobs promise, while at the same time neutralizing to an extent the impact of the HST loss.