Okay, I unplugged from social media for a bit on Thanksgiving and missed commenting on BCLib video/sexist comments toward Bowinn Ma issue. Many good comments (especially from women) already made on the repugnant sexism concerns. My take will focus on the political damage /thread

First off, BCLib response: Slow and tone-deaf. A repeat of the party’s response on LGBTQ+ issues earlier in campaign. Instead of apologizing immediately, which is criss comms 101, it had @jthornthwaite issue a half-quasi-non-apology that couldn’t even directly address the issue.

This reminds me of the Liberal HQ response to LGBTQTS+ candidate concerns. Say nothing for as long as possible. Hope it goes away. It is a profoundly misguided strategy. I’m not sure where it is coming from within the party, but, it is the wrong advice to the leader.

On the LGBTQ+ issue, HQ eventually had the candidate put out a pre-recorded video (that looks like she is held hostage) where she said she celebrates all races (not the issue), genders (not the issue) and sexualities (clearly she just can’t say the word GAY out loud).

On the @BowinnMa video, however, the party got pushed beyond tipping point and Wilkinson had to come out and address it via Twitter. Fine. Too little too late, probably. But ...

Then, the BC Liberals revert to lockdown mode. Wilkinson won’t make any avail to address the issue. Nor any other candidates. It’s as if everyone is hiding. Poor, poor, optics.

The BCLibs seem to think this won’t dominate the agenda tomorrow before the TV debate. They are deeply mistaken. They might think could drop their platform eventually and change the channel. Nope. It’s a total, complete, gross miscalculation of the issue from moment one.

In order to apologize effectively, you have to admit why it is wrong. Don’t downplay it. Don’t sidestep it. Don’t wordsmith it. Don’t torque it. Don’t tweak it through 12 comms people. Just have the leader address it like a human being. Can the Libs do this? It does not appear so

Now on to the larger issue: BC Liberal leader Andrew Wilkinson’s character. The LGBTQ+ issue could have been, at first, about the party and its candidate choices. But it festered unaddressed and became about Wilkinson as leader and who he allows on his team.

And then Wilkinson mentioned he has ‘gay and lesbian family members’ in another quasi-statement that did not address the issue, and now it’s festered and become about Wilkinson as a man.

What kind of person runs for premier, with self-disclosed gay and lesbian family members, and can’t publicly come out in a campaign with a full-throated endorsement of gay and lesbian rights? That’s the Q Wilkinson is facing because of how this was all handled.

The Liberals will, at this point, probably point out the NDP have weaponized LGBTQ+ and women’s rights issues as a political sword. Sure.

And they’ll point out the Libs had the first re-elected female premier in Cdn history in Christy Clark. Yeah. Maybe they could have slid those lines into their responses. But their responses have been basically non-existent. So. How do you make that point?

The Liberals will also, probably, say that nobody is voting on the issue of LGBTQTS+ rights. To them I would say, read tomorrow’s @VancouverSun for some interesting poll results that prove that wrong. But also…

That’s not the point. The issues of sexuality and basic respect for women have been so totally bungled that they now contribute to voter ‘sniff test’ of the leader. The public may not vote entirely on them. But they don’t like the distant whiff of how he smells.

Most voters don’t know Wilkinson. He has a low profile. It’s now possible that 600,000+ ppl with mail-in ballots ready to vote have an entire view of him based on occasional story about homophobia in his party, or sexism under his watch, shared on social media by a family member.

Could this change? Maybe. John Horgan in 2017 during the 1st leaders debate was called sexist for asking Clark not to touch him and saying he would just sit back and watch her because she likes that. Yet, in his lowest moment, he took advice and changed.

You can read more about this in @matofconfidence with @richardzussman and I - still available in fine book stores!!!

But basically, Horgan realized he had a whole campaign counting on him. Hee couldn’t let good advice to change go ignored. So he did. And he’s gone from angry sexist John who couldn’t handle a powerful female opponent, to Premier Dad who fights for female rights.

Can Wilkinson do this? Time is running out. He’s got a bigger hole to climb out of than Horgan did in 2017. And Horgan is slaughtering him daily on the campaign trail.
Rumblings within the party are he can’t and won’t do this. But. We will see. /end thread