Former B.C. premier Christy Clark has walked back a remark she made this week that her two NDP successors called her a “dumb woman” for pursuing the province’s LNG industry. Asked about the comment Thursday, Clark maintained that David Eby and John Horgan were “demeaning” in the way they questioned her B.C. Liberal government’s approach to LNG when they were in the Opposition. “You know, men who want to insult women never say it out loud—and they didn’t,” said Clark, who is now campaigning with the B.C. Conservatives. “But the language that they used really reinforced that tone of talking to a little girl, some little dreamer who had a fantasy about the future and was just making it up as she went along.” She suggested the B.C. NDP criticized her government’s plans using “dog whistles” intended for people who “do hold sexist attitudes.” Eby was asked about Clark’s characterizations after announcing his party’s plan to lower gas prices Thursday, and called them “ridiculous stories” that are “completely false.” “That is a lie,” he said. “I disagreed with her lowering our standards to try to attract natural gas companies.” Eby’s NDP and the Conservatives—whose ranks include several former members of Clark’s now-defunct Liberal party, including leader Lorne Doerkson—have sparred over who should take credit for Phase 2 of LNG Canada, announced days ago by Prime Minister Mark Carney. It was in that context that Clark, who began championing LNG as far back as 2011, accused Eby and Horgan of calling her “a ridiculous, dumb woman who had come up with this idea that would never work” on Tuesday. “Well, guess what? It worked,” she said at the time. Eby defended his earlier LNG pushback as an effort to rein in what he called the Liberals’ “let ‘er rip” approach to the industry, while noting “not one” facility was built under Clark’s watch. He slammed her allegations of sexism as a “new low” for her and the party she’s supporting in this election. “I am disturbed that she is stooping to this, but no surprise from the Conservative campaign,” Eby said. “No surprise from a campaign that has lowered the standard of politics in our province to depths we have never seen before.” With files from CTV News Vancouver’s Rob Buffam
