It hasn't been a good month for Christy Clark.
MLA Harry Bloy had to resign from yet another post, John van Dongen jumped ship taunting the media with promises of B.C. Rail skulduggery stories, top ministers such as Kevin Falcon and George Abbott look like they're building rationales for exiting and, to top it off, an Angus Reid opinion poll says the Liberals have fallen to their lowest level of support since July 2010. And that was when the HST was instituted by Gordon Campbell.
Clark is looking like a hiker in the backwoods surrounded by blackflies. She's slapping, running and throwing announcements out - but the flies keep biting. While political careers can turn on a dime, Clark needs Adrian Dix to do something extraordinarily stupid - and hope it's caught on YouTube - or she needs to pull a couple of rabbits out of her hat pronto.
The likelihood of either of those two scenarios happening is about the same as gas prices dropping to a buck a litre.
And while polls are often just a fleeting snapshot of an often fickle electorate, this poll also reflects some longer term trends.
The NDP, according to the survey, has kept almost nine in 10 of its voters compared to 2009. The Liberals, however, are holding on to just 51 per cent of their supporters. One in three B.C. Liberal voters in 2009 (33 per cent) are now saying they would vote for the B.C. Conservatives, and 14 per cent of the former Liberal supporters are ready to back the NDP.
It may not be a full-speed stampede yet - but it's not something Clark can be happy about.
