Premier’s deputy chief of staff resigns
Posted March 1, 2013 5:44 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VICTORIA (NEWS1130) – BC Premier Christy Clark has lost one of her closest aides.
Kim Haakstad has stepped down as deputy chief of staff.
The resignation comes a couple of days after Haakstad’s name was linked to the Liberals’ plan to court ethnic votes using government money.
“Today, I accepted the resignation of Kim Haakstad, deputy chief of staff in the Office of the Premier,” Clark says in a statement. “Kim reached her decision after much consideration of her roles and responsibilities.
“Consistent with circumstances of resignations, no severance payment applies,” she adds.
Haakstad was apparently heavily involved in the drafting and distribution of the ethnic vote plan.
NDP House Leader John Horgan welcomes the resignation.
“I think it’s a good first step. But this goes much deeper than one individual. This has been a plan for the last 12 months, to infiltrate multicultural events and community activities,” he says.
He believes, given the premier’s close relationship with Haakstad, the plans would have been shared with Clark.
“Ms. Haakstad has been a close confident of Christy Clark since the 1990s. They worked together in opposition when Ms. Clark was in cabinet under Gordon Campbell. It’s hard to imagine that Ms. Clark would have been unaware of this activity,” referring to the fact the premier has apologized for the document, but claims she didn’t know who was behind it.
He says the barrage of multicultural grants handed out over the last several months demonstrates the Liberals have a calculated plan to court the ethnic vote with government money.
He points to the Times of India Bollywood Awards being staged in BC in April as the most extravagant example of the strategy.
Moments after Haakstad’s resignation was made public, James Plett, vice-president of the BC Liberals’ Surrey-Tynehead riding association announced on Twitter he was quitting his post.
“Sick of “Today’s @bcliberals” corruption + scandal after scandal. Worse than the BC NDP of yesteryear. I quit effective now #bcpoli,” he tweeted.
It was revealed Friday two Liberal riding association presidents have also resigned in Surrey-Whalley and Surrey-Fleetwood. But the resignations occurred before the ethnic vote scandal surfaced.
Deputy Premier Rich Coleman read an apology from Clark in the legislature Thursday and promised a review of the leaked documents.
