Christy Clark all set to enjoy a delicious on-air moment
Talk-show host gets to referee debate featuring her nemesis Sam Sullivan
by Miro Cernetig
Vancouver Sun
Thursday, June 05, 2008
                                                    
For a bit there, Christy Clark looked like she might be headed into "didn't-you-used-to-be-a-somebody?" land. Her star, much to her political enemies' glee, seemed to be falling fast.

In 2004 she quit her job as a British Columbia cabinet minister. Officially she exited politics because she wanted to look after her young son, Hamish. But there was more to it.

She didn't much like the new portfolio Premier Gordon Campbell had given her -- the image-challenging Ministry of Children and Family Development. That's a portfolio where the job is often managing foster-care scandals and child death tragedies. It can be an ambitious politician's albatross since you usually make the news for all the wrong reasons.

And Clark was also getting tired of the stifling life of always being on "political message." It's a requirement of the carefully controlled Campbell government but not easy for a self-described chatterbox who some saw as having an eye on an eventual run at the premier's job.

After her exit from the political fray, there was much speculation that a job as a radio talk-show host, that profession many an ex-politician has fallen into, would soon materialize. But it didn't. It wasn't even clear there ever would be a full-time gig on the air.

So Clark jumped into politics again in 2005.

But her last-minute bid for the Vancouver mayoral nomination for the Non-Partisan Association sputtered. Vancouver Mayor Sam Sullivan -- and his well-run political machine -- beat Clark and out-manoeuvred her husband, the federal Liberal organizer Mark Marissen.

Things weren't looking so great for Marissen either.

He was an influential Paul Martin supporter, embedded deep into the Liberal prime minister's inner circle. When Martin flamed out in the 2006 federal election, however, it looked like he was badly singed, too, as the Martinites were quickly pushed aside.

Let's say it wasn't the best two years in the power couple's high-profile life.

But if you've met Clark you will find she's a bit like the unsinkable Molly Brown. Her modus operandi in politics or public life is never let them see you sweat.

She schmoozed the bosses at CKNW and kept after the radio gig relentlessly, filling in for the established hosts and learning the job. Eventually she was offered a spot: the afternoon show, then languishing at No. 6 in Vancouver's post-noon market. It wasn't a slot that anyone expected much from soon but Clark has turned out to be a natural.

Today The Christy Clark Show is the top-rated talk show in Vancouver's afternoon radio market, with a listening audience of about 265,000. A few days ago she was awarded the Peter Gzowski award for excellence in radio from the industry's Radio and Television News Directors' Association.

And today, something Clark finds simply delicious will happen. She gets to broadcast, moderate and ask the questions in a debate featuring her nemesis, Mayor Sullivan. He's coming to the show to face off against NPA councillor Peter Ladner, his challenger for the NPA mayoral nomination.

"This job is so much fun," Clark says. "You have influence and it's way less stressful. "In politics you are never, ever allowed to really make a mistake. Every mistake is one step closer to your political death.

"If you make a mistake in radio you can say to your listeners, 'I'm sorry, I've changed my mind, I've been persuaded.' And then go on."

She took a breath and laughed. There's no premier or deputy ministers to worry about. "In radio, you don't have to ask permission to do anything. You can follow your heart."

Or, in Clark's case, a positively wicked sense of humour.

Mayor Sullivan may not know it, but he's lucky to have accepted the invitation to debate today. If he hadn't, Clark had a plan to go ahead with a surrogate sitting in the mayor's place. "The tradition at 'NW is to have the debate with an empty chair," she told me before Sullivan agreed to the debate. "I'm going to evolve that and put a guy in the chair who's wearing a chicken suit. He'll cluck when its Sam's turn."

It's hard to say how long Clark will stick with radio. She's careful not to rule out another return to politics. I'd bet she -- and her husband, who has risen once again in federal Liberal circles by running Stephane Dion's stunning leadership victory -- still hanker after a run at being mayor. Maybe even the B.C. Liberal Party's leadership after Premier Campbell retires. "At the moment I can't imagine going back into it," she said of politics. Then the conditional, showing that ambition has by no means been extinguished. "But I don't know how the world will look 10 years from now."

Clark's smart enough to know that she can bide her time, at least until after the 2010 Olympics when many believe Premier Campbell might retire. At the age of 42 she's got time -- and the ratings -- on her side. She's also got what every budding politician craves -- a media profile to die for and access to a province-wide microphone any time she wants it.

mcernetig@png.canwest.com

She wins for best Gzowski moustache.