Article content

First in a three-part series; John Horgan profile on May 3, Andrew Weaver on May 4.

Flanked by an excavator, surrounded by two dozen workers and wearing her trademark blue hard hat, B.C. Liberal Leader Christy Clark delivered the kind of campaign speech that suggested how she hopes history will remember her.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Christy Clark: B.C.'s modern-day W.A.C. Bennett? Back to video

The Fort St. John speech highlighted the image Clark has crafted for herself in the Interior and across northern B.C., where she’s shifted her government’s power base and made her most ambitious gamble: the $9-billon Site C dam.

To her vocal critics, Site C is a hydroelectric white elephant that will saddle the province with unnecessary power at overly expensive rates. To Clark, it’s a glimpse into how she defines her six years in office.

“B.C.’s electricity is clean, reliable and low cost, because we have had premiers in the past that have the courage to look forward, not one year or two years, but 10 years, and endowed us with this incredible dam system we have that’s given us this clean energy,” she told the April 18 rally at Inland Concrete.