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Sullivan said he was troubled to see that these issues failed to receive the attention they required in Clark’s government.

“It’s very disturbing to me that 12 years after I identified those two subjects as critical to our future that here we are, where they are top in our consciousness, certainly in urban areas.”

Sullivan suggested the B.C. Liberal government had other priorities at the time, and while he believes they achieved what they set out do to in those areas, it came at the expense of two issues that alienated the party from two key demographics.

“We were focused on economy, and I must say with great success,” Sullivan said. “(But) I don’t believe we focused on the urban and the youth vote as much as we should have. It’s clearly evident in the election results.

“I know that young people are very concerned about house prices and they’re very open to innovation in drug policy and they really can’t figure out why we have such a problem doing what clearly works.”

Sullivan brought up several other issues that he plans to champion, each of which, he said, might not be a good idea for a leadership candidate, “but collectively they just might be the winning formula.”

Chief among those is the harmonized sales tax. Admitting that no one wants to talk about HST, Sullivan suggested instead a “modified sales tax,” or MST, which would exempt a number of low-income goods and services.

Sullivan said he wants to bring in “more elements of privatization into our health care,” and look at the Alberta model of charter schools, which he believes has energized the public system by giving entrepreneurial teachers opportunities to design their own education programs.

“There’s so many creative, smart teachers that just roll their eyes at the way they have to teach,” Sullivan said. “I’d love to give them freedom to innovate.”

Sullivan also proposed selling off B.C. liquor stores, ideally to employees of those stores, and leaving alcohol sales to the private sector.

“There’s no need for the government to be in the liquor business.”

hmooney@postmedia.com

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