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VICTORIA — After Christy Clark’s poor showing in the election and her failed scheme to persuade the lieutenant-governor to grant a rematch, she was quick to announce that she would nevertheless remain leader of the B.C. Liberals.

“I’ll stay on as long as my caucus wants me to, and needs me to,” Clark declared, two days after being handed her hat and pointed to the exit of the Premier’s Office by Lt.-Gov. Judith Guichon.

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“I intend to stay on as MLA,” she told the Canada Day crowd in her Westside-Kelowna riding. “This area is going to need people fighting for it. And I’m going to stay there to do that.”

For now, anyway. But for how long?

Even Clark loyalists should be shaken by the party’s faltering performance under her leadership this year.

The Liberals lost their majority while B.C. was leading the country in growth, job creation and building up budgetary operating surpluses.

Their government increased spending on health care, social housing and public infrastructure (schools, hospitals, etc.) by record amounts, without ever managing to communicate the news to a decisive number of voters in key ridings.