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Christy Clark’s Liberals were pleasantly surprised last week when John Horgan’s rival New Democrats wrapped up their election campaign events early on a couple of days.

That cleared the way for Clark to stage campaign rallies right around supper time, perfectly scheduled to coincide with evening TV newscasts.

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News cameras now have the ability to broadcast live from just about any location using cellphone signals. The Liberals know it and scheduled Clark’s rallies so TV reporters could beam back live shots of a happy, smiling Clark greeting boisterous supporters.

Why would the New Democrats surrender the stage at such a strategic time of the day and give Clark sole access to the live TV airways?

“We were working on getting our platform ready and launching it,” Horgan told me. “If the campaign bus isn’t moving, it doesn’t mean we’re not doing stuff.”

But I learned later about another reason for the NDP’s curious campaign interruptions: Horgan’s older brother is battling cancer, and the NDP leader has taken time to support him.