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Dianne Watts jumped into the B.C. Liberal party leadership race with several advantages over her rivals.

She enjoyed lofty public profile as the popular former mayor of Surrey and as a Conservative MP. She consistently topped opinion polls as the best choice to replace Christy Clark as new Liberal leader.

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And, most of all, she knew how to win, having never lost an election at the municipal or federal levels — a key attribute for a defeated provincial party looking to regain power.

No wonder the Liberal leadership contest turned into a game of Whack-a-Watts, with opponents ganging up on her during often-heated debates.

“Taking the high road and having a united front — that’s the space I operate in,” Watts said in an interview. “But I learned fairly quickly it was not going to unfold that way.”

Now, with just two weeks to go until 60,000 Liberal party members make their choice for leader, Watts finds herself in the middle of a tight, tense and tough-to-predict fight.