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It was a campaign-trail encounter that lasted all of seven seconds, but it blew up into a social-media firestorm that backfired on Christy Clark and the B.C. Liberals.

Now the woman at the centre of the storm is speaking out against Liberal charges that she was an “NDP plant” sent out to embarrass Clark in front of the TV cameras as part of a campaign “stunt.”

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Linda Higgins, a retired social-worker assistant from the Sunshine Coast, said it was just “a fluke” that she bumped into Clark while the Liberal leader was meeting and greeting voters at a North Vancouver grocery store.

“I decided on the spur of the moment to go up and talk to her,” Higgins told me. “I’m not voting for her and I wanted to tell her why.”

After Clark shook her hand, Higgins told her: “I would never vote for you because of what … ” But Clark cut her off.

“You don’t have to — that’s why we live in a democracy,” Clark said, before turning her back on Higgins and walking away.