Politics, they say, is a blood sport, and the NDP caucus has been shedding lots of it, all from deep, internal wounds.
While the governing Liberals have had nothing more serious than some premier-spawned spittle to worry about as they prepare for the future, the NDP is awash in figurative red corpuscles.
Much of the blood was caused by veteran MLA Jenny Kwan, who plunged her political knife deep into the back of Leader Carole James with her stinging, eye-popping rebuke of Ms. James and call for an NDP leadership convention.
Or, as Surrey-Green Timbers MLA Sue Hammell put it Thursday, as she stood shoulder to shoulder in support of Ms. James with a dozen other caucus members: "We all got hit with a two-by-four across the side of our face."
With no really good options, the current leader is doing the best she can to confront what one deft headline writer termed "the wrath of Kwan." She resisted the temptation to turf spinning Jenny immediately, and opted instead to submit the friendly NDP blood-letting to the party's entire caucus for a high-noon showdown.
In effect, Ms. James is saying to Ms. Kwan and her band of unmerry men and women: 'You accuse me of making decisions without consulting caucus? Okay, I'll show you caucus consultation! Let's have it out, behind closed doors. Caucus rules."
Don't bet your old Tommy Douglas button on the dissidents.
At the same time, Ms. Kwan seems to have a funny notion of those "democratic principles" she accuses the embattled Ms. James of eroding.
Let's see, the party's provincial council, made up of delegates from across B.C., voted 84 per cent against having the leadership contest that Ms. Kwan is advocating.
A majority of caucus, including most of their strongest performers on the NDP front benches, supports Ms. James staying on the job.
And the NDP, although admittedly this could change without Gordon Campbell to kick around and given the New Democrats' own bilious bickering, has been heading public-opinion polls for the past year.
But who knows, maybe those political geniuses in the Baker's Dozen of caucus rebels have a brilliant alternative whom they've kept under wraps until now. Gordon Wilson, anyone?
I do know one thing, however (better than knowing nothing, folks). Those 14 laughing sculptures down by the entrance to Stanley Park? These days, they're all Liberals.
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Sometimes, you can't make it up. Just before the heated Ms. James headed into the basement of the Guiness Tower for her rejoinder to the equally heated Ms. Kwan, a small fire erupted in NDP offices upstairs. Extinguishers were employed to put out the blaze. The culprit was an overtaxed toaster oven.
Supply your own punchline, but one can't help wondering, Is someone toast up there?
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Hey, it's back. Notwithstanding his pending disappearance in a puff of smoke, Mr. Campbell's role as the Zelig of his age has returned. Remember his previous reincarnation as the title character in that Woody Allen movie, popping up in countless photo ops along the Olympic torch relay, waving those red mittens?
Anyway, there I was this week, chuckling away at the latest batch of PM Steve Harper snapshots recording his happy days in office (Steve and daughter Rachel take in an Edmonton Oilers loss, Steve and Rachel watch the Roughriders go down to defeat, Steve with lager-laced pigskin fans.…), when who should show up in one of the photos, but, you guessed it, Gordon (Zelig) Campbell.
As Steve hobnobs with Schenley award winner Henry Burris, Mr. Campbell can be seen in the background, yukking it up with a guy from TSN.
And why not? If the people of B.C. had been asked, I'm sure they would have approved the Premier's attendance at the CFL Commissioner's Brunch in HST-free Edmonton. I trust he enjoyed the game, too.
He's here, he's there, he's everywhere. Even now.
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Kudos to Japan for bestowing a prestigious Order of the Rising Sun on Joy Kogawa, author of Obasan, the celebrated, heartbreaking account of Canada's Second World War internment of thousands of Japanese-Canadians, including Ms. Kogawa's family.
Ms. Kogawa was deeply moved by the honour, which, she told assembled guests, finally brought her reconciliation with Japan, a country she once considered "filled with devils, cruel beyond comprehension" for its wartime behaviour. "For this, I am grateful beyond words. Reconciliation is one of the happiest of human experiences." Indeed it is. Hello out there, NDP.