BC Liberal leadership candidate Christy Clark says she will call an election if she is chosen to be the next premier of British Columbia in this weekend's vote.
In a sit down interview with CTV News at Six anchor Tamara Taggart, Clark said she doesn't have a fixed date in mind but it would be in advance of the 2013 provincial election.
The candidate said she won't call the election before the New Democrats have a new leader in place.
‘That's not fair play," she said.
The former deputy premier and talk radio host is the most popular with Liberal voters and British Columbians alike to take over for outgoing Premier Gordon Campbell.
Forty-two-per-cent of those polled in an Angus Reid Public Opinion poll commissioned by CTV News this week said Clark would be the right choice for the job, followed by George Abbott (30 per cent), Kevin Falcon (27 per cent) and Mike de Jong (26 per cent).
Her popularity numbers are even more impressive when looking at people who voted for the BC Liberals in 2009.
But Clark's race for the province's top job has not been without controversy. Detractors claim the candidate is an opportunist who is only interested in being premier, something she vehemently denies.
"I've done a lot of other jobs. I spent five years in the opposition fighting the NDP. And then I spent four years cleaning up after those guys," she said.
"I haven't been on a track where I've spent every day thinking how I could be premier one day. In fact if Gordon Campbell hadn't resigned I would have quite happy to stay in broadcasting for many more years."
Clark says she's unsure whether she will return to radio if she doesn't win this weekend, but her job is there if she wants it.
She says she's the only candidate who is not getting paid every two weeks by taxpayers and that finances are a major concern in her race for premier.
"I'm living off my savings to do this. If I lose, I still don't have a paycheque coming in. I have to think about how I'm going to put food table for Hamish."
Clark says her team is talking about matching the working tax credit as part of her Family First campaign to put money back into the pockets of poor families.
"It's for people who are the working poor to give them a leg up and give it straight to their bottom line," she said.
A working parent who shares joint custody of her son, Clark says she is well aware of the struggle to balance the roles of mother and politician – and will stand up to the demands.
"I was deputy premier, minister of education and vice-chair of treasury board – doing all those three roles when Hamish was just an infant," she said.
"Any mom knows when your child is an infant they are consuming more of your time than any other time on your lives. It's not as onerous now as it was as he was little."
