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Radio talk-show host and politician Christy Clark gives Ida Chong a hug in Chong's riding in Oak Bay. Clark came to Victoria for the first time in support of Chong who is battling a recall campaign.ARNOLD LIM

Christy Clark says she would call a provincial election at some point earlier than the scheduled 2013 vote if she wins the leadership of the B.C. Liberals and becomes the next premier of British Columbia.

Such a move would be at odds with legislation mandating fixed election dates that Liberals - including Ms. Clark as an MLA - adopted after winning power in 2001.

But the former deputy premier, returning to politics after a stint as a radio talk-show host, said Tuesday that she now thinks she would need her own mandate from voters if she beats her four rivals for the leader's job.

"My campaign is about listening, it's about talking to British Columbians, it's about grassroots democratic involvement and I think having an unelected premier for 2 1/2 years is the opposite of those things," Ms. Clark told The Globe and Mail.

"I think British Columbians will quite legitimately be uncomfortable with having an unelected premier for 2 1/2 years."

Ms. Clark did not specify how early she would be inclined to go to the polls. BC Liberals are to choose the next leader on Feb. 26.

The B.C. Liberal government introduced fixed election dates in 2001 as part of a package of populist-based reforms. The first election held under the law was in 2005, and the province is supposed to go to the polls on the second Tuesday in May every four years. However, the government has hinted it is prepared to amend that law so that the election moves to the fall, after the budget that is introduced in the spring has been vetted by the Auditor-General.

George Abbott, who quit his cabinet post as education minister to focus on his own leadership bid, slammed the idea of tinkering with the election schedule.

"Anyone who thinks somehow the people of British Columbia can today or on Feb. 27 judge the incoming premier without having some experience in government with them is dreaming," he said in an interview Tuesday, noting voters will need time to get to know the new Liberal leader and revamped Liberal government.

He said "concerned" Liberals have told him during a just-concluded five-day swing through northern B.C. that they are wary of an early election.

"They believe, as I believe, that we have lost connection with the grassroots of British Columbia, and need to rebuild that connection," he said.

"To me there is no potential for a trick shot out of Vancouver or Victoria which is suddenly going to persuade British Columbians that they should embrace our government once again."

He said it will take until 2013 to do that through government actions, policies, demeanour and style.

He said the Liberals could try to take advantage of NDP disarray as the opposition tries to seek a new leader to replace Carole James, and allow that person to settle in.

"[An election] would be too cute by half and we would be punished by the electorate for attempting to do it," he said.

Mario Canseco, a public-affairs vice-president with pollster Angus Reid Strategies, said Ms. Clark's logic may be based on getting a mandate ahead of a planned referendum next year on the harmonized sales tax. That vote is set for September, but leadership candidates have proposed moving it up to June.

Mr. Canseco said no new Liberal premier would want to be tainted by the defeat of the HST.

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