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By Scott Fraser

thetyee.ca

This week Premier Christy Clark and her cabinet will sit down with B.C.'s First Nations leaders. For leaders who were promised better by this premier, this meeting has been a long time coming.

The premier made it a leadership commitment to hold an annual meeting with aboriginal leaders, and made a show of addressing the First Nations Summit when she became leader in 2011. But after that, she turned her back on her promise until now.

For years, First Nations in British Columbia have seen the same pattern from the BC Liberals: big promises and elaborate photo ops, but little real action.

Again and again, the BC Liberals have said that developing a real relationship is a priority. Then, the government's focus shifts elsewhere and promises are forgotten.

The relationship between First Nations and the B.C. Liberals began even before they were in government, when Liberal MLAs went to court in an attempt to have the historic Nisga'a Treaty declared unconstitutional.

That relationship continued to spiral with the divisive referendum on aboriginal rights and self-government that the BC Liberal government held in 2002, when Christy Clark was serving as deputy premier. The referendum did nothing but destroy trust.

Yet even Gordon Campbell held annual meetings between First Nations and the Liberal cabinet until, in 2005, he committed his government to forging a New Relationship with First Nations.

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VIEW: Liberals need a new relationship with First Nations, starting with trust

THE candidates who will be fighting next months Windermere by-elections have been announced.

The by-elections were called following the sudden death of Coun Jo Stephenson in July.

Lib Dem Coun Stephenson was county councillor for Windermere and also represented Windermere Town on South Lakeland District Council (SLDC).

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The Liberal Democrat candidate for Cumbria County Council has been announced as Coun Colin Jones and for SLDC the party is putting forward Dyan Jones.

Representing the Conservatives will be Ben Berry for the county council seat and Sandra Lilley for SLDC.

The candidates agree that the controversial county council plan to introduce on-street parking charges is the biggest issue facing the area.

The Lib Dem-controlled South Lakeland local committee upheld the decision to introduce parking meters atThe Glebe last month.

But Coun Colin Jones disagrees with the Lib Dem line saying: Im totally opposed to the charges and spoke against them at the Marchesi Centre meeting in June.

Coun Jones is a Windermere town councillor and represents Bowness North on SLDC after being elected in 2013.

Read more:
Liberals, Tories, Greens and Independent vying for Windermere seat

Bill Maher on Liberals, Republicans and Obama (Sept. 9, 2014) | Charlie Rose
Bill Maher, host of the HBO show "Real Time with Bill Maher," talks to Charlie about his own politics, the dreaded "L-word" and why Republicans hate Obama -- even when they agree with him....

By: The Charlie Rose Show

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Bill Maher on Liberals, Republicans and Obama (Sept. 9, 2014) | Charlie Rose - Video

The NDP is portraying the Liberals as lazy and entitled as it tries to reclaim its position as the strongest competition to Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

Emerging from a three-day caucus retreat in Edmonton, the NDP is attempting to seize the spotlight from Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau.

Fisheries and Oceans critic Robert Chisholm said the Liberals have failed to hold the Conservatives feet to the fire and are merely waiting to get elected.

When theyre in opposition, they dont work all that hard, said Chisholm, the NDP MP for Dartmouth-Cole Harbour.

They dont seem to raise too much of a fuss because they have this sense of confidence that, well, eventually people will want to fire these guys out and then well just take our turn.

The NDP needs to reverse the trends of the past two years to have a chance of winning the 2015 federal election.

The Liberals have led all parties in the polls since Trudeau was elected leader in 2012. In Nova Scotia, the Liberals swept an NDP majority government out of power. In British Columbia, an NDP party that looked like a shoo-in unexpectedly fell to the Liberal incumbents.

In Toronto, the Liberals seized the former NDP stronghold of Trinity-Spadina in a byelection when Olivia Chow vacated her seat to run for Toronto mayor. (Chow, after starting strong, now also lags behind in the polls.)

Most frustrating for the party is that it has fallen to third place in the polls, despite leader Tom Mulcairs widely praised performance as chief inquisitor in the House of Commons.

On Thursday, there was the unusual sight of Mulcair echoing Conservative attack points regarding Trudeaus relative inexperience.

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NDP planning to fight Liberals for opposition spotlight

The Cochrane Room at Government House was so packed with Liberals Thursday that they ran out of chairs.

Photo by James McLeod/The Telegram

Liberal MHA Scott Reid (right) is sworn in by Lt.-Gov Frank Fagan at Government House Thursday morning.

MHA Paul Lane offered to let a candidate sit on his knee, but workers brought in a few more chairs before it came to that.

The Liberal staffers and supporters, and Liberal politicians past, present and future, were all crowded into the little room to watch Scott Reid get sworn in as the MHA for St. Georges-Stephenville East.

Since the last general election, there have been four byelections, which has led to four swearing-in ceremonies for Liberal MHAs at Government House. The mood in the room was upbeat; the Liberals feel like they have the wind at their back these days, although theyre reticent to say so publicly.

Youd be silly to think that youre going to win every one, but you set out to do that. You just try to do the same thing and work as hard, and make it just as much of a priority as the last one, said Paul Antle, who ran for the party leadership last year, and plans to run for the Liberals in the 2015 general election.

This fall, there will likely be three more byelections then-finance minister Charlene Johnson resigned last week, Justice Minister Terry French announced that hes leaving next week and Premier Tom Marshall is expected to retire after the PCparty picks a new leader this weekend.

Familiar policies

Liberal Leader Dwight Ball said he has checked out bits and pieces of the Tory leadership race that has stretched out over the past summer. He said he watched the televised leadership debate on NTV over the weekend, but didnt follow it closely enough to be able to pick a winner.

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With Reid sworn in, Liberals feel the momentum