By Glen Korstrom
Avoiding a socialist government is the main reason many business leaders give for supporting different BC Liberal leadership candidates.
Restaurant owners, however, are rallying around Kevin Falcon, which illustrates that candidates are also being judged on the likelihood that they’ll implement business-friendly policies in specific sectors.
Glowbal Restaurant Group owner Emad Yacoub told Business in Vancouver that he believes Kevin Falcon will be more willing than other candidates to listen to restaurateurs who want:
- a differential minimum wage so that restaurant owners can pay those who earn tips a similar wage to what they’re currently being paid; and
- a change in the way wine in restaurants is taxed so that there will be a flat fee per bottle in tax instead of a percentage on the retail cost of the bottle of wine.
Falcon, unlike perceived front-runner Christy Clark, also advocates reducing the HST by up to two percentage points to ease public anger over the controversial tax.
Restaurateurs have been one of the HST’s fiercest opponents.
Yacoub owns seven restaurants. He joins owners of larger chains such as Earls Restaurants Ltd. owner Stan Fuller, Cactus Club Café owner Richard Jaffray and Joey’s owner Jeff Fuller who also support Falcon.
The real estate development community is split between supporters of Falcon and Clark.
Industrial real estate specialist and Beedie Group president Ryan Beedie founded Falcon 20/20. He told BIV the organization includes more than 100 business leaders who all support Falcon.
A steady stream of Falcon 20/20 press releases trot out a dozen or so names at a time of CEOs in various sectors who support Falcon.
Home-builder Weststone Properties CEO Dale Regehr, retail property developer Anthem Properties CEO Eric Carlson and residential developer and Macdonald Development owner Rob Macdonald are some of Falcon’s real estate developer supporters.
So is close Beedie confidante and Northland Properties president Tom Gaglardi – the man who joined Beedie in the high-profile, fractious and ultimately unsuccessful lawsuit against fellow developer Francesco Aquilini over how Aquilini secured ownership of the National Hockey League’s Vancouver Canucks.
Aquilini has yet to join the Falcon 20/20 group.
“I really like all three [front-runner] candidates,” Aquilini told BIV. “They’re three great candidates. I think we’re lucky to have those three: Kevin Falcon, Christy Clark and George Abbott.”
Residential developers and Wall Financial Corp. executives Peter Wall and Bruno Wall solidly back Clark and helped recruit Rennie Marketing Systems owner Bob Rennie to join her team because, Bruno told Business in Vancouver, “she’s the most electable candidate.”
An Ipsos Reid poll released January 25 found that 40% of respondents had a positive view of Clark while only 29% had a negative view, giving her a net positive impression of 11%. Abbott scored a net positive impression of 5% among British Columbians at large; Falcon lagged far behind with a net negative impression of 22%.
“For all businesses in the province, the possibility of going through years of another socialist situation is just unthinkable,” retired business icon Gwyn Morgan told BIV. “We need someone who can win a general election.”
Morgan, who supports Clark, was the founding CEO of Encana Corp. (TSX:ECA).
The North Saanich resident continues to have a global business influence from his roles as chairman of SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. (TSX:SNC) and as a director of one of the world’s largest banks: London-based HSBC Holdings plc.
Beedie shares Wall and Morgan’s fear of an NDP government, but he believes there’s a risk that if Clark wins the Liberal leadership an election will be held in 2011.
He was on a panel at a recent Urban Development Institute luncheon when the moderator asked Beedie what keeps him awake at night when he thinks about prospects for the industrial real estate sector in 2011.
Without skipping a beat, Beedie said the prospect of an NDP government.
He expects that Falcon would wait until 2013 to renew the Liberals’ mandate whereas Clark would be more likely to go to the polls in 2011 because she does not have a seat in the legislature.
“[B.C.] could have an NDP government this year,” Beedie said.