PRINCETON, B.C. — Christy Clark appears unruffled by the rebuff of a shy one-year-old outside a cafe in southern British Columbia, who buries his head in his father's shoulder.
Unfazed, the B.C. Liberal leader plucks a red-and-white pinwheel from a nearby flower box and coaxes a smile from the youngster, who accepts the spinning toy.
As she campaigns across the province, Clark, 51, comes across as similarly confident in her ability to win over B.C. voters in Tuesday's election.
Clark is a seasoned campaigner and in the 2013 provincial election, her first as party leader, she was widely predicted to lose.
"We were 20 points behind," Clark recalled in a recent interview. "It was just terrible.
"The caucus was divided. The party was broke. We were doomed. Everybody said we were going to lose the election."
Despite losing her own seat, Clark achieved the unexpected and led the Liberals to their fourth-straight majority government.
This time Clark is running on her record after a full-term in office.
"I feel like this time I have more to say to people than just, 'Trust me, I'm going to try and do my best for you,' " she said between campaign stops in the Okanagan region.
"This time I can say, 'I told you I was going to do my best for you. We have made British Columbia number one in the country. I hope you'll trust me to do it again.' "
Clark's campaign is highlighting the Liberal party's stewardship of a provincial economy that has led the country in growth while trumpeting its financial management by stringing together five straight surplus budgets and promising four more. She has reminded voters the last time the NDP was in power in the 1990s the economy stagnated.
But incumbency also has its challenges.
Clark's record is weighed down by a child-poverty rate in B.C. that is the highest in the country. Housing affordability became an issue under her watch and there appears to be growing discontent over political fundraising laws.
Clark is no stranger to politics, nor to political defeat. As a child she helped campaign with her father, who was a three-time candidate for the B.C. Liberals, a party that was virtually non-existent at the time.
He was never elected, but in 2011 the party he championed chose his daughter as its leader. By then Clark had survived the crucible of student politics during her time at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver.
After she was first elected to the legislature in 1996, she went on to serve as education minister and deputy premier in Gordon Campbell's government.
The Liberal campaign's focus on the economy and job creation has also seen Clark portray herself as the only leader willing and able to stand up to "rising protectionism" south of the border.
Late in the campaign, Clark threatened tough action against the thermal coal industry in the United States, asking Ottawa to ban the coal from travelling through U.S. ports after the Americans slapped new duties on softwood. She says she is also willing to go it alone by taxing the coal if the federal government doesn't back her.
Her friends and opponents have described Clark as a fierce political competitor with a knack for electioneering.
"Campaigns are a test of character, as much as a test of policy," she said.
JOBS, AFFORDABILITY REMAIN BIG ISSUES AS B.C. ELECTION CAMPAIGN IN HOME STRETCH
VANCOUVER — Tuesday marks the end of a bitterly fought election campaign in British Columbia, leaving voters to decide whether the Liberals' jobs-centred pitch is enough to clinch a fifth consecutive term in office or whether the NDP convinced them it is time for new hands at the helm.
If the Liberals win a majority it will mean two decades in power for the party that first formed government in 2001. But after 16 years as Opposition, the NDP under John Horgan is hoping to wrestle control from a Liberal party led by Christy Clark that bills itself as a free-enterprise coalition.
Politically fundraising laws, the cost of housing and a trade spat with the United States over softwood lumber have been central themes of the campaign.
One wild card that could have a significant impact on the results is the Green party, which has enjoyed considerable prominence in this election under the leadership of Andrew Weaver, who is the party's lone representative in the legislature.
Weaver's push to attract voters who are fed up with the usual suspects saw the New Democrats make appeals late in the campaign for Greens to support them as the only chance to defeat the Liberals. The Greens have campaigned hard around southern Vancouver Island, a traditional NDP stronghold.
On Saturday, Horgan ran a full-page advertisement in a Victoria newspaper warning that a vote for the Green party was a vote for the Liberals.
The party leaders stuck to familiar scripts on Sunday, with Clark campaigning across Metro Vancouver, starting with a stop at a construction company in Surrey.
"We wake up thinking about how we can protect the jobs in British Columbia and how we can create even more," she said.
New tariffs imposed by the U.S. on Canadian softwood lumber became a key issue in the Liberal campaign, with Clark saying her party is the only one that can protect jobs in the face of rising protectionism from President Donald Trump.
"I'm prepared to make sure we fight strong, that we fight thoughtfully," she said on Sunday. "We aren't going to be weaklings."
Clark has asked the federal government to ban the shipment of thermal coal through B.C., which would hurt the industry in the U.S. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said he will consider the request, but Clark has promised to go it alone and introduce a $70-a-tonne carbon tax on the coal if Ottawa doesn't act.
Horgan mingled with people at Vancouver's Granville Island Market on Sunday, where he met with voters concerned about child care, real estate and small business.
"People are engaging in this election campaign because we are talking about the issues that matter to people," said Horgan. "Christy Clark is saying, 'This is as good as it gets,' and pretends she's fighting with Donald Trump. That strikes me as a campaign that's desperate."
Weaver's campaign often featured appearances with prominent environmentalist David Suzuki, who endorsed the party and encouraged voters on Sunday to send more Greens to the legislature.
"A vote for the Greens is a vote for more Green MLAs," Suzuki said in a statement.
There have only been three minority governments in British Columbia's history. The last one was in 1952.
The NDP is promising $10-a-day child care, an annual renters rebate and getting rid of medical service premiums.
The Liberals unveiled their platform the day before the month-long campaign officially began, which the party said highlighted its commitment to prudent spending and economic growth.
The Greens are promising to hike taxes on carbon, corporations and high-income earns to pay for more investment in child care, infrastructure, public health and the environment.
