More grist for the rest of Canada, that politics in British Columbia is just a little bit different than in the rest of the federation.
The rather mercurial political career (seemingly on a downward descent at the moment) of one time Solicitor General Kash Heed took another bizarre twist in British Columbia this week, as Mr. Heeds' one time number two disclosed that the province's former top law man had a wee bit of an unusual take on his place in the pursuit of justice and political pecking order.
Micahel Smyth of the Province paints a wonderful portrait for us of Heed and indeed of some of the drama behind the Liberal party these days, as larger than larger than life egos try to find their place in the wake of Gordon Campbell's departure to Jolly Old England.
And while Premier Christy Clark probably has many things to have her reach for the Tylenol these days (polling numbers perhaps?) nothing is probably causing her more discomfort than what may come next out of Camp Heed.
The revelations in the Smyth article are beyond baffling and probably will pretty well scupper any thoughts that the now back bench MLA may have for further political advancement.
The most intriguing of which is the idea that Heed thought of himself as Batman, his former campaign manager and loyal partner Barinder Sall, apparently more than happy to be Robin.
And if Batman's political career is now yet one more entry in the book of British Columbian farce (a very thick tome we imagine) Batman can lay the blame squarely at the feet of Robin.
Robin, er, Sall is finding himself in a wee bit of trouble in the Pacific version of Gotham City these days, a 15,000 dollar fine for dirty tricks in the last election key among them and well Robin, hurt by the abandonment of his Batman, isn't going under the bus by himself it seems.
Among the more interesting aspects of the piece, the collection of e mail messages that Sall kept, snippets of background into the relationship between the two.
Those missives offer up some fascinating views into how the Police Chief, Solicitor General and MLA conducted himself over the years from his days as a crime fighter to today's hours of semi anonymous toil in the Legislature.
From the Smyth article we learn of many tales from beyond the realm of reality.
Including the concept that Heed as Chief of Police in West Vancouver kept a special phone in his desk, which according to Sall was called the "bat phone", a secret number of which only those with the need to know seemingly had access to.
From the email files we discover that Batman perhaps wasn't a total team player, describing fellow Liberal John Les as a goof, John Van Dongen as apparently clueless and Cabinet Minister Mary McNeil as a loser and dense.
In Smyth's compendium of e mails, we learn that Heed gave some thought to other political options other than the Liberals, apparently ruminating on the idea of jumping to the Green Party one day, the NDP the next.
With the smoking gun of Heed's thoughts on his fellow Liberals and his fanciful idea that he could swoop into the NDP and lead the good fight, it would appear that Premier Clark needs to address his standing as a Liberal MLA pretty quickly.
Smyth suggests that she's not inclined to turf him at the moment, lest the MLA's seat fall into the hands of the NDP, but with Heed in the Liberal tent with what seems like less than total dedication, she may want to rethink that whole plan.
We're not sure exactly what the Premier is going to do about all of this, but it would seem that she has no option but to don her Commissioner Gordon suit and shut off that Bat Light permanently...
More of the decline and fall of Batman can be found below:
Victoria TC-- Kash Heed's long fall
Victoria TC-- Emails, controversy leave Heed in limbo
Vancouver Province-- Kash Heed needs to resign as MLA
Vancouver Province-- If Heed won't quit, he ought to be kicked out of caucus
Vancouver Sun-- Liberals to discuss Heed's status
Vancouver Sun-- Chief electoral officer reviews new allegations in Heed affair
Vancouver Sun-- The rise and fall of Kash's political operative
North Shore News-- Heed faces new spending allegations
CBC-- New Heed overspending allegations under review
The Tyee-- NDP Wants New Probe into Heed Spending
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