Ms. Clark stays out of the spotlight during teacher's dispute

It certainly hasn't been hard to find the focus of discussion in BC these days, the province's teachers have been away from their schools heading into day three on Wednesday, for the most part making very public demonstrations of their anger at the Liberal Government of Christy Clark.

But if Premier Christy Clark has heard of the disruption to education in the province, she's been quite quiet of late about offering up an opinion on it.

The Liberals seemingly retreated a bit from the hard line expected of them last week, when there was talk of fast tracking Bill 22 over the weekend to avoid any class disruptions, a plan that apparently had the full support of the Premier.

However, as events have played out, the Legislature has provided for lengthy debate on the issue, with George Abbott professing to wanting the legislation to receive a full review, a process that could take us into next week.

With the teachers limited to a three day strike this week, (unless they choose to disobey the BC Labour Relations Board) the education minister it seems is content to let them vent and blow off their growing steam through until Thursday.

On Tuesday, when teachers took their protest to BC Government offices, it was Finance Minister Kevin Falcon who stepped up to the microphone to declare his disappointment at that tactic and to urge the BCTF to cease and desist and for BCGEU members to remain at their jobs

Again, there was little to be heard from the Premier, who seemingly hasn't had much to say on the topic of education since she cancelled a planned visit to a faith based school in the Fraser Valley on Monday.

That visit was cancelled when the BCTF members made plans to picket the school to protest the Premier's leadership on the education issue, angered that she would make such a pilgrimage to a private school on the first day of the public school job action.

Indeed, it was a rather unfortunate move on the part of the Premier, akin to poking a stick at the angry bear that has just come out of its den.

It suggests a wee bit of tone deafness for the Premier and/or the political handlers who somehow thought that was a pretty good idea, it wasn't, not at all helpful to the toxic climate of discussion at the moment, a rather large and embarrassing mis-step for the Premier and her government.

Still, while perhaps chastised for her wrong step, she should begin to make some public pronouncements on the dispute, maybe offer up some constructive solutions to it and not leave the heavy lifting to the likes of Messrs. Abbott and Falcon.

Part of the job of Premier involves making tough decisions and facing up to them when the going gets tough, in these early days of what seems most likely to be a long and boiling few months of labour relations, the Premier has seemingly gone missing in action,  as the old expression goes, it's time for her to get into the game.

Previously on Darcy McGee-- Educational End game in British Columbia