Reliable sources say that Premier Campbell received boos at a recent public appearance in the Ford Theatre where he announced a grant for the arts. A week earlier he found it necessary to ask presidents of BC Liberal constituency associations to help encourage a partisan turnout for his appearance in the annual Chinese New Year's parade. As popularity wanes, some politicians only attend partisan events so as to avoid that kind of thing. During election campaigns, the media bus can expect to go from one campaign office to another while carefully avoiding any type of mainstreeting that can produce spontaneous negative publicity. Campbell started his term by keeping his public appearances to boards of trade and chambers of commerce where a warm welcome was almost as certain as a tour of his campaign offices. He may seek refuge in those venues once again if the reception at his arts presentation becomes the norm.

No one would expect a hostile reception for the Premier during one of his staged cabinet meetings, yet in January he once again broke his campaign promise to hold monthly "open" cabinet meetings. It would have been consistent with past practice if taxpayers had picked up the tab for production and satellite broadcast of a meeting held for the purpose of announcing the promised release of numbers on how many people will be kicked off welfare on April 1st. The last staged meeting was held on December 10th and used for Christy Clark to announce that government was paying fees to the College of Teachers in order to recover from the mess she created.

The December income assistance statistics showed the number of people receiving assistance increased from November when there were 165,187 assistance "clients" to December when there were 165,204. While the increase is small, it must be shocking to a government that plans on cutting a further $200 million from welfare in the next year. Employable people in the category of temporary assistance are the ones targeted by the two year eligibility rule. The Ministry of Human Resources reported that in December 2003 there were 10,571 single men receiving assistance who were expected to work as well as 5,235 single women in that category. At the click of a mouse, the Ministry could reveal how many of those people have received assistance for two or more years out of the past five years. Government has chosen to keep those numbers secret. No one of any political stripe can justify that refusal to provide basic information; so much for being "open" and "transparent". That is one more reason why the Premier may find his public audiences to be less than friendly.