The BC Liberal Party is touting last night's Premier's dinner as an indication that the struggling party can yet prevail in an election.
"We had the most successful fundraising dinner in our party's history," BC Liberals campaign director Mike McDonald told Business in Vancouver.
He said more than 1,700 tickets were sold to the event, each priced at $350.
"You can always fill more seats at a dinner because you just squeeze them in more, but we were quite pleased with what we came up with."
McDonald added that the key messages from premier Christy Clark and Finance Minister Kevin Falcon were about prevailing despite challenges.
"[The message was,] 'Put the polls aside, we have to focus on what our strengths have been and continue to be, which is balanced budgets, growing the economy, doing the big things right - and believing in ourselves and our ability to put together a bold agenda for the next election,'" McDonald said.
He added that Falcon spoke about the 1983 election runup when pundits were forecasting the demise of the Social Credit Party, which proceeded to win the election.
"There's lots of examples, whether it's politics or sports or other metaphors, where people or groups have been written off, but they've come back and prevailed," McDonald said.
"So that's very much the mentality we're in right now – that we're in for a tough fight but we believe we have it in ourselves to prevail and win the next election."
McDonald said that message resonated with attendees.
"I think there was a lot of buy-in in the room from our supporters that it's going to be a tough struggle, but if we stick together and we believe in our cause and the policy we espouse that we can come back and win the election."
McDonald said that funds raised last night will go to party operating expenses and an election war chest.
