Shoot for the moon, Premier! Republican presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich has provided a simple blueprint for politicians in a particular situation to follow.

If you're facing long odds and having trouble being taken seriously, there's always the Newt Option.

As of last week, that means going big, with a idea so ridiculously audacious it causes people's mouths to drop open in dumbfounded amazement.

Gingrich has used it at least twice. The first time was privately, years ago, when he asked his ex-wife if she'd be OK with an open marriage, as he'd developed a thing for one of his staffers.

That didn't work out as well as he'd hoped. Note the "ex" in front of "wife."

But it wasn't a complete disaster. She recently did a TV tell-all about his plucky notion and he still won the South Carolina primary.

People there respect a man with guts.

The second time was last week, when he told a Florida crowd there will be a permanent base on the moon "by the end of my second term."

Asked about being grandiose, he accepted the description gracefully. "The Wright Brothers were grandiose. John F. Kennedy was grandiose."

It was shameless pandering to what's left of the U.S. space program, of course. His rival issued a news release this week that started: "Earth to Newt."

But the point is: He's the main proponent of the Go Big or Go Home school of campaigning. And he's doing better than anyone expected.

Premier Christy Clark could take some lessons from this approach. And there's one specific equivalent in B.C. to a manned lunar colony. It's the fixed link to Vancouver Island.

Now is the perfect time to relaunch the bridge idea. Clark is lagging in the polls. Her chances of winning in 2013 are getting discounted. She needs a Big Idea that doesn't involve damming another valley up north.

And what could be more unifying and symbolically meaningful than a project that would bring B.C. Liberal mainland civilization to what is now a remote NDP colony?

The timing is particularly good because the B.C. Ferry Commission just released a report confirming that ferry fares are going to increase until the end of time. We live in a world where just holding the hikes to the inflation rate is considered a win.

They're tearing their hair out to reinvent a cheaper ferry system that will still cost more every year. It's a platinum opportunity to present a bold vision for future generations.

Ten years ago, the transportation ministry did some back-of-the-envelope calculations of the fixed-link cost. It was the first time in years anyone had dusted off the ideas first sketched out by former Social Credit cabinet minister Pat McGeer in the 1970s.

The costs were over the moon. Somewhere between $8 billion and $12 billion, with guaranteed cost overruns, because nothing like it has ever been attempted. The real stopper was the estimate of the toll that would be needed: Somewhere between $260 and $800.

"It is unlikely that travelers would be willing to bear any tariff of this magnitude," the ministry said.

That's putting in mildly. But in the here and now, the point isn't how to build or fund it.

The point is just to show you can think big and give people something to dream about - while waiting in the lineup at Swartz Bay.

Just So You Know: Fifty years after former premier W.A.C. Bennett created B.C. Hydro, his grandson was named to the board that runs it.

Brad Bennett, a Kelowna businessman and key B.C. Liberal supporter, has been appointed to the B.C. Hydro board by cabinet order. Energy Minister Rich Coleman named him by way of an order-in-council last week. The Social Credit government introduced legislation creating B.C. Hydro in March 1962.

Bennett, grandson of one premier and son of another, is an Order of B.C. recipient who sits on several other boards.

He was among those invited to the festivities announcing the start of an environmental review of the Site C dam idea in 2010. That party was held at his grandfather's namesake W.A.C. Bennett Dam.

Bennett was also named to the B.C. Liberal election readiness committee at the party's convention last year.

lleyne@timescolonist.com