Penner's comments

Now isn't Penner's comments the best example of the "pot calling the kettle black".

I would imagine that most readers of the Tyee would agree that the almost 10 year Socred Liberal coalition government policies we have had in this province have led to the sell off of valuable public assets, a deficit that caused the Soc-Libs to run to the feds and sign us up to the biggest transfer of taxes from the wealthy to the middle class that even Alberta did not embrace. Desperate for revenue, as they had already spent their oil and gas windfalls on Olympic expenditures, Penner's failed government has shown that BC is for sale no matter what.

I am sure readers of the Tyee can come up with a list of other Soc-Lib policies that frankly are some of the worst policies of a western government in the last 10 years. A change to the child labour law, the worst province in Canada for its ever growing amount of children living under the poverty level, the highest court costs in the country that allows those with wealth to have even a further advantage when it comes to the law, courts backlogged allowing criminals to escape justice, stalling making improvements when it comes to child welfare recommendations...please continue the list...ghost-towning rural and small town BC would be a start...or perhaps the several cost overruns of government projects in the last 10 years that equal to 7 fast ferry fiascos...

Perhaps Penner could spend his time better fixing his own politicized Attorney General's Office than pointing fingers at others. Instead, Penner has already been quoted saying the justice system in BC will receive further cutbacks. Perhaps due to the decision to cut the BC Rail trial short and pay the entire defense costs even though the defendents pleaded guilty. Justice is being denied in this Province and the only way to rid ourselves of the BC Rail type policial meddling, lying and dishonesty is to go to the polls and send Penner to the back row of the opposition benches.

Penner should check the bottom of his shoes, I think he will find the political stink coming from his direction.

Let the political winds shift, fresh air is what we need.

Name that tune

pwlg: you're barking at the wrong issues in this campaign. The real issues that truly matter to voters are not the sale of public assets, BC Rail, high court costs, children living in poverty, child welfare or convention centre overruns. These are merely policy wonk discussion points.

To win this election, Dix needs to find a galvanizing issue that anyone can understand. People will not take a huge risk on electing the NDP unless you can convince them that the NDP won't stumble on policies (which it will) and destroy the economy. Frankly, most BC voters don't believe that the Liberals have destroyed BC. So rather than howling at the moon, the NDP needs a new a way to excite voters.

I am afraid that the election is the Liberal's to lose. So instead of arguing the issues, find an issue that voters can warm up to.

Mr. Peru

Could Mr. Peru come up with some hard facts to show how more than 40% of corporate tax cuts in BC have led to more jobs and a healthier economy? Could Mr. Peru tell me how added taxes (HST) for home purchasers has allowed young people access to the real estate market?

In Europe there is a swell of anger regarding corporate tax breaks which is causing politicians there to question the benefit of unilaterally decreasing taxes to corporate profits. A policy in France will see any tax breaks linked to real benefits for French citizens. If corporations reinvest in their French operations, actually hire more people, then a tax incentive is earned not just given like in BC.

Where's the beef, Mr. Peru...back up your claims that Socred Liberal tax break policies have led to more full-time equivalent jobs and jobs that have livable wages.

Perhaps a read of a piece written for the Tyee one year ago will help you come up with an answer...

http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2010/04/21/FailedTaxCuts/

Federally, since the Great Dictator believed he was King and granted free passage to Corporate Canada we have seen a reduction of 118,000 full time equivalent jobs despite a 25% decrease in corporate taxes.

Just where is all this money the tax breaks are putting into corporate pockets going to?

In BC, corporations are buying assets elsewhere, creating jobs elsewhere, investing capital elsewhere.

West Fraser purchased 13 sawmills in southern USA and expanded operations in Alberta and then closed sawmills in BC and shut down the profitable Eurocan Pulp and Paper Mill putting hundreds of BC residents out of work.

Instead, this BC government has shifted the tax burden to the middle class in BC. Time to wake up from our slumber party here and kick the bums out.

travel the province and talk with residents

I am afraid Mr. Peru is using Vancouver's mainstream media for his knowledge on what BC residents need for an election issue.

Mr. Penner made the issue about NDP policies of the past, I was merely using his own government policies as an example of the pot calling the kettle black or perhaps that was missed.

Although not a big fan of Dix due to his close association with Glen Clark I do give him credit for his compassion and hard work. His work on the Health Ministry file while in opposition earned him some credibility amongst BC residents.

It will take more than Christy Clark wearing saris and quoting Sarah Palinisms to motivate voters. Her record while in Campbell's government will help voters decide. Can't wait for the Dix-Clark debate.

Travel the province and speak with residents and you will find a significant dissatisfaction with the current government that is deep.

A 38 percenter. Just like Stephen.

We constantly hear that the Conservatives are not qualified to govern because they only received a minority of 38% of votes cast nationally.

On the first ballot last night Adrian Dix was given 7,638 votes from the total 19,992 cast - 38%. What an interesting coincidence!

Christy Clark, Just like Stephen

Like Adrian Dix, Christy Clark went through 3 ballots to get elected. I didn't totoal up the first ballots, but it looks to me like she got about 38% of her own party's support on the first ballot.

Here's an article that shows the percentages by area:
http://communities.canada.com/vancouversun/blogs/papertrail/archive/2011/02/26/bc-liberal-leadership-vote-by-the-numbers-exclusive-maps-graphs-and-analysis.aspx

Rather than make generalizations about how an in-house election for a party leader plays out with the wider BC electorate, I think it wise take a wait and see approach.

It is always fun to read the

It is always fun to read the threat of "bigger government".

With the growth of population and other growing problems there are an increased tasks to be decided on and done.

What have we gained by selling off public services to the corporate mafia and the P3 racket ?

Have the services improved or become "cheaper" as promised ? What have we gained with Accentura and CN Rail, or the Abbotsford hospital ?

Somebody has to do the work, and, at least with governments we have the right to complain and get rid of it, but how do you get rid of the multinationals collectivizing the economy into their mudhooks in the best Soviet style ?

Ed Deak.

Great news for the Liberals

Christmas just came early to the BC Liberals!

I can't believe the best person that we could find in the whole province to lead us was a man who manufactured false evidence in an attempt to obstruct justice and thwart an active RCMP investigation into political corruption; and only came clean after the RCMP seized his computer and found the evidence, and threatened him with charges. That popping sound is Clark and the rest of the Liberals opening champagne.
Now I'll wait for the invariable postings here of "but the Liberals did this ... blah, blah, blah" from the sheep. For the first time since GlenC the Liberals can actually beat us on the ethical depth of their leader; and anyone who doesn't recognize this is either a lemming or delusional. Adrian Dix is unelectable as premier, and so he should be.

NDP Can Win

After 10 years of corruption it's time for a change in BC and to top it off lets not forget the HST lies and spin from the BC Liberals. Sorry BC Liberals but your party is going to wear the hat on that one at the next provincial election and for many years after I would guess. I guess that the 1.5 million voters who did not vote in the last election might vote in the upcoming one. Unity a positive agenda and restoring democracy in BC are the issues of the day. Repeatedly rolling out issues that occurred over 10 years ago appears to be not only foolish but a desperate attempt to cling to power. Ms Clark is no saint and her record is far from perfect and her agenda proves it.

All Dix has to do is let

All Dix has to do is let Horgan loose and he'll start telling the great unwashed on how the Liberals mismanaged this province for the last 10 years. Also since most of the people only half pay attention and have short memories too, I wonder if they'll get Christy and Glen's last names mixed up?

NDP fighting in the past

pwlg: France is a very poor example of economic management. It's crazy, protectionist policies have resulted in chronic high unemployment especially for its young people.

While many people outside of the mainland don't like the Liberals' policies, the NDP would not solve anything with protectionist policies over raw logs, for example. Imposing rules to make more finished, semi-finished products in BC (and artificially create jobs) would only compel buyers like the Chinese to stop buying from BC.

There's no escaping the global economy. I guess hard left socialists like Dix think they can change the world by simply imposing economic rules that they really cannot enforce, but I hope they learned their lesson from the Glen Clark years. Dix's open hostility to BC business and corporations simply sets him up for attack not just from corporations, but from the thousands of BC people who work for them.

I'm afraid the NDP hasn't learned anything from their past election losses, especially their near decimation. If a seriously, ethically flawed leader like Dix is what the party wants to offer and if they expect closet leftists to rise up like ghost soldiers then the party may face extinction and irrelevance if they lose this election.

Personally, I think Dix learned a deep, painful and dark lesson after admitting to forging the memos. But, the act is so politically heinous that even throwing the BC Rail fiasco at Christy Clark won't remove the stink. Even Campbell's DUI pales in comparison to Dix's premediated attempt to obstruct justice. It's like a millstone that will get heavier throughout the campaign.

Nicholas is right. The NDP are either big gamblers or deluded to think they can offer a candidate as flawed as Dix to the BC people. As if braying incessantly about BC Rail and other hearsay is actually as bad as what Dix admitted committing.

The key, quite simply

Is to fight the election, whenever it comes - and sooner is better than later - on the BCLiberal record.

In comparison with the NDP record it is pretty clear which party actually does something for its base.

And, whatever you think, the NDP base is bigger and more evenly distributed throughout the province.

Furthermore, the idea that Dix (who was a Carole James loyalist) is a radical left winger when Farnworth got the poison kiss from Jenny Kwan is pretty fanciful.

I supported Farnworth until the day he called Jenny Kwan a force for unity.

After that, everything he said sounded like bullshit.

Nicholas

Real classy post. You want to start fighting over leadership again on day one do you? To what end? What outcome do you now demand? That Dix resign because Nicholas isn't on board?

Some of you need to go start your own parties.

Bobby Peru

Keep predicting the end of the NDP. We'll still be here long after you've passed on.

Federally the NDP has never been stronger.

Picking up Peru's comment,

Picking up Peru's comment, that the NDP will create "a poor investment environment, will cost jobs and kill the real estate market" the sad truth is that these actions were set into motion 10 years ago by the Liberals. Gordo capitalized on NDP fiscal policy and responsibility inheriting a much healthier budget when he came to office thanks to the NDP. The investment environment created during the lieberals term has been done on the strength of the public treasury AND at the expense of our future! THe NDP, if they are next to govern, will inherit a ridiculous real estate bubble, a faltering economy and contracts with Gordo's P3 friends that are bad deals for all British Columbians but insure Gordo and his buds have a nice fat cushy extravagant life.

Dix was the right choice, we need fresh air, hope, and a people first party. I do not envy his task though if the NDP are elected. But at least an NDP government will do the work, the liberals will simply keep selling public assets to their friends, cutting health and social services, increase personal taxes while cutting corporate rates, and blowing hot air into that big real estate bubble... and we all have to know how that story ends.

Let Horgan loose

Van Isle makes me feel a bit better about Horgan missing enough votes to win...maybe it will free him up to launch full stride into the Liberal energy policy....something he already has a head start on and is passionate about....allowing him free reign on this issue will bode well for Dix... and for the people of BC that have yet to be informed. Keep that guy in the camera's eye, no resting up. It will re-inforce the team effort already shown.

To the best of my

To the best of my recollection countries have armies and our5 so called "Conservatives" want to spend $30. or 60 billion on fighter planes for "protection".

Protecting what ? The foreign ownership of the country ?

Why should we permit our economies to be taken over by the multinational, collectivizer, corportate mafia ?

What have we gained with the fraudulent "free trade agreements" except the destruction of our manufacturing base, poverty, foodbanks and the loss of control of our economies.

And now we have the new communist aristocracy coming back with our own money and inflating real estate prices, preventing citizens from owning their own homes, businesses and lands.

I can remember when we had little garbage, mostly caused now by the imports of junk, Asian slave labour products, when one breadwinner per family was enough, the kids didn't go home from school to an empty house, we had no foodbank lines and Canada was the richest country on Earth.

Because of "protectionism", which is the duty of any and all goddamn governments, not the selling out of citizens' rights by crooks calling themselves "conservatives" and "economists" .

Long live protectionism and any government that brings it back, the same way we're protecting our homes, properties, families and ourselves !!!!!!!!!!!

Ed Deak

See ya

Well, I see the zombies are awake. Your blind tribalism is astounding. If the Liberals had elected a new leader with as ethically-tarnished resume as we just did, we’d all be screaming from the pulpits and setting our hair on fire (and secretly laughing). We had a chance to select a moderate, reasonable, honest leader (Farnworth or Horgan) that would expand our base and appeal to the electorate as a whole, and instead we picked a hard-core ultra-socialist ideologue that will ultimately end-up shrinking the base and alienating the middle; and then get us slaughtered in the next election. Dix’s last minute delivery of separate “bags-of-ten-dollar-bills” to our headquarters obviously pushed him over the top .......I guess he really didn’t learn much from his past ethical slip-up(s), did he? Well, at least after the next election we can (once again) pretend it’s a “moral” victory; oh, sorry, we’ve even lost the right to that condolence now, haven’t we? I know self-reflection can sometimes be painful, but we really screwed-up this time. No doubt, I’ll volunteer in our campaign office during the next election, again; and after the polls close, come home after a couple of sodas at McKinney’s Pub, and post “I told you so” right here ... and I will take no pleasure in it what-so-ever. In the meantime, no worries, you won’t hear from me again; I’ll leave you all to gaze at your navels, shout into your echo chambers and drink the kool-aid. What a silly, silly waste. But have fun; I hear ignorance is bliss.

Premier Adrian Dix

The infighting must stop..

Adrian has one shot too win..If he blows it John Horgan da man..

We have a strong team.

Time to unite as one.

And believe me, it wasn`t very easy for me to take, however...

Time to move on.

Good Day

[LINK TO EXTERNAL SITE REMOVED. -MODERATOR.]

@Nicholas

Glad you're gonna turn out and help - although that 'I told you so' attitude is a trifle lame and, truthfully, if you're heart isn't in it, you might be better to stay at home.

As for kool-aid (sic) I think most of that stuff's gone, Ms Christina and the Campbelloids seem to have drunk the cooler dry.

And remember, the Socreds' battle cry when WAC went down in flames was:
'The socialist hordes are at the gates'.

In the end, pretending there isn't a big difference between their side and our side is a lie.

BC is ready for a some real change and the way you get to make that change isn't by pretending that you're just another damn corporatist fellow traveller.

Fight the election on the Liberals' record and let Dix take care of Ms Clark....

Nicholas

Should I post constantly an "I told you so" that we were doing fine with Carole James and this leadership race wasn't necessary? How would that be constructive? Who would that help?

The members of the party made their decision and its time to move on. Attacking each other for another 4 years would be childish.

We keep hearing the

We keep hearing the desperate warnings about the "left", but, in all these years I've never heard any explanation what this "left" means that we're supposed to be so scared about?

I grew up in a fascist society, fought in WW2 and have lived under nazi, communist, social democrat, capitalist etc. governments, have studied the history of religious and political movements for a lifetime, but still don't know what this "left" and "right" mean?

All I could see in my life and studies are the same predators, waving different coloured flags to strip their victims of their human rights and properties.

E.g. What is this beautiful love affair about between our capitalists and their great communist bedfellows? Where are they different and which of them is "left" and "right" and what is the definition of the difference between the two sets of crooks enslaving the world.

Strange, that the true believers are so silent on this simple question !

Ed Deak

Congratulations to Dix! My 1st BC NDP Convention

It was wonderful to be there and see all the different members who truly care about BC!

I am more enlightened though I questioned the wisdom of Eby's quest I am now 100% behind him among other niceties to come out of the convention.

For a few beauty shots I took of Adrian and some sort of supporter of his :D as well as David Eby, go below:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?fbid=10150226906616215&id=677086214&aid=352385&l=ed52115922

Now to put up a few more form that day - it'll be apparent who I supported at first bit happy to see a united party take on the worst, most callous, cruel, greedy and stupid provincial party I have ever experienced in my life.

Go BC NDP!

Horgan was my man (I plumped

Horgan was my man (I plumped in the advance poll)! Farnworth would just be more of the same old. And as for Dix, I was (and am) bothered by anyone who would produce back-dated memoranda as "evidence."

That said, Dix has a brain, is analytical, can find reasonable answers, and works hard. For a change, we can expect the NDP to define clear policies and explain them clearly. A far cry from the vague pablum we've suffered in recent years.

Will this new approach win? Who knows? But as the old saw has it, continuing to do the same thing hoping for better results defines insanity.

NDPers may be mad, but not insane!

The youth vote

The youth of today deserve RESPECT! Our Conservative minded BC Liberals and Harperites don't give a rats azz about them or THEIR ENVIRONMENT.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XiXImInIddY

Vote mobs

Go to YouTube and search "vote mobs". It's fantastic what the young people are doing during this federal election. They need to continue this during our provincial election. They need to get out and VOTE.

Nicholas

Please ignore the ignorant comments like "go start your own parties"; school-yard buffoonery thinking. We need to keep the moderate, reasonable, pragmatic, centralist voices in our party or we will forever be also-rans, only occassionally getting the opportunity to implement change ("moral" victories are still losses). We have ideological lunatics on our fringes, the same as the liberals (believe me, I spoke to a dozen of them at the convention centre yesterday). I don't like Dix's shady dealings any more than you do, he was a poor choice, and as such we're probably looking at a(extension of this) dry spell; but we have other sensible, honest, reasonable people dedicated to change and the good fight. Sone people here just don't appreciate hearing the truth, and instead try to shoot the messenger. It is rather silly when moderation is considered a vice rather than a virtue. I hope you'll stick with us.

Cond.... "Conservatives" are

Cond.... "Conservatives" are not supposed to conserve, but to cut down and destroy everything in the name of "wealth creation".

The only things they're intent to conserve are the plundering rights of special interests, because that jacks up the phony GDP figures: Into the pockets of a selected few.

Anybody who tries to save anything, anybody, or human rights, is a "socialist"

The biggest joke is the recent commission into the butchering of a hundred sled dogs and the expanded laws for animal protection, when the same "conservatives" who are crying the crocodile tears over the dogs, are planning to destroy the lives of millions of wild animals and hundreds of species, again, for "wealth creation" because we're now a "resource based economy" and the public can not see their suffering and dying, so it is OK and "good economics"

I'm still waiting to read the brilliant explanation on what is "left" and "right" in politics.

I've been sentenced to death by a nazi military court for "high treason" and to the gulags by a communist "People's Court" also for "high treason"

Which one was "Left", or "right"?

Come on Peru and RM and let's have some ideological wisdom to us, the ignorant, unwashed.

Ed Deak

BCLiberals are just celebrating... and I predict

We're going to drop the writ in September. Alise Mills cleared the road for our forces.

DaveS - not to put too fine a point on it

Your defence of Nicholas seems a little strange in light of the fact that Nicholas wrote the following:
See ya

Well, I see the zombies are awake. Your blind tribalism is astounding. If the Liberals had elected a new leader with as ethically-tarnished resume as we just did, we’d all be screaming from the pulpits and setting our hair on fire (and secretly laughing)

As far as I know, Dix has admitted his error (performned while he was a paid employee and not an elected rep) and spent the requisite period in purgatory....

Ms Christina, however, pretty much perfectly fits Nicholas's definition of 'a new leader with (an) ethically-tarnished resume' so I'm not quite sure WHAT his point was.

Nor am I sure exactly what your point is.

Surely to God it is obvious that it wouldn't matter a damn to the other side (THAT'S the BC LIBERAL coalition, remember?) which leader the NDP elected.

James was too shrill or not doctrinaire enough.

Horgan was a loon.

Farnworth was mealy mouthed (and you can be sure they'd have played the 'gay' card against him too - if only sotto voce).

Not that I expect much from my own side (the party) in this effort. When someone like Bill Tieleman can be at the center of the effort to dump a duly elected leader we're in a lot of trouble at the best of times.

I hope Dix has the beans to beat his 'ethically challenged' BC Liberal rival in the debates and make her look cheap and tawdry in the legislature, but, at bottom, we're only going to beat the suckers at the ballot box if we get back to organizing the grass roots AND we manage to create enough interest in the voting public to raise approval ratings to the levels Carole James achieved.

Maybe 'moderation' is the way to do that - but I doubt it.

I think the voting public is pretty damn pissed right now and I think Dix is just the guy to take advantage of it.

Time to turn left......

Teileman wrote last year about the need for the party to go left, I agreed with his assessment, I still do...

As G West notes....The Bias media would slam Farnworth with bingo-gate and the Global Jas Johal/Farnworth tapes and no doubt the likes of Hocstein would highlight his sexuality..

Horgan would be called the angry Irishman with ties to the 90s....

No dipper was going to get a free ride from this media.

But on a side note, there has never been a better time in history to attack Corporations/banks, BC`s population is old and concerned with health care, education will be front and center with cluck cluck`s record...

Record corporate profits, all the big Wall street players bailed out and right wing Governments want to give them more...

MSP premiums, Hydro rates, tolls, ferries, million dollar Hahn, the HST tax shift, $2 billion dollar per year tax on the middle class.

Wages flat and average joes drowning in debt.

There has never been a better to go left, 5 years ago when everyone was abuzz with the so-called BC Boom/world boom(before the scams brought down the world economies) Adrian Dix would have zero chance...

But if you talk to people, it sickens them hearing about Encana gas profits, record bank profits, corporations sitting on $trillions and their Government wants to lower their tax rates and load it on them.

The public is angry with the coroporate mouth pieces.

Adrian Dix time is ripe.

adrian

adrian was at the bottom of my preferential vote
i was seriously impressed with John Horgan.
He seemed to me to have the best energy and to be the best public speaker.
All these candidates were fabulous but I would have preferred Horgan or Farnworth.
Yeah, I was kinda disappointed and my enthusiasm for all things NDP has somewhat waned .
I hope I can bounce back,

DaveS

Attacking the party the day after a new leader was selected. Classy. Just as classy as the BC Libs who attacked Dix instead of offering congratulations.

Guess I will disagree with you and Nicholas that attacking each other is the path to power.

I have had many arguments with folks here

over the years but I have to agree with Frank and say let's get it done. Enough with the back-biting etc.

I take back (if I could) any negative thing said about anyone or thing right now. Go Dix Go!

Be positive!

party insiders versus electorate and funders?

Tough to really know how a party leadership vote by members can reflect the wider provincial voter perspective. Like, is Clark really the best Liberal vote-getter, or was she installed by a party brass whose perception may not be so close to the electorate?

Ditto NDP leadership results. Dix-Farnworth vote gap wasn't very big so could some of the shift to Dix be from members who had concern that Farnworth's sexual orientation would lose votes in some ethnic communities? Beyond sexual orientation, was Dix support assured because of perception of his hard-left stance - but how will that play for electorate?

Party funding important and how do public versus private sector unions perceive results, especially because there may be some expectation that BC resource companies may be discussing their Plan B - capital flight threats?

Media says that Liberals happy Dix now leader, but could be another spin on this - that some Liberal funders may not assume Dix as leader will necessarily favour Liberals, so they'll be thinking about options.

Good news

My relatively disinterested view.

Based on my observations of Dix in his media interviews and his performance in the legislature he appears to be a highly intelligent person who has honestly held beliefs which he is capable of articulating without the need of teleprompters, pollsters, and talking points prepared by back room handlers

As a result,I expect him to be able to convince a large number of voters that there are meaningful policy questions that they need to understand, and that they should vote accordingly. I look forward to such a campaign.

They used preferential voting; why can't we?

Both the Liberals and the NDP used preferential voting to elect their new leaders. Why can't we?
The BC government declined to change the rules to allow us to elect our mayors using preferential voting, despite requests to the local government elections task force to do so. At least two of the current mayors were elected with only 30% of the vote. This is not democratic.
Likewise for electing our MLAs and MPs we should be allowed to use preferential voting. About half of them are in office with less than 50% support from the voters. This is not democratic.

jnewcomb

The Campbelloids would have professed 'happiness' at whatever choice the NDP made and the big money will always be on the other side.

Of course there will be a few bet hedgers like Fasken Martineau (who gave Adrian a $500.00 donation) but for the most part the NDP is the underdog and always will be in this province when it comes to corporate donations.

The key isn't who's on the other side - the key is how the campaign is run and how the party support comes through on the doorstep.

Right now, every activist in the lower mainland should be getting out and selling David Eby to the good burghers of Point Grey.

Nothing, repeat nothing, would give the prospects of real democracy coming to this province a bigger boost than scaring the living shit out of Ms Christina on May 11.

I don't think the incumbent party has won a by election in BC for 30 years - lets keep that record intact!

You want to monkey wrench the Neo cons? Send them a real message….

And don't worry too much about 'anything' they may have to say.

Well done.

For me, social infrastructure should be the cornerstone of all NDP policy and Adrian Dix has always tirelessly focused on and fought hard for those values.

Congratulations, Adrian.

Well said, w stander -

You expressed it so well.

One's brick wall is another's emerging opportunity...

"The NDP has been in the middle of the road and has not won an election [since 1996]," he said. "The reality is people didn't want to stay in the middle anymore."

I think this is true. Though we have yet to see how this translates into into a "change" programme and action. Interesting, but all this has been heard from before... from Obama. Though it's clear that Dix is "aware" that there is a pissed off mood out here and a desire to see the old "free market" assumptions of the lunatic right challenged.The old Rightist shibboleths of the Peru's et all, designed to resurrect a red scare are, in and of themselves, in and of themselves have lost any meaningful resonance. The real great fear out here amongst the masses is, the continued feeding by well meaning people and parties, of this "free market" juggernaut that has lost all sense of rhyme or reason... And I would say, is drifting us all inexorably to wards fascism.

Still, I shall watch with interest. And we shall all see soon enough if this is just another social democratic will-o'-the-wisp, or something more substantial. And you will have to excuse my cynicism. It's not like it is unjustified.

In any case, it is the right extremists of the Peru et alilk, whom I at least have to thank, for recreating the social and economic conditions that are tending to call up again, a revitalized and influential Left.

These guys deserve no pity. They have brought us AGAIN, this latest failed capitalism period... that hopefully is the brick wall the likes of I have been waiting for them to terminally hit.

Meanwhile, in this coming short run period, hopefully itself only a lead-in time for a new social and economic order of things, Fait Lux captures its essence most appropriately with, " Long live protectionism and any government that brings it back, the same way we're protecting our homes, properties, families and ourselves !!!!!!!!!!!".

Amen to that.... for starters. :-)

Dix - Hard Core Leftist

Compare Farnworth and Dix:

1.Angus Reid Strategies:

"Who do you think would be a good choice to replace Carole James as leader of the BC New Democratic Party (NDP)"

Farnworth: 43% (~NDP vote in 2009)
Dix: 27%

http://www.visioncritical.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/2011.03.22_Politics_BC.pdf

2. Ipsos:

"What are your impression of the following NDP leadership candidates":

Farnworth: +22
Dix: -6

http://ipsos-na.com/images/news-polls/media/5184-2lg.png

3. Ipsos

"Best Premier:

Christy Clark: 44%
Adrian Dix: 25%

http://ipsos-na.com/images/news-polls/media/5184-7lg.png

These are absolutely dismal numbers for Dix. I'd wager that he will bring future NDP polling numbers down from 42% in the 2009 election to the 33% range or even lower.

There many federal Conservative/provincial NDP voters in BC and I'd also wager that Cummins will be the future main beneficiary of these voters.

Likewise, many soft centrist NDP voters will begin to move to the Liberals.

BTW, Adrian Dix has the most dour and humourless personality that the NDP has ever elected as leader. He comes across as an undertaker in a funeral parlour. Not good.

Looks like the 2011 election and the 2015 election are now in the bag for the Libs. Perahps post-2015, when the NDP perhaps decides to elect its own version of Gary Doer, will the NDP become competitive for the 2019 election.

Like Mike Harcourt said last week: "You go left - you get left out."

The NDP just became "not viable" as an alternative

For the majority of voters in BC. It just does not matter what the card-carrying NDPers think, say or want. It still takes a majority of the voting population in the majority of ridings, to get elected.
Dix will be portrayed as a corrupt, radical "lefty" and the NDP will be consigned to opposition. And BC will again elect the most corrupt government in the history of Canada, surpassing even Quebec.

Luke

You've got some provincial numbers there but I notice you haven't been interested in any federal polls lately.

Why is that?

Because the Libs have fallen and the NDP is now in 2nd place in every province in Canada except Ontario (for now)?

Because pollsters like Angus Reid say this :

""The performance of NDP leader Jack Layton in the televised debates has led to the highest approval rating recorded by any Canadian federal politician in an Angus Reid Public Opinion poll over the past three years."

Maybe?

Inquiring minds want to know...

Time Reveals All...

Indeed, motivate that left-wing base... when you need the suckers at election time. :-) "The Left" sometimes, really does exhibit a level of naiveté that is astounding.

"The NDP has been in the middle of the road and has not won an election [since 1996]," he said. "The reality is people didn't want to stay in the middle anymore." Adrian Dix.

But which is okay. At least it is an acknowledgement that "the masses" out there really aren't scared by the admonitions and ravings of the lunatic "free marketeers" of Casino Capitalism anymore, with their bogeyman of Activist Big Government and attempts to resurrect a Red Scare back down on "the left". Indeed, folks are just beginning to twig on that, these ravers are in fact themselves "the problem" at the dark heart of capitalism and driving its "free market" criminal lunacy. And I would add, engineering the drift toward corporate fascism.

How deep it really runs with Dix and the NDP however, we shall just have to see. But you will excuse my cynicism which suggests that the greatest likelihood is, based on past history, it is just another "get elected" quick ploy... likely devoid of real substance or willingness to seriously challenge this dark heart of the "free marketers" of Casino Capitalism.

But that is for another day. Now, we shall let living history demonstrate which is really which for us. And the masses. :-) And we have the Rightists such as Bobby Peru and kind to thank for first, this exposure of real capitalism themselves, which has not really substantively changed over its entire history from the time of the Cromwellian and Industrial Revolution... and still brings us cyclical economic collapse, poverty to the working class, and a dominant fascist desire tendency. They are calling forth for us, (Thank you, dudes.) a resurgent Left... and you can recall I said that. Even if some of this "resurgent left", in the early going, be but "pretenders". They are all part of the game, seeking to turn what is coming away from seriously challenging capitalism, as this time continues to evolve. And evolving, it is.

In any case, over the short run at least, I agree with Fait's observation, "Long live protectionism and any government that brings it back, the same way we're protecting our homes, properties, families and ourselves !!!!!!!!!!!".

And in protecting ourselves, also the value of our labour.

But then it also has to lead to something more as well, in my view... the end of capitalism and the rise of a new co-operative rather than "competitive" arrangement of society and the economy, and relationship with nature... and democracy that extends into our day to day work place economic enterprises as much as a re-invigorated "new" democratic model political arrangement. Going through all this simply to leave capitalism intact to repeat this bullshit yet another time, on yet another generation of working people, would itself be a kind of crime against humanity. In my view. :-)

cbo44

Please see remarks directed at Lukie above.

I'm pleased you think that Dix is a problematic leader.. EDITED FOR PERSONAL INSULTS

I heard Dix speak before the vote...

I heard Dix speak before the vote and as much as I support a progressive slant, his speech will gain little support among centrists like me. It was old-fashioned, capitalist-bashing, make-the-rich-pay leftism.

The Canadian economy is doing well in comparison to many Western countries and developed economies. However, I think it is fragile. The other big problem in BC is that so much of the economy is tied to an inflated land and real estate development market. Corporate tax cuts won't attract businesses because their employees can't afford a decent lifestyle here. Economic development is a real challenge now. What will happen when all the stimulus money is spent and the stimulus effectively created by big P3 infrastructure and public buildings development dries up?

Horgan was my first choice

But at least Dix is not Farnworth and Liberals can't play the gay card against their soccer mom. Dix is also not Carol James and that's a blessing
On TV tonight He also looked honest and genuine instead of ratlike with those big brown eyes, so onwards and upwards team. Ya go with what ya got. And yes turn Horgan loose to tear them phony Liberals a new one over the privatization of our rivers and BC Hydro.

coyote

"it is just another "get elected" quick ploy"

LOL, I've heard lots of analysis about the NDP choosing Dix but I have to admit coyote you're the only one to say its just a ploy to get-elected-quick!!!

The Reckoning

Leaving aside the partisan arguments, this provincial election will be a desperate test for the the NDP. If they can't win in the centre or the left then what's left to justify the party's existence or their beliefs.

Dix's rallying cry that most people in BC are NDP supporters and that all they need is a messiah to make them vote and see the truth about the worker's paradise is either sheer genius or delusional fear. Maybe most people in BC are NDP, but not Dix's kind of fire and brimstone, bash the businessmen sort of NDP. Evidently, the unions and street fighting socialist thugs that support him cannot compromise their principles.

Then, maybe all the Liberals have to do to win is for Clark to dip a bit to the left- show the kinder, gentler side of the LIberals, to stay in power.

But, if the NDP lose this election based on what is a radical strategy, what's the point of keeping the party if it only wants to pursue losing election campaigns? This election is more than about the NDP trying to win; it's a fight for their relevance and survival.

Something going on...

The media blew it, the BC Liberals blew it, they didn`t even give Dix 24 hours.

They shot off everything they got, memo gate under Clark and memberships, the chambers in their gun is empty.

Now what?

The more I get to thinking about Dix the more I like our chances.

The name calling is over let`s discuss issues.

Good Day

To the left please...and thank-you!

It is about time the NDP decided to go back to the left. fighting for the middle was and is a losing proposition. No wonder all those people didn't vote in the last few elections...I can hardly blame them when all they got was the same right wing garbage from both parties. I am happy that Dix won...it seems to me that all the leadership in the NDP that was endorsing the middle of the road leadership candidates got a message from the the membership that we know where we want our party to go and if they don't want to they can always join those BC Liberals! I always wondered why that crew decided to call themselves Liberals...it looks like a Reformer and quacks like an Alliance and behaves like a Harper Conservative...nothing remotely liberal...perhaps they were confused with Libertarians...

Bobby Peru

GWest already dealt with your grossly over the top mischaracterization so let's talk about this quote of yours :

"But, if the NDP lose this election based on what is a radical strategy, what's the point of keeping the party if it only wants to pursue losing election campaigns?"

You already answered this question in your own post. Don't you see it? Its in the paragraph directly above the quote. Without the NDP the political axis shifts to the Right.

The NDP makes all other parties more left-wing.

Well then

Dix is the number one candidate for attracting dedicated new members, which is what this party needs above all. There's no campaign without the campaigners, and middle of the road politics doesn't attract people with conviction and ideas that will stick it out through the nitty gritty... that approach has already failed, leaving the NDP anemic of membership and funds, without which a party can never win.

I am young. I know many other people like me are pissed at not ever having a chance at owning property, at never getting a chance at a job that pays jack shit compared to the costs out here, at our ridiculously skyrocketing tuitions, and not least of all, global problems like global warming, destructon of the environment, peak oil, peak food, and dwindling water supplies. We have a lot of resources but Canada is not a fortress, and my generation will be the ones to deal with this shit, not you boomers and gen-xers who didn't bother having enough of us to pay for your own healthcare.

What I'm saying is: there are problems out there that the Liberals will never be able to address, because they are a cause of these problems. The NDP can be a solution.

You naysayers probably know a lot less about politics than you think, and for every minute you volunteer I bet you spend ten online. I will personally sign up ten new members for each and every one of you. Get your asses in gear, there's a new leader with guts to spare and it's time to chop the Liberals up!

A changing world

There's sure to be some angst when the full measure of our recession hits. Resource-based economies are always last into the dumper, and last to come out. Takes 18-24 months in each direction.

Which would explain the roll-off in real estate pricing on the Sunshine Coast and the North Island we're seeing now. You won't hear the Board of Cut-throat Salespeople talking the truth about it, but despite large numbers of Chinese trying to flee their country with their cash and buying anything in sight, total domestic numbers of sales are down, and have been since December, and prices are starting to roll off in less fortunate markets.

There's no real danger of an Irish melt-down that I can see - a few foreclosures mebbe from the formerly-wealthy Calgarians who used to fly to Sechelt or Tofino on the weekend, but for the foreseeable future, artificially creating wealth by means of bidding up real estate in a Ponzi scheme of mortgage-backed inflated expectations is now over. Global economists say so, big banks can't afford to get mixed up and burnt again, small lenders won't be able to service all the applications and "adjustments" that will be required, and will simply stop servicing retail at anything like the rate they used to. And as a result, competition for mortgage money will fall and rates will rise.

No... they've already risen.

Look around you. This is the last gasp of the age of the Lilliputian real estate barons. In the global context, Vancouver is over-valued by 60%, and the province by about 25%. There's nowhere to go but down, and there'll be nowhere for the real estate board to hide from that fact when the last bus back to Kowloon leaves in about a year. Thereafter, the only money made in real estate again will be by dint of hard work - renting it, repairing it, reconstructing it, remitting it.

So anyone who wants to pin the decline of the real estate market on a future NDP victory has an ocean of ignorance pouring out of the holes in his head.

In the final analysis it's all about intelligence

The world isn't run by simple ideology any longer...the key to the whole thing is understanding and dealing with complexity because we live in a complex bureaucratic province organized according to complicated legal requirements and complex business practices.

There are NO EASY SOLUTIONS and a simpleton like Christina Clark just doesn't have the mental jam or the depth of knowledge to run the province effectively.

She can't run the province because she doesn't have the ability or the understanding to do the job...therefore, she is (and will be) nothing more than a wind up dolly mouthpiece for the same elite corporatist interests who pulled Campbell's strings.

As Ricky points out above, young people are beginning to appreciate the dilemma the last 10 years has created for them and, if they actually do care about creating a future for themselves and their families in this province, they will turn out in numbers as volunteers and voters.

And THEY will show the BCLiberal coalition the door.

zalm - a changing world

Real estate in Vancouver and BC has tanked before and will tank again.

Yes it has

But never from this position, so heavily overvalued. Even in 1982, real estate never came off more than 15% overall, yet you had foreclosures and people walking away from their houses by the score, and some might have thought the world had come to an end. And that was from a period when Vancouver was not overvalued by global standards.

But now it is.....

Christy Clark: Thank you,

Christy Clark: Thank you, dear god, thank you....

Frank.... The Faithful.

In every election of significance I've known run by the NDP, with the exception of during the more blatantly "business friendly" Carole James, the NDP starts off sounding "quite left", as the Liberals are now as well. Then, as election day draws near and thereafter, if the succeed, in power, also the same as the Liberals, the move by degree back to the right. Sounding left, in the run-up, has always been the ploy of the NDP, to rally "the troops"... thereafter to serve the same old, same old ruling class, moving back right to the positions they will govern from. The Democratic Party in the US actually uses the same "toying with the sympathies of the masses" manoeuvre.

It's their, more accurately, "quick" rally of the troops ploy, as part of their "sneak" into power soft-shoe-shuffle... which once "the troops" are wise to it, otherwise sit the bullshit out.

I've been here many times before, Frank. As have you, EDITED FOR INSULT DIRECTED AT ANOTHER POSTER -- TYEE MODERATOR

Shape Shifting...

"And THEY will show the BCLiberal coalition the door." GWest.

I am less certain, but would go a tad further in any case, suggesting that the BC Liberal Coalition is really a demonstration of the "interchangeability" of Liberals and Conservatives, and that really, what exists in fact behind the false flag of a BC Liberal Coalition... is in reality a Coalition of the most extreme right wing elements of a number of parties of capitalism... Reform, the Action Party etc. It is, more accurately, a "Conservative Coalition", I suggest, bordering on fascist.

Within the context of BC, upon examination of their actual political positions, it is the NDP that is the real "Liberal" Party here. Again, a demonstration that labels "can often" conceal as much or more than they reveal. (Again, Fait's often referred to example of the Fascists and the Stalinist Communists... both in fact, upon close examination of their politics, history and practises, producing similar kinds of an oppressive "State Capitalism" result... behind different false flags/fronts.) One thing about the ruling class everywhere is, they have ruled for a very long time, and know how to do it... and survive. And "shape shifting" is one of their most remarkable specialities.

We need a politian and

We need a politian and Premier who care about the people of BC Especially the kids who go without enough food and other needs
People should not have to suffer because there are such greedy people in the world

A rock and a hard place

The big issue in the next election should be ethics, it's where the BC Liberals are totally vulnerable, so the NDP chooses as its leader... a forger who attempted to obstruct a police inquiry and pervert the course of justice. You couldn't make it up - six months ago the Liberals were dead in the water, today the only hope of the opposition is if the electorate proves not to care about the very issue that should have killed the government. Quite a paradox!

Oh, I know that the media is biased but if a guy's coming for you with a baseball bat do you give him a Kalashnikov? Dix may have lovely eyes and a charming smile, so does Christy, but the backdated memberships prove he has learned nothing from the "mistake" of the backdated memos, except that he got away with it again.

I'll probably vote NDP but what a choice, a Premier and a Leader of the Opposition whose attitude to public accountability is indistinguishable.

Yes, Ricky, I agree.

"if you talk to people, it sickens them hearing about Encana gas profits, record bank profits, corporations sitting on $trillions and their Government wants to lower their tax rates and load it on them.

The public is angry with the coroporate mouth pieces.

Adrian Dix time is ripe."

Yes, this is what I hear all the time. And people were tired of all the parties moderately sucking into the centre-right. We can't keep cutting business taxes, they are already the lowest in Canada. Are we to become like Tennessee and Kentucky, and pay companies to come in, with free land to boot, when we might as well just set up welfare and entrepreneurial training for residents and save money instead?

I am young gen X, on the cusp of Y. Us kids are annoyed with the status quo, and getting fixed to vote... Christy may be cute and female, but her policies and general demeanour that I've seen so far are not convincing. I don't need a mom to tell me what to do, especially if she acts like Palin! No more fairytales for me, please.

Or was that GWest, or Zalm, or fiat lux?

Evidence is always nice if it's available. I don't think a backdated memo (not a bribing scheme and DUI?) is nearly as reprehensible as the Liberal overspending, attack on the social net, repeated union busting, and sale-sale-sale of all public corporations are.

I've studied economics at university. In first year, you learn that private company profits, and that means service will decline almost every time even at a slightly raised price. Now that the rail and the gas company and the health records admin have been sold off and the head office jobs are in other provinces, I feel I've been sold a bill of goods that I didn't even vote for.