BC NDP Leader Adrian Dix issued a statement Tuesday, offering an explanation and form of apology for the surprise provincial election loss he presided over recently. In the letter, published here, he accepts responsibility for the loss, acknowledging a common criticism of the campaign - levied often in these pages - that he wasn't tough enough on his Liberal opponents. "We did not do a good job prosecuting the case against the government, based on their record," Dix admits. And yet, he appears to remain committed to the "nice guy" approach that to many observers was his undoing: "I don't believe last week's results are the end of 'positive politics' in BC."

Read this column from the Tyee's political reporter Andrew MacLeod, asking whether BC NDP Leader Adrian Dix should step down following his recent surprise loss to the BC Liberals and Christy Clark. (May 20, 2013)

The British Columbia New Democratic Party should plan on holding a leadership contest in two or three years and use that momentum to build towards the 2017 election, said former MLA and strategist David Schreck.

 

"No one can go into an election with the expectations that were held, driven by large gaps in the polls that were maintained up until election day, and come out with hugely disappointing results and expect the chance to do it again," said Schreck.

 

That's a view quietly shared by many both inside and outside the party, but not universally, and so far not publicly acknowledged by leader Adrian Dix or people around him.

 

"What I'm going to do is continue on and meet the caucus and meet the party in the coming days and we're going to draw conclusions about where we go from here," Dix said on election night when asked if he would continue as leader.

 

"I'm going to respectfully meet the caucus," he said. "We're a democratic party and I have a democratic approach to leadership, so I'm not going to draw conclusions."

 

Despite having dropped in its share of the popular vote compared to 2009, attracting fewer total voters and losing seats while running against an unpopular premier, Dix looked on the bright side. "The election overall was fairly close. We always knew it was going to be and it was," he said.

 

"These are consecutive close elections," he said. "We'll have to draw conclusions as to what held us back from really the remaining five percent we needed to win in this election in order to succeed."

'You only get one kick at the cat': Schreck

The Canadian Press quoted NDP President and former cabinet minister Moe Sihota saying the party needs to figure out why it lost, but that to have a "revolving door on leadership" won't help.

That raises the question of whether a case can be made for Dix to stay.

Schreck said he believes there is no such case. Dix is intelligent and hard working, but "in this business you only get one kick at the cat when you have that kind of disappointment," he said. "That's just the way politics work."

The party will have a mandatory leadership review at its convention in the fall. Schreck said the party would be wise to change leaders in 2015 or 2016 to get a boost before the next election.

"Until then Adrian should stay on... with no expectation he's going to cling to power," said Schreck. "Anyone going through what he just went through would take some time to articulate what I've just said in his own words."

It's only two days after "the disaster" and Dix will need time to make the right decision, he said. "The pendulum swung so far you can't do it again."

Senior staff will have to change as well and the whole campaign approach will need to be rethought, he said. "The major thrust was to lower expectations," he said. "Which could be one of the reasons the base was not sufficiently energized to get out and vote."

Read more: http://thetyee.ca/News/2013/05/20/Adrian-Dix-NDP/?utm_source=mondayheadlines&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=200513

Mike Smyth had an interesting column in Sunday’s Province, dealing with the proposed second and much larger Kinder Morgan Pipeline to Vancouver, which would see a five-fold increase in tanker traffic through Vancouver's harbour. In it he told us that the company was being very laid back compared with Enbridge, holding a series of public information sessions. Mr. Smyth, quite correctly in my view, said that the public, if only mildly involved now, would change its attitude toward Kinder Morgan. And yet, Adrian Dix, the leader of the NDP, won’t take a stand on the Kinder Morgan line until it formally files its application. This cop-out is raw cowardice.

No sooner had the news been out that the US was looking to be self-sufficient in energy than the bottom feeders rose as one to tell us this means we must update our mining of the tar sands and the piping of it though BC to the coast then shipping by tanker to Asia. The US will no longer need our filthy bitumen so we must redouble our efforts to bugger up the environment in BC to ship the even more of the stuff down our fjords. What ever happened to weaning ourselves off fossil fuels? If the rapacious industry must continue to mine bitumen, send it to a refinery in Alberta. Irrespective of US capabilities, there will always be a world market for oil.

Mike Smyth of the Vancouver Province took on Adrian Dix this morning for not applying the same principles in his stance on the proposed Enbridge pipeline and consequent tanker traffic to the proposed Kinder Morgan pipeline twinning. Mike is absolutely right. Dix has shown a political wimpishness which puts him, on this issue at any rate, right there alongside Premier Christy Clark. The proposed lines both go through wild, inaccessible areas of BC, will carry the same gunk (bitumen), with the same certainty of disaster...Get your act together, Mr. Dix or, on this issue at any rate, you aren’t much of an improvement over Premier Clark.

We have a jurisdictional clash here, for under The Constitution Act, federal power over fisheries is paramount but the Provinces have control over “Property and Civil Rights”. There’s no question in my mind that the Province can and should legislate so as to protect all wildlife, which is its clear right. Hunting laws are provincial as are fishing laws over those which do not go to sea. The dangerous ground is that if the “pith and substance” of your laws was to deal in fisheries over which Ottawa has jurisdiction it might be struck down by the courts. There is absolutely no need to be concerned about that if you proceed properly. Dealing with the pipeline, there is an unquestionable provincial right to protect all fauna and flora.

Read this story from the Vancouver Sun, reporting on the BC NDP's support for natural gas and LNG development in BC integral to BC's future, dismissing the mounting environmental concerns about fracking and LNG in the process. (June 14, 2012)

Opposition energy critic John Horgan sounded almost as happy as the B.C. Liberals recently when Shell Canada announced that it was moving forward on a $4-billion pipeline to transport natural gas from northeastern B.C. to a proposed liquefaction plant at Kitimat.

"Very good news," Horgan said. "I'm pretty excited about it. Shell's a big deal. They've got gas that they want to get out of the ground, and they want to get it to a market where they can get a better return than they do in North America."

Natural gas, not oil, be it noted. Still his enthusiasm for LNG development stands in marked contrast to the national NDP's recent doomsaying about resource exports, hydrocarbons, pipelines and tanker traffic.

When Horgan was reaffirmed as energy critic by new leader Adrian Dix last year - a position that is likely to translate into a term as energy minister if the New Democrats form government in 2013 - he made it clear that the party's green proclivities on oil would have limited application to development of the provincial natural gas resource.

"A natural-gas proposal makes sense," Horgan said, "because it's a product from British Columbia, so the royalties would stay here, the jobs would be created here. And gas vents; it doesn't stick."

His made-in-B.C. stance even extends to the most controversial aspect of natural gas development, namely the means of extracting it.

Fracking, to use the unflattering short-hand term for the process of hydraulically fracturing shale rock to release the gas trapped within, has generated concerns about excessive water use, subsurface pollution, and seismic activity.

But would Horgan "call for a moratorium on hydraulic fracturing until British Columbians know more?" The question was put to the would-be energy minister by would-be NDP candidate George Heyman of the Sierra Club during Horgan's recent appearance on Voice of B.C. on Shaw TV.

"No," was the clear implication of his more lengthy reply.

"People within the NDP predisposed to green, environmental concerns were troubled that you heard from other jurisdictions where people were lighting their taps on fire because the gas had seeped into aquifers and into the water tables.

"That's not the case in B.C. Our deposits are three and four kilometres under the ground. In Pennsylvania, the Marcellus play, which is providing gas now to much of Eastern Canada - that's very shallow, relative to our deposits."

He's impressed with the B.C. industry's experience and expertise. "We've been fracking in B.C. for decades and we do it fairly well. I've been to a number of frack sites, and I'm comfortable with the technology."

As for water use, he maintains the provincial party has already addressed those concerns. "We've put in place what we consider to be a scientific panel that would review and ensure that water is disposed of appropriately, and that we reduce the amount of fresh water that's involved in fracking."

Seismic activity? "Not significant issues when you're that deep in the ground. You wouldn't want to necessarily be fracking along the Juan de Fuca fault, but in the Peace country it's relatively safe - at least, that's what I'm advised, and I've not heard of any seismic activity in the Peace."

So green New Democrats like Hey-man should relax. But even as Horgan and his colleagues support fracking, pipelines, terminals and the tanker traffic necessary to transport the product overseas, there's another big challenge to LNG development.

Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/technology/Horgan+deems+greener+future/6780093/story.html

The recent polls show that you and your party have a wide lead over the Liberals and Conservatives – something which gives many of us who care deeply about the environment encouragement, including thousands of us who are not usually supportive of the NDP. It is those people whom I have in mind today...The 2013 election will largely be fought on environmental issues – for the first time in my long life. You must walk the tightrope of support of our environment and the rightwing allegations that you are anti-business. You must expect that the federal government will announce big contributions to the province so that we, too, can get rich out of the Tar Sands and be prepared for that.

Read this story from the Vancouver Sun on BC NDP Leader Adrian Dix's decision to seek legal counsel on stopping the proposed Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline. (May 13, 2012)

B.C. NDP leader Adrian Dix is predicting a "businesslike" relationship with Prime Minister Stephen Harper if the NDP wins next spring's provincial election, even though he's investigating ways to challenge a critical component of Harper's economic plan: Enbridge Inc.'s Northern Gateway pipeline megaproject.

Dix said Friday he's assembling a legal team headed by Vancouver lawyer Murray Rankin, a specialist in aboriginal, natural resource and environment law, to consider his legal options to oppose the controversial $5.5-billion pipeline proposal now before a federal review panel.

Dix said the legal team is looking at various legalities surrounding the issue, including the federal legislation and the Harper government's approach to the joint review of the Enbridge proposal by a panel drawn from the National Energy Board and the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency.

One matter they're looking at is a 2010 deal in which the B.C. government said it accepted that a federal environmental review would be equivalent to a B.C. process.

The agreement notes that the federal review will "take into account" the views of the public and first nations. Dix said there may be questions about whether Ottawa has fulfilled that commitment.

The NDP leader had tough words for Ottawa's handling of environmental reviews of two controversial natural resource projects: Calgary-based Enbridge's Northern Gateway pipeline and Vancouver-based Taseko's New Prosperity gold-copper mine.

The Harper government is aggressively championing the pipeline, tabling legislation certain to ease the project through the regulatory review process despite aggressive opposition from many B.C. first nations.

The project is also the centre-piece of Alberta Premier Alison Redford's so-called national energy strategy, which is seeking cross-Canada approval for infrastructure to get natural resources - especially oilsands crude - to key markets like China.

Christy Clark has stumbled from one gaffe to another since she took office. She must go and soon; if she stays, it will be the best news the NDP could get...Never mind the weeping that a split vote cost them Chilliwack and a turncoat won in Port Coquitlam – the fact is that the government lost two elections which were referenda on the Liberals and their leadership. There was another winner – big time: the environment. In Chilliwack, the Kinder-Morgan pipeline was a big issue – to my memory, the first time the Environment was a large issue there. These by-elections did more than alter the make-up of the Legislature; they altered politics in BC – Big Time.