The NDP blew it! Even party stalwarts …except those so blind they will NOT see … have to admit, Adrian Dix and the party strategists threw an election victory that SHOULD have been in the bag.
And they cannot blame the MSM for this loss: they can only blame themselves and analyse what went so terribly wrong.
Let me help.
No, it was NOT the success of the Liberal negative ads. As the polls showed consistently in the early weeks of the campaign, they affected almost no one who didn’t already dismiss the NDP. Nor was it Dix’s strategy NOT to go negative in the either: the emphasis on child poverty skills training, education and health funding increases, and job losses struck nerves.
What did them in?
The NDP listened and pandered TOO MUCH to their own constituents, and to some extent, to Green supporters they hoped to win over (but didn’t).
And they forgot, ignored or failed to win over those they needed most: centre of the road FREE ENTERPRISE and RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT supporters: people who, YES, do care about the environment, BUT also realize BC IS a resource province and support a middle ground that would ALLOW resource development as long as state-of-the-art environmental protections are in place to minimize any dangers.
But the NDP, during the campaign, became the party of “NO” : “NO” to Kinder Morgan; “NO” to Enbridge: “NO” to coastal tanker traffic; “NO” to expanded West coast coal exports; “NO” to the Prosperity gold copper mine in the Cariboo: “NO” to the Raven mine in the Comox Valley; “NO” to increased coal exports through Delta; “NO” to BC Hydro’s Site “C” dam; “NO” to Jumbo Glacier Resort; possibly ”NO’ to fracking; and “No” to keeping the Convention Centre and ”No” to keeping BC Place… if buyers could be found.
“No” “No” “No”
Clearly the people disagreed.
In many voters’ minds, “No” meant “No” to jobs, “No” to royalties, “No” to taxes …”No” to the development they see as necessary for a strong economy.
That’s what did the NDP in.
There is “NO’ way (forgive the play on THE word) that the public were endorsing the Liberal record of the past two or ten years. There is “No” way the Liberals should assume British Columbians have endorsed “more of the same” disrespect for the legislature, the public’s right to know what’s really going on inside government; or endorsed using public staff for party purposes.
Meanwhile, as you read this, I am out of the province. No, not fleeing! Another break … enjoying more retirement travel.
But I WILL be back by the end of month …just in time for Christy Clark to start governing WITH a mandate to do so and, no doubt soon after, start giving me LOTS to blog about again!
Harv Oberfeld
(P.S. As always, comments and reactions to this blog are welcome. However, since I am out of the country right now, without regular access to the Internet, please forgive delays in having your remarks posted or responded to to keep the discussion going.)
