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Dix giving acceptance speech live
Dix: 9,772 votes - 51.8%
Farnworth: 9,095 votes - 48.2%
Dix wins by 677 votes.
I think the media hatchet job was coming no matter what. The Farnworth honeymoon wouldn't have held up for long. It'll all depend on how Dix handles it. One thing that is encouraging is that he doesn't seem like the type to get rattled by it, he'll do his thing regardless of what the media tries to bully him into. That's a good thing if it continues.
That's why I voted for him. Frankly, I wasn't impressed with any of the candidates, though obviously they're all leagues above Clark. The thing is that all candidates everywhere will say they'll make things "more democratic", "more open" and "more accessible." I don't think those claims can ever be taken seriously because it isn't in their interests to do so. Therefore the key decision making processes I made are based on how they handle themselves and their stances on the issues.
Despite what a lot of people around here have said, I wasn't actually that offended by Farnworth due to the fact that he said a lot of good things about a lot of policies (land use and the environment for instance). The only problem with him was his crime stance, where in he seemed to have little understanding of preventative measures and his insistence on being seen as "moderate" to the point where it became ridiculous. Frankly, I appreciated the fact that Dix was willing to take on the NDP's weakest planks, i.e. the economy and attempt to turn them into a strength. Because despite what the average NDP supporter may think, the NDP is not seen as credible on the economy and it's unlikely it ever will. But if it lets the Liberal narrative that they're economic geniuses, when the numbers show that that simply isn't the case, then we can never expect the NDP to win because the economy and fiscal management will always be a key aspect of governance.
Despite the fact that Dix is the easiest for the media to attack, he's also by far the best at deflecting attack and I have to agree that the hatchet job was going to come no matter what. All three of the leading candidates had ties to the NDP administration of the 90s so there's no point in avoiding it and frankly most parties have ties to unpopular defeated administrations of past. Farnworth was a Cabinet Minister, Horgan was high up in the political staff as was Dix. Despite the fact that the media fawned over Farnworth I'm pretty confident they'd turn on him when the time was right. So while I'm not as excited about his victory as I am about the Canucks, I'll give Dix the benefit of the doubt for at least one election and I'm more confident in his abilities than the other candidates.
That's a fair analysis. Dix, unlike Horgan and Farnworth, really seemed focused on 'growing the base' and engaging with disenchanted voters - ie rather than devoting all of our efforts to pursuing an ever-shrinking pool of 'centrist' swing voters, we should try to get more people out to vote with an unabashedly leftist pitch that speaks to their concerns. This is one of the themes that New West councillor Jaimie McEvoy hit on a lot in a speech I attended a few months ago - he said you'd be surprised how many people will come out to vote if you give them something to vote for.
While I have to confess that I'm still a bit skeptical of Dix's approach, it's probably worth a try.
John Horgan tried to withdraw his name after the 1st ballot but did not get the paperwork submitted in time.
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Column+Hammell+decision/4631882/story.html
Watched Steve Darling interview Dix this AM. Was pleasantly surprised by how he countered Steve's yapping about changing the memo date.
Was even more surprised at how he spoke about positive action and planning as opposed to negative and bank/corporate friendly actions.
Overall...I feel about 85% better about Dix being chosen.
People need to ask themselves, why the Liberals are so willing to talk about the 90s? It makes it seem like they have something to hide seeing as we're in the 10's now. It was two decades ago and the Liberals will have been in power for over ten years by the time we go to the next election. Don't they have a record that needs to be judged?
I've seen a few leadership races where the media builds up a certain contender only for that individual to falter once the race is over (Paul Martin, Dwain Lingenfelter in Saskatchewan, Greg Sellinger in Manitoba). I'd actually suggest that whenever there's a leadership race in any political party, the person the media picks is exactly the person who should not lead.
I wonder what the real vote was
Not the sihota count
The real totals
Good comments except for the trollish comment at 41.
I love Adrian's comeback on Glen Clark. Do you mean the President of the largest private company in BC? He has gone on to have a very successful career and now lets talk about BC rail and Kash Heed.
He seems to have the ability so far to deflect the media attack dogs and that is the biggest ingredient to getting elected, just as Dion.