After 10 years exiled from office in British Columbia -- and a decade of severe cutbacks under the BC Liberals -- the NDP says it is ready to take back power in 2013.
BC NDP
Adrian Dix on the way ahead for B.C.'s NDP
After 10 years exiled from office in British Columbia. -- and a decade of severe cutbacks under the BC Liberals -- the NDP says it is ready to take back power in 2013.
Earlier this month, 700 New Democrats from across B.C. gathered for the party's 50th anniversary and annual party convention. The convention saw no leadership race -- everyone attending wore a lanyard bearing, on orange string, the name of Adrian Dix. Rewind a year, and you'll recall some of the most bitter infighting in the party's history, with former leader Carole James -- whom Dix cites as a personal mentor and inspiration -- resigning after a mutiny.
In an interview with rabble.ca, Dix describes how the party intends to push forward in 2012 and beyond.
The BC NDP at 50: Looking back, looking forward
Speaking at the BC NDP 50th Anniversary Convention, BC Federation of Labour President Jim Sinclair described his election campaign war chest as over 500,000 strong, the members of the BC Fed affiliated unions.
Sinclair gave the figures for the margin of victory by the provincial Liberals in the last two elections: an increase in NDP votes cast of 2,500 in 2005 and of 3,800 votes in 2009 would have produced a different outcome. The obvious conclusion is that the role of labour in getting out the vote is likely to prove decisive in the next B.C. election, expected in May 2013.
An open letter to B.C. NDP leadership candidates
March 18, 2011
Candidates:
I, and many others, are concerned about the most pressing problem of our time and are looking for leaders who will put this problem foremost in their policy. It is a core problem that many of our other problems are connected to, and if we do not solve it first it will prevent any lasting solution for the other issues that are being addressed.
B.C. leaders must prioritize the environment
The Liberal and New Democratic parties are coming into the homestretch on their run to choose a new leader. The Libs will pick one this weekend, and B.C. will have a new premier. Seven weeks later the NDP will choose, and who knows how long before the new premier decides to call an election. Speculation is sometime before the 2013 mandated date.
The most important issue facing the province, in fact facing the world, is stabilization of the environment and the development and implementation of policies to insure a sustainable ecological system that can continue to support human society without a radical readjustment of that society. A readjustment that is certain to come if we continue to alter our ecosystem at to the degree and at the rate that we currently do.
Winds of change in B.C. politics?
The B.C. Liberal Party is scrambling to find a new leader who will most likely drag Gordon Campbell's rotten baggage into the next election. Issues like BC Rail and the HST, just to name a few, will be hard to avoid, and even harder to explain to a hostile public. The Liberal leadership race, however, is a sideshow compared to what is going on in the New Democrat Party.
People who understand effective leadership should be shocked and amazed at what has gone on in the NDP, and those that expect politicians and their advisors to act like adults should also be disturbed at some of the childishness being exhibited in Carole James' fall.
