Amid personal attacks, questions about costing, Horgan’s message heard
A dense crowd at B.C. NDP headquarters in downtown Vancouver alternated cheering and chanting with moments of nervousness as the election lead changed hands over the course of Tuesday evening.
The seat count, at press deadline, settled into a deadlock between the New Democrats and the B.C. Liberals with 42 apiece and three held by the Greens. Despite not landing a clear majority, the New Democrats were jubilant about their gains.
B.C. NDP Leader John Horgan had not appeared to speak to the crowd by press time.
Horgan’s campaign was dealt several body blows during the campaign. A heated exchange during a televised debate raised questions about his temperament.
The Opposition leader became increasingly animated as he responded to Premier Christy Clark’s baiting on the NDP’s socalled “alternate facts” platform. But when Clark touched his arm and asked him to calm down, Horgan snapped back, “Don’t touch me again, please.”
After the debate, Green party Leader Andrew Weaver called Horgan’s behaviour “outrageous.” But it was on social media where the damage was done as “Angry John” and “Hulk Horgan” tweets began to trend.
The Liberals pounced on the opportunity to paint Horgan as unstable and even sexist for the remainder of the campaign.
“People were concerned that the don’t-touch-me thing was going to be harmful, but it was incredible how quickly it turned around,” NDP deputy director Glen Sanford said. “I think we were able to convert that to our advantage, saying ‘Of course John is mad. He’s mad about what is happening to B.C.’ ”
The NDP platform came under attack from the Liberal campaign, which alleged Horgan had no way to pay for his biggest promises.
An NDP pledge to build 114,000 homes — from co-ops and nonmarket housing to affordable market housing — would cost billions of dollars not accounted for in the platform, the Liberals charged. Likewise, the $400 annual grant to the province’s renters was projected at over $200 million a year.
Horgan’s attempt to one-up Clark’s bridge-toll gap by eliminating all tolls was seized on as a giveaway by the Liberal campaign.
Details on how the party would meet its goal of eliminating Medical Services Plan premiums were similarly scant, but the Liberal attack was not entirely successful.
“One of the most import days of the campaign was when finance minister Mike de Jong attempted to poke holes in our costing and was torn apart at a press conference,” Sanford said.
“What appealed to voters was the message rather than the platform, speaking to values,” Sanford added. “We came out bluntly that Christy Clark is in it for the top two per cent, John Horgan will work hard for British Columbians, and that was the contrast we worked at all campaign. Ordinary people are not sharing in the bounty of B.C., but they are paying more for everything.”
NDP messaging consistently depicted Clark as beholden to big-money donors that benefit from her pro-business agenda, while Liberal strategists tried to place Horgan in the pocket of Big Labour, and American Big Labour to boot, by pointing out that the U.S.-based United Steelworkers Union was paying NDP campaign staff salaries.
In the final days of the campaign — including late visits to Green strongholds on Vancouver Island — Horgan seldom missed an opportunity to point out the dangers of an NDP-Green vote split.
“John spoke directly to people considering the Greens, pointing out shared values and keying on the need to replace Christy Clark and ban big money from politics,” Sanford said.