B.C. party leaders spar over pipeline

Rivals target NDP’S Dix in debate as pre-election polls give him big lead

VANCOUVER — Monday’s primetime showdown had B.C. New Democratic Party Leader Adrian Dix pushing his green credentials as Premier Christy Clark went on the offensive, attacking him for his proposed spending and changing positions on the expansion of the Kinder Morgan pipeline.

Both those leaders had to fend off criticism from the Green party’s Jane Sterk and the B.C. Conservative Party Leader John Cummins, whose frank opening remarks in Monday’s TV debate set the crosshairs on Dix.

“Look, everyone knows the Liberals can’t win this election, so you probably tuned in to see what Adrian Dix looks like as premier,” Cummins said.

Dix defended his recent opposition to the proposed twinning of Kinder Morgan’s TransMountain pipeline, reiterating his stance that the a ninefold increase in tanker traffic to Vancouver’s waters is unpalatable to the public.

Dix also said his answer to most major resource development projects “is generally, yes, I just don’t believe it’s a choice between our economy and our environment.”

Clark once again accused Dix of having concealed his real position on the pipeline until just recently.

Clark’s B.C. Liberals tried to push a similar angle in the hours before Monday’s debate, circulating comments made by an NDP candidate in Cariboo-Chilcotin from last week, which the B.C. Liberals say prove the NDP would kill the province’s natural gas industry.

“The position of the NDP is that there will be a moratorium put on fracking for the next two years while the science will be brought together to find out the effect, if anything, that fracking has on the water table,” the NDP’s Charlie Wyse told an all-candidates meeting on Friday in Bridge Lake.

Dix responded on Monday morning, saying Wyse misspoke.

“We don’t support a moratorium on hydraulic fracturing,” Dix said.

“We do support a review. We are concerned around the issue of water use and we will conduct that if we are elected, based on the science.”

On Monday, Energy Minister Rich Coleman said he thinks the comments show the NDP either has a hidden agenda on natural gas, or that the NDP is not yet ready to lead.

Monday’s debate came as polls show the NDP has a significant lead over the B.C. Liberals ahead of the May 14 provincial election.

A poll released last week found the Liberals had gained slightly since the campaign began, but are still trailing the New Democrats by a major gap of 14 points.

Conducted by Angus Reid, the poll found NDP support is unchanged from mid-April at 45 per cent of decided voters. It found the B.C. Liberals had increased three points from that time to 31 per cent, and the B.C. Conservatives and Greens had both dropped slightly, netting 11 and 10 per cent respectively.

Conducted April 24-25, the poll involved 812 members of an online panel. The margin of error is 3.5 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

Justason Market Research released another poll Monday before the television debate showing the NDP had a much larger, 22-point lead, over the Liberals.

“This is insurmountable,” said Barb Justason, the owner of Justason Market Research. “Even a knockout in (Monday’s) debate wouldn’t matter.”

Conducted a week ago, Justason’s polling firm found the NDP has the support of 49 per cent of decided voters, compared with 27 per cent for the Liberals. The B.C. Conservatives and provincial Green party have 12 and 11 per cent support respectively, she found.

The poll was conducted among 600 people between April 15-23. It has a margin of error of plus/minus four percentage points.