Adrian Dix is not the politician he used to be
NDP LEADER EMBRACES CHANGE
It’s raining outside and the view from the ninth floor of the Guinness Tower on West Hastings Street is one of shifting cloud patterns. Fall has arrived in Vancouver and change, it seems, is in the air.
Six months from now, British Columbians will cast a vote in the province’s 40th election. And there is a good chance they will elect the man sitting on the other side of the large conference table inside the New Democrats’ downtown office with an Americano Misto in his hand.
Since assuming leadership of the party 18 months ago, Adrian Dix has enjoyed a steady climb in both his personal approval ratings and that of the NDP, a party whose less-than-impressive election record consists of three wins in the last 40 years.
It’s a streak Dix hopes to improve on next spring. And judging by the way things have been playing out of late, it seems that the governing Liberals and B.C. Conservatives will oblige.
It could be argued that the Liberals’ continued misfortunes, and the slow train-wreck that is the Conservatives, have allowed Dix, who was part of the NDP government to form office in 1996, to sit pat and watch his opponent’s slowly destroy themselves.
Such thoughts, however, don’t complement the NDP leader’s well-known work ethic or his mantra of not taking anything for granted.
While the Liberals stumbled, Dix continued to push the NDP brand.
A tour up north to trace the route tankers would take should Enbridge Inc.’s pipeline proposal go through is just one effort to draw comparison between what he is offering and what the Liberal government is trying to sell.
Polls aside, there is further evidence that other, less likely bedfellows, are starting to listen to what he’s saying. A recent speech at a Vancouver Board of Trade luncheon was well-received. And his leadership levee, held on the eve of the Liberals’ fist-pumping convention last weekend in Whistler, featured a heavy-business presence, including Enbridge.
Despite all the attention, however, Dix said — as expected — that he’s not taking anything for granted.
“I believe profoundly that people in B.C. want a change in government,” Dix said in an interview with The Sunday Province this week. “But we want to earn that change. We don’t just want it to come because people don’t like the Liberal Party. I want to earn the win.”
Change has been a mainstay of the Dix narrative for the past year and a half. However, more than just a change in government, Dix has consistently called for a change in the way politics is conducted in B.C., something he has tried to show leadership on by turning the other cheek when confronted by the latest Liberal attack ad.
But sitting across from him this week, it is also apparent that Dix himself has undergone considerable change since winning the party’s leadership last April over fellow NDPers John Horgan and Mike Farnworth.
Covering Dix back then was like watching two different people in action: on stage, he appeared overly serious and tight, much different than the relaxed and jocular person who showed up after the cameras stopped rolling.
It’s the latter person the public is starting to see more consistently, even when Dix is tackling the serious issues of the day.
“I think the idea that I’m the leader of the NDP is something that takes some getting used to,” he explained. “You are one of the MLAs on the team, and then you become leader and that is a change — a change that requires adjustment in approach.”
“But I feel that the party has come together and given me great support,”
“There is a tendency to over-promise in politics and under-deliver. I want to under-promise and over-deliver.”
— ADRIAN DIX NDP LEADER
he continued. “We have enormous unity and purpose in our caucus and people have been very generous to me and I hope I’m getting better.”
To earn the victory he seeks, Dix acknowledged his party will have to put forward an agenda that resonates with voters.
While he’s been mostly clear on his intended tax policies (increases to both the corporate and bank tax and, potentially a personal income tax increase for high-income earners) as well as his desire to beef up skills training and post-secondary education, further policy details aren’t likely to be released until after the next budget.
He has conceded, however, that the NDP’s platform will be a modest one — given financial constraints — and also won’t seek to bring about dramatic change, as past NDP governments have done through a flood of bills.
“If you do too much, you don’t do enough of it well,” he said. “I think you have to tell people what is practical in one four-year term. I think that there is a tendency to over-promise in politics and under-deliver. I want to underpromise and over-deliver.”
Broadly speaking, he said an Adrian Dix government would focus on making the economy more productive by bolstering domestic manufacturing, address B.C.’s high inequality levels, bolster post-secondary education and skills training programs, and take a hard look at sustainability.
As for comparing the Adrian Dix of today to the Adrian Dix who left politics in the 1990s, following the nowinfamous memo-backdating incident, the Vancouver Kingsway MLA said he’s learned from his past mistakes.
“I think the main difference between how I look back at that time and how the Liberals do is that I take responsibility for the successes and the mistakes. And I think it is a failure to (not) take responsibility. That is a problem the Liberal Party has.”