Dix to stay on as NDP leader; defends ‘ positive’ campaign
Adrian Dix said Wednesday that he intends to stay on as leader of the provincial NDP, at least while the party undertakes a comprehensive review of its May 14 election loss.
A contrite Dix told reporters that he takes “full responsibility” for the NDP’s disastrous campaign, and that he will work with the party to hold Premier Christy Clark’s Liberals to their expansive promises.
“We didn’t win, and disappointment doesn’t begin to describe how that feels. As the leader of the B. C. NDP, I take full responsibility for this defeat,” Dix said. “This was an impossibly disappointing result.”
In his first news conference since his party failed to capitalize on a large lead in preelection polls, Dix said he sees no reason to resign his position, especially since the party already “has mechanisms” in its constitution to deal with shedding a leader. Under the NDP’s constitution, the party leader faces a mandatory leadership review at every annual convention. The next such gathering is scheduled for November.
But NDP strategist and former MLA David Schreck said there is no chance that Dix will lead the party into the 2017 election. At best, Dix may be able to stay as interim leader until 2016, when the party should choose a new leader who has both the style and substance to take on the Liberals.
“If you look at the history of the NDP, it doesn’t tolerate people who blow a 20- point lead. Leaders in the NDP are not given a second chance,” he said. “( Dix is) a political realist. The only ball in the air is whether he will be the interim leader until the 2016 replacement, or whether somebody else will be.”
Asked repeatedly whether he should step down now, Dix told reporters he is “a servant of both the party and the caucus” and will take direction from them during and after the review.
“I can assure you this review will spare nothing and no one, least of all me. This will not be a simple internal review.”
Clark’s Liberals won 50 of the legislature’s 85 seats, the NDP took 33, the Green party won one, and independent Vicki Huntington was also elected.
Dix blamed the NDP’s election loss on three mistakes: not criticizing the Liberals’ campaign hard enough; not fully explaining how the NDP’s platform was a positive change for the future; and Dix’s unexpected opposition of the Kinder Morgan pipeline proposal.
But he defended his decision to run a generally positive campaign, even as the Liberals were gaining traction with a series of negative ads.
“Clearly our campaign was not good enough. We did not do a good enough job prosecuting the case against the government based on their record,” he said.
Dix’s decision to announce that an NDP government
wouldn’t support Kinder Morgan gave the Liberals unnecessary ammunition.
“My announcement about our position on the Kinder Morgan pipeline on Earth Day hurt our campaign. The way I raised it raised a number of process issues that stuck with us,” he said. “Plainly, I didn’t handle the issue very well.”
For weeks leading up to the election and even into it, the public had been conditioned by public opinion polls to believe the NDP held a virtually insurmountable lead over the Liberals.
Dix said he never believed the polls were accurate, and he thought the NDP were at best five points ahead of the governing Liberals. He thought the race would be much closer, but was as surprised as anyone when the results showed the Liberals heading for a new majority.
Clark, who lost her VancouverPoint Grey seat to NDP newcomer David Eby, still needs to decide where she will seek a seat in a byelection.