B.C.'s election campaign
returns to some normalcy
By John Twigg
April 19
British Columbia's oftentimes turbulent election campaigns were seen again on Day One of this year's opus but since then things seemed to have settled down.
The B.C. Liberals scored a surprising win on Day One when they revealed that a nominated candidate had made some ill-worded remarks in an online chat forum a few years ago which forced NDP leader Adrian Dix to immediately remove her and he looked nervous for the rest of the day.
But Wednesday and yesterday Dix seemed to be back in a groove, visiting possible swing ridings held by cabinet ministers and announcing policy planks in their policy areas (finance and education) and holding well-attended rallies and generally coming off well in media coverage.
Indeed it is telling that some of the media have been carping at Dix's cautious and measured stances, which reflects that Dix and his advisers know they still have a large lead and so now the trick is simply to not blow it.
A telling example was Dix's promise to freeze ferry fares for two years while an audit is done and presumably debates happen about how the ferry system could or should be reformed (more on that another day), which Liberal finance minister Mike de Jong and others exclaimed would be a horrendous hit to the treasury, much like Dix's promise yesterday in Comox (home of education minister Don McRae) that he would spend $100 million a year more on classrooms.
That's cautious because Dix also could have promised to roll back ferry fares and spend even more on education but in any case the voters voted through opinion polls by Global TV through Ipsos Reid which found that the B.C. public is strongly supportive of Dix's ideas on those questions.
Meanwhile what the Liberals failed to do was find something new to attack the New Democrats with, which left Premier Christy Clark using the same old rhetoric in a tour through key swing ridings in Chilliwack, Merritt, Kamloops and on to Peace River, then today to Terrace and Prince Rupert (while Dix works the Lower Mainland).
One expects that the B.C. Liberals do have more "dirt" waiting to be thrown at New Democrats that perhaps won't be used until nominations close and more towards the end when momentum will be most needed, however right now it seems time is running out on the Campbell Liberal regime now led by Christy Clark.
The B.C. Liberals of course will still fight hard and they start with a core of about 35% of voters who will vote for any party even regardless of scandals that has the best chance of defeating the NDP, and the Green and Conservative parties and the Independents have been campaigning quite well too, but if an election was held today the NDP would win at least 50 of the 85 seats.