So, after their recent provincial election thrashing, where does the NDP. go from here?
My callow colleague over there says the party should, much like the Canucks, fire the coach and consider a move to the political middle, as if party policy had anything to do with the election results - ridiculous.
Still, having parlayed a 20% lead into a 5% loss in scant weeks to a hated, dishonest government, surely the NDP must substantially change something - but what?
They might start by accepting that the NDP only wins elections when people are fed up with right wing governments. Each party enjoys 40% support; it's the remaining, shoulder shrugging 20% that swings elections in B.C.
To win, the party needs the fleeting, voting booth impression of these apathetic voters to be anger with government, not ginned up horror about the nineties.
Next, they should face the fact that they blew the richest pool of government malpractice ever offered up by a government seeking re-election. The electorate had so much to be angry about and they were furious.
Voter anger needed only to be kept alive. But in the vacuum of NDP silence, their anger was replaced with fear of socialists determined to squelch development, just like they did twenty years ago.
With their "positive" campaign, the NDP squandered twelve years of odious government scandals, scandals now purged by the election results.
The decision to run a positive campaign was a massive blunder.
So shouldn't Adrian Dix be scalped for this horrendous strategic blunder? Perhaps, but not yet.
Because Liberal sins are quickly forgotten and NDP sins have twenty years of traction, Liberal scandals have to be gnawed on with pit bull tenacity.
And Adrian Dix is the best legislature pit bull since Joy McPhail. He has an encyclopedic knowledge of government policy and is overwhelmingly incisive in opposition.
Besides, a new NDP leader now would draw fire for four years at a time when buyer's remorse and anger with Liberal government missteps should be cultivated.
So, where to now? Well the NDP could get greener and annex the Green vote.
But before doing anything else, they must agree that there can be no more mister nice guy.
