Can anyone recall a time when we were not in the midst of political party leadership race? With soon-to-be former NDP leader Adrian Dix announcing the worst kept secret in B.C. at the Union of B.C. Municipalities conference last week, we are heading into the fifth race (counting both federal and provincial political arenas) in which British Columbians have a stake in four years.
Seventh, if you count the impeding leadership contests of the B.C. Conservatives and Greens, though no one really does.
Every time, we get the same commentary about the identity crisis the party must have in order to begin anew. Should they focus on their core principles? Or should they branch out to bring more people into the tent? In the NDP's case, it didn't seem to matter. Dix came in as a leader criticized for being too much of an old-guard, partisan ideologue and went down as a leader who wouldn't fight hard enough win the election.
No matter who emerges as the new leader, a few things won't change.
As long as the Liberals have success scaring the electorate about the economic doom the socialist hordes would surely bring about, that will be the stick they'll use to whack the NDP.
And as long as the NDP relies on segments of the population that typically stay home on election day as their base, they're never going to get over that 42 per cent hump.
Though it may sound like it, we are not cynics.
Nothing puts attention on important issues like a race and we eagerly welcome the discourse that's coming.
