In my assessment of future NDP leaders I left out Adrian Dix and I’m not quite sure why. He certainly is a contender and gets a lot of points for being one of the few attack dogs on the NDP side of the aisle.
On the down side, Dix was involved in the memo forgery matter during the investigation of then Premier Clark in 1999. Out of excessive loyalty and absence of tummy feel, Dix made up a document which, if genuine, would have gone a long way towards saving Clark over the gaming license issue.
It’s certainly not my job to get on morality kicks but if Dix thinks the public will have forgotten this incident, the Liberals will make sure that they’re suitably reminded.
Dix did apologize and own up which is in stark contrast to, say, Colin Hansen who spouted 1:51 minutes (google Hansen and private power) of serial falsehoods about private power (IPPs) seen in a Liberal blog you can see yet. Moreover, Dix’s sin pales into insignificance when compared to the king of the falsehoods, Gordon “Pinocchio” Campbell.
I think Dix has purged his sin but whether his party thinks so remains to be seen. He would certainly be one hell of a tough opponent in an election.
Adrian Dix has one solid advantage, He looks and talks tough – and he is tough, the very antithesis of Carole James. When the convention gets down to the final speeches this may be his ticket to the stars.
I also didn’t mention George Heyman who has the quality of leadership. From my vantage point he seems like an excellent candidate. His problem is that many dislike him because he didn’t, they say, sufficiently stand up for the Health union when Campbell took away their contract and by another group that doesn’t trust him because he’s a former union leader. Such are the inconsistencies of public life!
There is much talk about rescinding their rule that 50% of candidates must be women. Making it easier for Moms, for example, to run is one thing; putting them in under affirmative action is quite another. While this hasn’t been a matter for hot debate over the past five years or so, it’s one of the things that is off putting for independents. This is not to say that it’s a bad goal to have more women – I’ve long argued that the world would be a much better place if more leaders were women and if men cried – but this must come from ballots not a mandate.
The NDP leadership race will be interesting as they always are, given the many, and often opposite points of view, that become the mix that makes the cake. Choosing a winner is always a mug’s game and this is especially so.
It all rather reminds me of a cartoon years ago in the New Yorker showing a man at the race track, with a fistful of tickets, shouting “c’mon anybody” saying “I need a win so I bet on them all!”
