New Democrat campaign manager Brian Topp鈥檚 fascinating post-mortem of the 2013 election loss includes an inside account of the 鈥渕oment.鈥�
That was leader Adrian Dix鈥檚 announcement on Earth Day that he would oppose the Kinder Morgan pipeline expansion into 91原创, because he didn鈥檛 want the harbour to become an oil port.
People have seized on that campaign event as the point where Dix blew the election. There has been a lot of speculation about how and why it happened. Topp鈥檚 explanation is the best yet, because he was in on all the meetings and played a role in the fateful call himself.
By his telling, the party was spooked after the first week of campaigning. Research showed they were suffering a slow leak and the B.C. Liberals were reassembling their electoral coalition.
鈥淓veryone involved could see that we were not connecting effectively with voters ... . We needed a radical simplification of what we were doing.鈥�
So the thinking was that Dix 鈥渘eeded to make some proposals people would hear and remember and want to vote for.鈥�
Also in the mix was the need to appeal to environmentalist voters. Topp said they are 鈥渃apable of doing some serious damage to the NDP鈥� when the party takes the wrong stand, as it did with the carbon tax in 2009.
They were also worried about the Green party strength.
鈥淚n this election, we therefore aimed to avoid a confrontation with the environmental movement.鈥�
Some earlier accounts suggested that Dix was just winging it when he abandoned the wait-and-see approach on the pipeline and came out against it at a Kamloops campaign stop on April 22. But Topp says it was carefully calculated.
鈥淥ur team settled into an extensive, detailed, exhausting and difficult debate about environmental policy that would continue through much of the night and then resume in the morning.鈥�
He said it engaged the policy and communication teams in drafts and redrafts 鈥渞ight up until our leader stood in front of the microphone.鈥�
In the next moment, Dix played the card. Since he took over the leadership, his position had been that the NDP would pronounce on that project once the company had actually applied for approval.
But at the podium on Earth Day, in the environment minister鈥檚 riding, Dix changed horses.
鈥淩adically transforming the Port of 91原创 into a major oilsands export facility is not a good idea,鈥� he said.
Topp recounted it as an effort to be consistent.
He said it was well-received, at first. But then the Liberals and the media started challenging them to explain the flip-flop.
鈥淲e struggled to do so 鈥� and, objectively, lost the exchange.
鈥淯ndecided voters began to switch to the Liberals in our tracking, and would do so quite steadily for the rest of the campaign.鈥�
Dix had been clear on Vaughn Palmer鈥檚 Voice of B.C. TV show just 11 days earlier about why the wait-and-see approach was best. Topp said the Liberals turned the apparent inconsistency into a character issue about Dix, and then stressed that changing to 鈥淩isky Dix鈥� was a big gamble for B.C.
How do they feel about the decision now? 鈥淓xtremely rueful鈥� is the phrase Topp used.
It turned out to be a historic blunder. If it didn鈥檛 cost them the election outright, it was a big contributor to the surprising loss.
All the smart people in the room were focused on the immediate tactics. But Topp acknowledges that the NDP caucus, which could have been expected to know the strategic fallout, was kept out of the loop and not consulted.
It cost them dearly.
Just So You Know: Although he outlined the moment vividly, Topp said it wasn鈥檛 the real game-changer.
He said the real turning point was the NDP鈥檚 decision to drop the quick-wins ethnic-vote scandal.
They pursued it in the legislature in February and built a 20-point lead in the polls, but then dropped it after Premier Christy Clark apologized and fired an aide.
Leaving off the pursuit was a 鈥渢errible misjudgment,鈥� Topp said.
鈥淥ur opponent was on the ropes, and we let her get up.鈥�
