It's Time For Some New Democrats To WAKE UP!!!!! - (Updated)
‘We're going to fight a positive campaign" .... that was the refrain inspired by BC NDP Leader Adrian Dix.
So while the BC NDP fought their 'positive' campaign, their opponents savaged them mercilessly with aggressive print, radio, tv and online negative advertising.
Wake up! Are you blind to what is happening in Canadian politics?!
At this time in our history, corporate interests, primarily those of the oil and financial industries, have decided that they are not prepared to compromise their position of power within the Canadian economy. They open their wallets to ensure that political victory goes only to those who serve their vested interests.
To achieve this, Stephen Harper has nearly perfected a strategy that is intended to bring ‘perpetual Conservative government' to the nation ... a model based on the Alberta Conservative Party's 42 year hold on provincial power. That's the goal. Wake up and realize it.
The oil industry is not prepared to listen to anyone who threatens their ability to maximize profit from the tar sands. They have no interest in the environment. They have no interest in the plight of working Canadians and their families. They are going to maximize the profit potential of their resource holdings and they are prepared to bankroll any political party that will advance this cause.
Harper's Conservatives have demonstrated that they are prepared to cheat electorally in order to win. Robcalls, illegal expenditures and donations ... they will do whatever they have to in order to win. When challenged, they deny and delay. Their war chest allows them to afford the best legal distraction and defence that money can buy. The rule of thumb for the Right in Canada has become ‘delay delay delay' as well as ‘deny deny deny'. Yet there are New Democrats who remain blind to what is transpiring here politically.
"We're tired of negativity, Let's fight a positive campaign." That's what I hear from some New Democrats. This sentiment is naive and dangerous. It'll keep us in perpetual opposition while corporate interests (that finance the Right) continue to win elections, hold power and continue the erosion of the middle/working class.
I've previously used the analogy that it's like being a boxer who is held to Marquis of Queensbury Rules while our opponent is trying to kick us in the groin.
B.C.'s New Democrats have only themselves to blame for throwing away their chance to win the recent provincial election. Let's hope that New Democrats in Manitoba and Saskatchewan wake up to the new political reality in Canada.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
A month after his party suffered a shocking electoral upset, British Columbia New Democrat Leader told party members that he takes responsibility for the debacle. Adrian Dix faced the party's provincial council on Saturday, at a meeting to be almost completely dominated by a post-mortem of the May 14 election.
"We had expected, we wanted, we were told we were going to win, and we didn't and that is a devastating and heartbreaking thing," Dix told the council. "It is a heartbreaking loss, and I am the leader of the NDP and I take fully responsibility for that loss."
Dix said the New Democrats must embrace the lessons of the failed campaign -- a process that has been going on for weeks and will continue at least until a general convention in November, where he will face a leadership review. Though his political future has been the topic of much speculation since election night, Dix remained determined that he will stay at the helm unless members decide otherwise this fall.
CTV NEWS
FINAL THOUGHT:
One last point that New Democratic provincial offices and provincial caucus offices across the country should make note of. When Stephen Harper became PM in 2006, there were 512 communication or 'information services' employees in the federal public service. At the end of the 2011/12 fiscal year there were 3865.
The Right knows how to get their message out there!
Agreed 100%. It doesn't help that Dix was running a positive campaign on very little policy. He had nothing to catch the public's imagination on the positive side.
IMO the two go best together. Have a strong positive agenda--heaven knows there's plenty needs doing if anyone has the guts to say government can do things--and when, inevitably, the opposition and the press start to smear this as loony left, don't back up go on the offensive. Take 'em down for the corrupt politics of gain for the 1%.
Remember, it's not just corruption that right wing politicians happen to be doing. Corruption and the right go together like ham and eggs BECAUSE the right is all about financial gain whatever it takes.
Posted by
Purple library guy |
11:02 am, June 23, 2013
What Adrian Dix has done is hand four years to the Greens to plan, grow, and bleed off even more NDP votes in key ridings 2017.
I support putting the brakes on Kinder Morgan. With the Liberals returned to power it isn't going to happen now and even more tanker traffic will litter English Bay and Burrard Inlet. In hindsight that might have been a thing to work on once the keys to the Leg were in hand. Dix's wrong-headed announcement cost him the election. He was about as subtle as a train wreck.
The "I'll be a nice guy" approach" when his party had so so much good material to use was outright daft. Where were his advisers during this debacle? Was Dix so surrounded by toadies that no one said a thing? Did they warn him that they were running a doomed race and he ignored them? All this needs to be presented to the membership.
The BC NDP did not deserve to win this election. If you cannot beat a crumb like Christy (I can see Alaska from here!) Clark, with all the baggage her party carried going in, you plain do not deserve the responsibility of running the province. Adrian Dix needs to go and he needs to go soon.
Posted by
Elliott Taylor |
11:25 am, June 23, 2013
You're absolutely right. The generation of political leadership within both the New Democrat and Liberal ranks who refuse to accept politics as a blood sport are betraying us even if that does facilitate their drift to the right.
When the New Democrats were unashamedly the party of the left, they didn't hesitate to stand for their principles and that's what let them throw telling punches.
Nothing anchors the left anymore, Dog, and we're a poorer country for it.
Posted by
The Mound of Sound |
11:56 am, June 23, 2013
New Democrats have an excellent leader in Saskatchewan and nationally, but if they don't get their act together and learn to fight back, the party will join the Social Credit as just another extinct political party.
Canada needs a socially responsible option now more than ever...ditto Saskatchewan. But if NDs continue to just lay there and get beaten up without retaliating, they're toast.
Another thing...the Tories figured out years ago that only two things matter...safety and what's in your pocketbook. They use the "We'll cut your taxes and keep you safe" mantra...both are lies...but it works every time. Until the NDP can distill their message down to a couple short lines, and until New Democrats get rid of hyphens and speak with one voice, the right-wingers will continue to kick the daylights out of them. And they will deserve it.
Simplify the message and fight back, dammit.
Posted by
elvisearp |
6:04 pm, June 23, 2013
One final point that New Democratic provincial offices and provincial caucus offices across the country should make note of. When Stephen Harper became PM in 2006, there were 512 communications 'information services' employees in the federal public service. At the end of the 2011/12 fiscal year there were 3865. The Right knows how to get their message out there!
Posted by
leftdog |
9:59 pm, June 23, 2013
I think you could track the growth in the number of federal information officers since 2006 to the growth of social media.
Posted by
The Pundits' Guide |
11:57 pm, June 23, 2013
The NDP's problem, as demonstrated clearly by Mr. Dix, is that for many members it is a church rather than a political party. That's all very well if all you desire is pie in the sky in the sweet bye and bye, but it won't cut it if you actually want to save our country. If running harshly critical advertisements attacking a government that richly deserves to be criticized harshly steps over the ethical line for most New Democrats, progressive Canadians need another political party that is prepared to do what it takes to win.
Posted by
David J. Climenhaga |
8:59 am, June 25, 2013