What’s next for the BC NDP? Veteran MLA says party must ‘listen and learn’

Following the snap provincial election on Saturday in which the BC Conservatives won a strong majority, many are questioning what is next for the BC NDP.

David Eby resigned from his position as BC NDP leader on Saturday.

BC NDP MLA for Vancouver-Renfrew, Adrian Dix, said Eby took responsibility for calling the election.

“The snap election had a number of effects,” Dix said.

“First of all, it blotted out every other issue. So we want to talk about health care. We have a significant advantage on health care, people support our public health care position, but we couldn’t get the issue beyond the snap election, whether it was that or car insurance or any of the issues we wanted to talk about.”

Dix said the election also demobilized their supporters who didn’t vote because they were responding to an election that they did not see was necessary.

“I’m not going to get into who said what to who here,” he said.

“I think very clearly, if you’re going to call an election in B.C., where every election is close, everyone is close… you’re putting the government and the project at risk. You have to have a very strong and compelling reason to do that. And the voters told us very explicitly we didn’t.”

Dix said they still have people in the BC NDP who want to work and hold the newly-elected BC Conservative majority government to account.

“But we also have to listen and learn,” Dix added.

“We can’t draw all the conclusions now, we gotta go talk to our members and people, especially people in areas that didn’t vote NDP.”

Dix said that includes Surrey and south of the Fraser River, to the Tri-Cities and the B.C. Interior.

He said they have to pick a new leader for their party but they also need time to reflect on what happened and why.

“We’ve had nine years in government,” Dix added.

“There were really significant successes, but there were things that we didn’t achieve as well. And I think this is the opportunity to do that. We’ve got to get to work. I think people voted for a Conservative government last Saturday, but 38 per cent of them voted NDP, and they want a strong opposition, and we’re going to deliver that.”

Dix said in 2001, the BC NDP suffered the biggest loss in the party’s history.

“We came back from that,” he said. “But we can only do that if we listen, we engage, and we do our job as an opposition.”