Orange crushed
While NDP leader Adrian Dixs campaign slogan was Change for the Better: One Practical Step at a Time, voters in Vancouver did a two-step of change when they dispatched both Premier Christy Clark and Health Minister Margaret MacDiarmid. Wins by David Eby and George Heyman were the consolation prizes for the party on a night it was expecting to win for only the fourth time.
Of Vancouvers 10 ridings, seven are now held by the NDP: Eby (Point Grey) and Heyman (Fairview) joined Spencer Chandra Herbert (West End), Shane Simpson (Hastings), Jenny Kwan (Mount Pleasant), Mable Elmore (Kensington) and Dix (Kingsway).
Andrew Wilkinson (Quilchena), Suzanne Anton (Fraserview) and Sam Sullivan (False Creek) kept three ridings Liberal.
If Dix quits the top post, Heyman would be a natural contender if hes willing. He was president of the 25,000-strong B.C. Government and Service Employees Union for eight years before heading up the Sierra Club of B.C.
The NDP lost three seats since dissolution. They counted eight more seats in the suburbs and 10 on Vancouver Island. Together thats 25 of the partys 33 seats. The Liberals, meanwhile, increased their seat-count by five to 50 and control Fraser Valley, Interior and the North.
Eby
The NDPs David Eby didnt get to debate Clark in the 2011 by-election or the 2013 election. His background as the B.C. Civil Liberties Association executive director could come in handy to counter two of the Liberals RCMP-tied new MLAs: Surrey cop Amrik Virk won in Surrey-Tynehead while RCMP-funded, University of the Fraser Valley criminologist Darryl Plecas took the Abbotsford-South riding away from independent ex-Liberal John van Dongen.
Media matters
What might have been the last newsprint election in B.C. featured the infamous 24 Hours "Comeback Kid" front page ad dressed up to look like a real front page. It turned out to be true, as Clark defied the opinion polls on the day when it mattered. In the Globe and Mail, Clark was photographed jogging. A Vancouver Sun profile included the anecdote about her running a red light, seemingly on a dare from her 11-year-old son Hamish.
Clarks campaign headquarters crew of strategists included longtime confidante Kim Haakstad, the deputy chief of staff who quit under pressure after the Multicultural Outreach strategy was tabled by the NDP on Feb. 27.
Where to next?
Clark lives in Vancouver-Fairview, but lost in Vancouver-Point Grey and is now in search of a safe seat in which to run in a byelection. The most logical scenario would be for octogenarian MLA Ralph Sultan in West Vancouver-Capilano to step aside for the good of the party. He told CBC Radio this week, he would not voluntarily step down.
Comeback Kids
Former NPA city council-mates Sullivan and Anton are going to Victoria. Sullivan was the one-term mayor who was deposed by the NPA in favour of Peter Ladner, who, in turn, lost the mayoralty to Gregor Robertson in 2008 over the Olympic Village financing scandal.
Anton failed to beat Robertson in the 2011 race. While Sullivan handily won his riding, which includes the Olympic Village, Anton benefited from a strong showing by the Green Partys Stuart Mackinnon. The former Green Vancouver Park Board members 1,053 votes split the centre/left vote to enable Antons victory.
Anton will be forced to quit from the B.C. Pavilion Corporation board, which is chaired by Surrey-Fleetwood winner Peter Fassbender. The NDP had proposed privatizing money-losing B.C. Place Stadium to deal with PavCos $1.4 billion capital debt.
Trivia: Sullivan was famous for doing a "donut" in his motorized wheelchair with the Olympic flag at the Turin 2006 Winter Olympics closing ceremony. One of his new B.C. Liberal caucus mates is Michelle Stilwell, the wheelchair basketball and athletics champion from Paralympics who is now the MLA for Parksville-Qualicum.
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