NDP Leader Adrian Dix emerged from a week of soul searching Wednesday to answer questions from reporters about his party's spectacular election defeat and his continued leadership of the party.
The biggest news to emerge from the press conference at the Renaissance Vancouver Harbour-side Hotel was that Dix will stay on as leader, at least through the next legislative session. Dix spent the week after the election meeting with MLAs and party members to discuss how the NDP, which was poised to form government for the first time since 2001, ended up losing to the B.C. Liberals 50 seats to 33.
According to University of B.C. political scientist Maxwell Cameron, keeping Dix as leader makes sense for the NDP, for the time being. He points out that no one expected to be after the leader's head May 15.
"It would have been different if there was an articulate group of opponents within the campaign saying this was the wrong strategy," said Cameron. "But the party was behind him. The party was very unified in this election campaign."
Cameron added that any internal opposition to the NDP's positive approach campaign, which Dix admitted might have been "unilateral," did not emerge until late in the election.
"It would be the wrong reading of this election result to say 'Oh, Dix has terrible judgment, he's not a leader and we should get rid of him.'"
Dix promised the party would conduct a probing review of how the election went so wrong, telling reporters it "will spare nothing and no one, least of all me." Beyond that, Dix said he would focus on "holding the government to account" on its commitments to job growth, debt reduction and enhancing healthcare services in the next legislative session.
Vancouver provided some of the few bright spots for the NDP. Dix increased his personal vote in Vancouver-Kingsway, earning just over 56 per cent.
"In some of our most diverse communities, including Vancouver and Burnaby, the NDP vote went up," noted Dix, but added that the NDP's economic arguments resonated more with Vancouverites than with the rest of the province.
The NDP also made inroads in Point Grey and Fairview in the form of new MLAs David Eby and George Heyman.
According to Cameron, the incoming NDP caucus will be in an existential crisis that goes deeper than Dix's leadership.
"They do have to ask the hard questions. If the Liberals are able to pull the rabbit out of the hat this way, how are [the NDP] going to win elections in the future? They have to look at what the NDP's role is in B.C. politics."
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