Our coalition is over 40% of BC that’s pretty good considering the comparable lack of dollars and positive media, and it’s one of the best that we have put together in a historical sense. It will be almost impossible, or not very probable, to grow it.

That said, the political landscape over the next cycle is good for team blue and orange. If Campbell steps down, the Liberals will tear themselves apart during a leadership convention. Regardless of the candidates, none have the iron grip to keep the urban and rural factions together. Not even Watts. If he stays on, the party will be decimated and have to reinvent itself again.

It’s all part of the political cycle. Hegel was pretty smack on.

I was hoping you would do a post on each point, something we may want to do after convention. And answer my email, damnit!

2. Negative Campaign – this is part of politics and it works. The Liberals used it and it worked for them.

3. The Platform –platform are expanded talking points. They are only created to make wonks happy.

4. The Slogan – I’ll agree the slogans were bad, but didn’t cost an election.

5. Party Disorganization – a more professional approach would be best. When you pay people things get done better.

6. Policy Reversals – It’s called populism and it works. All exit polls showed the carbon tax policy was a vote winner.

7. Rogue Leadership – this should come under stupid decisions. Like Earth Day in float plane, etc.

8. Fear – if some one says or does something stupid, they are unfit to govern and should be…

9. Not Developing Constituencies – yeah, if anything the over empowerment of the CAs has caused this problem. Too many self righteous local executive members that feel they know, what’s best.

I’ll add 10.

The NDP lacks the support of 50%+1 of BC. Even if everyone turned out, the results would not have changed much beyond a percent or 2 and 1 or 2 seats. No pandering to NGOs or business will ever change that fact.

We need the Liberal coalition to fracture.

Monstrous turn-off.

That’s why I’ve contributed to Think Forward BC NDP in a way that encourages constructive engagement and building a party culture that has integrity.

That and the fact that when I started asking around about who was in charge, I saw lots of turtling. So I decided to stop banging my head against the wall.

Transparency and trust are on life support. Convention must reboot them or the party is dead.

Beyond that, Nic, I agree with everything you wrote.

My concern is that we don’t go into blame and criticism, when we know what needs to be done, but have not been successful enough in implementation.

My main concern is the apparent lack of transparency that exists from the top down. This lack of transparency has created an issue with the level of trust that the rank and file has with those of us that run constituencies, the provincial executive and finally the MLA’s.

How do we increase trust between the different levels of the BCNDP? It is called relationship building and we need to facilitate this process that allows us to connect with one another at all levels. In my mind this is what comes before we form policies. Forming relationships is what will facilitate the passing of resolutions that we can all agree on.

We must start “connecting” with one another as individuals and then we can begin the process of “directing” one another. Without a “connection”, most of us are unwilling to take any “direction” from an individual that we don’t know or trust.
“Relationship 101″ – “Connect before you Direct”.

Being able to relate to our brothers and sisters allows us to be transparent and trusting. With trust established, the feeling of exclusion fades into obscurity. Thus allowing us to work together.

Simple in theory, maybe. How about trying to simply connect with another NDP’er before you try and convince (direct) them your opinion is worth considering.

See you all at convention,

Nic Slater, Delta South