B.C. NDP sets leadership vote for April 17

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      Seven weeks after the B.C. Liberals crown their new leader, the B.C. New Democratic Party will hold its own leadership vote.

      The NDP announced today (December 18) that its provincial council has scheduled the one-member, one-vote leadership election for April 17, 2011.

      "For the first time in the BC NDP's history we are choosing our provincial Leader by giving every member a direct vote," NDP provincial secretary Jan O'Brien said in an e-mail to party supporters.

      "Over the coming weeks, our party will begin our leadership election process, and ready ourselves for a likely snap election."

      A leadership assembly will be held at the Vancouver Convention Centre.

      Only people who have been party members for 90 days before the leadership vote will be allowed to cast ballots.

      Like the B.C. Liberals, New Democrats will able to vote for their leader by phone and Internet.

      They'll also be able to vote in advance.

      The provincial council has appointed a five-member leadership rules committee.

      Its members are former NDP provincial secretary and MP Brian Gardiner, former B.C. attorney general Colin Gabelmann, NDP vice president Lorraine Shore, NDP vice president and Victoria city councillor Marianne Alto, and O'Brien.

      On December 6, the embattled Carole James announced she will resign as NDP leader as soon as the party names an interim leader.

      The provincial council is expected to appoint that interim leader on the recommendation of the NDP caucus in early 2011.

      No one has officially entered the NDP leadership race yet.

      You can follow Stephen Hui on Twitter at twitter.com/stephenhui.

      Comments

      21 Comments

      tim.

      Dec 18, 2010 at 3:20pm

      awesome! now is the time for the bcndp to renew itself and lay the progressive vision that british columbians have an appetite for. so exciting!

      Steve Y

      Dec 18, 2010 at 4:00pm

      I wonder what kind of jobs the BCNDP will get for British Columbians. They are against forestry, mining (prosperity mine), tourism (jumbo resort), energy (oilsands pipeline and site C dam). Basically all the industries that built BC.

      East Van Arts

      Dec 18, 2010 at 4:07pm

      Further proof of the necessity for Carole James to have stepped down. Once Gordon Campbell did, the NDP fell below the Liberals in every poll. Clearly, the NDP's one-time advantage was an anti-Campell vote. It was not a pro-James vote.

      Now that she has left, the NDP has a chance to get it right. They need a leader as concerned about creating wealth as about spending it. In a resource economy like ours, this means powerful leadership in developing the energy, agricultural, mining, forestry, fishery, tourism and arts sectors.

      Above all, this means protecting public ownership of the high ground, BC Hydro most essentially. The Liberals killed BC Rail, and are trying to do the same to BC Hydro.

      The NDP's next leader needs to stand -- powerfully -- for the public option. Otherwise, why bother having a party on the left? Talking about school lunches just isn't good enough when the province is being sold down the river.

      We expect more of the NDP.

      RonS

      Dec 18, 2010 at 4:30pm

      I think the LIbERals are under attack from within. Their cavalier handeling of the so called "lease of BC Rail, Run of River etc. will haunt them in this next election. There is a good possibility the FIBERALS may not even be the government when the next election is called if the recall is successful.

      Wouldn't that be nice!

      Shepsil

      Dec 18, 2010 at 4:47pm

      This leaves 4 weeks for people to join or renew their memberships with the BCNDP so that they can be eligible to vote for their choice of who our new leader will be.

      glen p robbins

      Dec 18, 2010 at 4:47pm

      Here are the New Democratic potential leaders to date who will be permitted to win without bombardment:

      John Horgan (Juan de Fuca - Vancouver Island) (Yes)
      Leonard Krog (Nanaimo - Vancouver Island) (Yes)
      Rob Fleming (Swan Lake - Vancouver Island) (Yes)
      Carole James (Victoria James Bay) (Yes)
      Harry Lali (Fraser Nicola) (Yes)
      Corky Evans (Kootenays) (Yes)
      Peter Julian (Burnaby New West) (Yes)
      Adrian Dix (Vancouver) (No - Vancouver 2 many Premiers - recycled)
      Jenny Kwan (East Vancouver) (Yes-exception to the Vancouver Rule-outstanding achievement) (Hot)
      Mike Farnworth (Port Coquitlam) (No) (outstanding political IOU's).

      BC Liberals

      Moira Stilwell (No) (Vancouver)
      Christy Clark (No) (Political IOU's - extraordinary contemptibility)
      Mike de Jong (No) (Political IOU's)
      George Abbott (Yes) (Salmon Arm)
      Kevin Falcon (Yes) (Surrey)

      Currently % of British Columbians following either leadership contest is single digits. We will now revert to using Premier Gordon Campbell and BC Liberals in general polling questions until BC Liberals leadership race concludes. 41% - half-wits

      Also, we will commence re-releasing a history of our 'greatest hits' involving Gordon Campbell's time as premier going back to 2003 up to conclusion of leadership.

      Good luck to eligible candidates.

      Call it right away

      Dec 18, 2010 at 5:09pm

      Hope the govt calls a snap election right after the new leader is named. leaving the NDP leaderless would be awesome!!!!!!!

      welldoneson

      Dec 18, 2010 at 6:03pm

      "lay the progressive vision"?
      yeah. right. we've seen that "vision", and it
      looks a lot like higher taxes for everyone and higher
      wages for the public sector - who already
      make twice what the same job in the private
      sector pays. the ndp are labor/socialist.
      neither is good news for a healthy economy.

      the NDP can NOT "get it right".
      they know nothing about creating wealth,
      they only know how to tax the wealth
      creators and reward their public sector
      union bosses. NDP "powerful leadership"
      means "you do things our way" which
      means jobs are gone. we've seen it before.

      "public ownership of the high ground"? What
      does that mean? Since the NDP have decided
      BC Rail and BC Hydro are the centre of
      their paranoia campaign, I'll guess that means
      BC Hydro. Hydro isn't for sale, but it's interesting
      to see the NDP PR department pretend it is.
      Where do you fools get this nonsense?

      Oh, and the liberals did NOT "kill" BC rail,
      it died while the NDP were in power. the only real
      scandal is that the NDP didn't sell it when
      they were still in power - it involved
      too many of those union jobs.

      Stand "powerfully" for the public option?
      (Wow, you guys are drunk with power
      already and you don't even have a leader)
      That is always what the NDP do - they ARE
      the public sector. Oh, and we've seen the
      line about being "sold down the river" before.
      It refers to run of the river - an idea the hard
      left thought was just great. That is, when they
      thought it would involve public sector jobs.

      Too bad Hydro was scandalously incompetent
      at building any such installation. But then the
      truth behind the stories the NDP tell usually
      involves incompetence and backroom payoffs.

      rhiannon

      Dec 18, 2010 at 7:39pm

      Interest in NDP will wane with time so it's in their best interest to choose a leader and build a vision asap. It's unfortunate the previous leader took too long to step down. Plus over the past 6-8 years, NDP provided no exciting vision for BC's future. It was simply 100% focused on sneering at Gordon Campbell. Hope NDP can be a competitive option in the future, but it could be too late.

      Ken Lawson

      Dec 18, 2010 at 11:59pm

      For the sake of elimination, I will not be voting NDP no matter who they select and do you not think April is a little late. What are they looking for, of course if a federal election rolls around the NDP could be wipe out at that level!