Former B.C. premier Mike Harcourt has not renewed his membership in the New Democratic Party.
He stood in front of news cameras on Tuesday to explain his position, taking the party to task for several issues going back five years to the party's opposition to carbon tax during the 2009 election campaign.
He is also displeased with the way former leader Carole James was removed as party leader in 2010 and with the flip-flop of current leader Adrian Dix's on the Kinder Morgan pipeline issue during the last election campaign.
The veteran NDP member was voted leader of the party in 1986 and was elected B.C. premier in 1991, marking only the second time the NDP had been in power in B.C.
Harcourt couldn’t have used more direct language in front of the cameras, calling James’ ouster “an ugly, nasty leadership coup against a fine person” and defining the Kinder-Morgan decision “probably one of the stupidest political blunders of all time in British Columbia.”
Dix’s flip-flop on Kinder-Morgan stunned both labour and investment factions in the province and is seen by some as a turning point in the provincial election that saw Christy Clark’s Liberals win a majority government.
Harcourt says the NDP needs to reconnect with BC’s 150 resource dependent communities. “I think British Columbian’s deserve a strong leader, with a strong vision for the province that goes beyond Kitsilano and it relates to the natural resource communities and to the people who make their living providing most of the wealth of this province,” Harcourt told the press.
NDP MLA Leonard Krog said Harcourt’s comments were not particularly helpful at this time, particularly as we head into the leadership race.
That’s a load of bull.
Some honest reflection is exactly what the party needs.