As Adrian Dix made his way around the province Monday on his barnstorming 24-hour tour, he reflected on where it all began.
"I decided to do this on election day minus-29 in Prince George," Dix said during a whistle-stop event at the Prince George Airport.
It was April 15 and Dix had just finished an editorial board meeting with the Citizen and was standing in the lobby of the Ramada hotel when he was handed a copy of the NDP campaign plan by a senior party official.
"I said, 'I think we should end our campaign with a 24-hour tour and show that we're working right to the end of the campaign,' " Dix recalled. "This is a close election and it's time for people to come together in B.C."
Dix rejected the notion that his 1,700-kilometre tour on the final day of the campaign signaled concern ahead of Tuesday's vote. After 12 years on the opposition benches, the NDP went into the election with a lead in the polls and a belief they will form the next government.
"We're going around British Columbia and talking about the change that's required in British Columbia," he said. "The things we want to do together, a government that listens to everyone - business and labour and community groups and environmentalists - not just our friends. This is what we aspire to as a province."
The hectic day started in Courtenay with a campaign event at 8 a.m. at a cafe. It included stops in Comox, Kamloops and Williams Lake before the mid-afternoon drop-in at the airport. After leaving Prince George the NDP leader flew to Penticton and had 10 more events scheduled, concluding with a rally at his Vancouver campaign office at 7 a.m., one hour before the polls opened.
All told, Dix spent about an hour on the ground in Prince George, including an eight-minute speech with a crowd of about 60 supporters cheering him on. He also held a 20-minute news conference where he re-emphasized the NDP's main campaign planks.
Dix outlined the key priorities for the early days of government if the NDP are elected.
"Skills training is going to be a priority on day one, it's going to be a priority on day 365, it's going to be priority on dDay 1,200 and so on and so forth," he said. "That priority will ensure that we don't wait for young people to have access to the skills they need for their jobs."
The NDP has also planned to end the equivalency agreement with the federal government surrounding the environmental assessment for the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline. But Dix said despite his party's opposition to shipping Alberta oilsands products to Kitimat for export, he'll still engage in conversations on energy issues with other provincial leaders.
"We're going to fully participate in federal-provincial relations," he said. "I'm not going to go to federal-provincial conferences and turn them into photo ops. I'm going to work seriously on energy policy with people across the country."
