Leading a political party is as tricky as standing naked and in the dark with one bare foot on top of a spike 1,000 feet in the air with a Arctic gale force wind blowing in January.
Just ask Alison Redford, who's tumultuous two-and-a-half years as Alberta's premier comes to an end Sunday, with her own caucus pushing her out in a palace revolt.
Just ask Adrian Dix, the B.C. NDP leader who was given no choice but to quit after blowing a huge lead and falling to Christy Clark's Liberals last May.
Never mind that Gordon Campbell got to lose a provincial election before eventually leading the Liberals to victory and becoming premier. Never mind that Danielle Smith is still leader of the Wildrose Party in Alberta despite blowing her own big lead over Redford in the final week of the Alberta election.
Dix is out, not just because he lost but because he failed to unify what remains, at its core, a divided party. The schism is deep, wide and shows no sign of being mended.
On one hand, there are the principled NDP members. These are the folks who cling to the party's CCF roots and the glory days of trade unions. They believe there isn't a problem too small for a big government bureaucracy to solve. They dislike any business with more than 50 employees and distrust the owners and operators of these businesses. They like more of the Green Party's environmental platform than they'd like to admit. They don't care about deficit budgets because people, particularly if they're in need of a handout, come first.
On the other hand, there are the pragmatic NDP members. They believe in all the same things as their principled brethren, except they don't believe that compromising on those beliefs constitutes a sellout. They're open to making deals and reaching consensus, even with those who don't share their views. They want to help everyone but they understand that some people need more help than others and some don't deserve any help at all. They are grateful to businesses and entrepreneurs for helping to pay for hospitals and schools. They don't like deficit budgets because they believe government should tax responsibly and spend within its means.
The principled NDP members are happy to win 35 per cent of the electorate in every provincial election but would rather remain in opposition forever before betraying their ideals. The pragmatic NDP members are not happy with just 35 per cent because principles are worthless in politics without the power to turn them into policy.
Both sides do agree on one thing. Dix wasn't their man. For the principled NDPers, Dix failed to deliver the message in the right way. If only he had done that, voters would have come to their senses and voted correctly, they believe. For the pragmatic NDPers, Dix didn't win because his Kinder (Morgan) Surpise scared away voters, particularly in the Interior, who wanted a leader that would at least consider expanding an already existing pipeline before saying no. Too much principle and not enough pragmatism, they believe.
So now we have two men who lost to Dix during the last leadership race seeking to replace him.Mike Farnworth is the party's finance critic and MLA from Port Coquitlam. John Horgan is a Vancouver Island MLA and the NDP's energy critic.
While other candidates may come out of the woodwork, one of these two men will likely become the Leader of the Opposition in the legislature. Once he wins, however, his real problems will begin.
He will be leading a party with two former leaders (Dix and Carole James) and his main opponent sitting in caucus. And he will be leading a caucus and a party still divided by principle and pragmatism.
The Liberals are no different, of course. There are the right-wing, cut taxes and social programs, Fraser Institute zealots within the party but the difference between them and the principled NDP members is faith in power. The right-wing ideologues can't stand the compromises, either, but realize that the alternative to the Liberals is much worse. At least with the Liberals, there can be a discussion and they might even get some of what they want. The discussion is simply talk without the power to act.
Unless the new leader united the pragmatic and principled wings of the NDP, the party will remain on the outside, doomed to an extended stay in political exile.
