With a year to go until the next provincial election campaign, the NDP leader is starting to lay the groundwork.
John Horgan was in Nanaimo on Sunday for a town hall-style meeting at the Beban Park social centre.
He began by addressing party fundraising, criticizing the Liberal government's money-for-access practices. He said two-thirds of donations to the B.C. Liberals come from corporations, while more than four-fifths of donations to the NDP come from individuals.
The NDP has repeatedly asked for legislation banning corporate and union donations, but Horgan said he will seek out business and union donations in order to try to win an election in 2017. He said he will suffer being called a hypocrite for not seeking the high ground.
"High ground will be a great place to watch us lose the next election if we don't have the resources to go head-on against the most corporate government in B.C.'s history…" he said. "I do not want to take money from people who believe they're getting a favour for giving it, but I have to play by the rules as they exist today."
As to how that money will be spent, Horgan was asked what sort of campaign the NDP will run and whether the party will focus on attacking the government or promoting its own alternative.
"Those are campaign decisions that we'll make closer to the day," he said. "But in the last two byelections, I was unapologetic about reminding voters … that the government has fallen way short on their commitments to those communities… We have to find that mix between condemning the shortcomings of the people in power and offering hope to the people in the community that we can do better and I believe we can."
Some planks in the NDP's platform will be eliminating MSP premiums – they would be rolled into income tax – and a 'Power B.C.' plan for energy-efficiency retrofits to create jobs and move toward more renewable energy sources.
A couple of citizens at the town hall voiced concerns that the NDP has a reputation as 'the party of no' and Horgan agreed that the B.C. Liberals do a superior job as far as "their ability to communicate simple messages."
"I stay awake worrying about that," said Horgan. "To underestimate Christy Clark is a big mistake. She is an expert salesperson. She sold a ridiculous idea and she just kept adding zeros."
So it's his party's task to try to offer hope to people, he said, on the economy, on health care and on other social policy.
"I still believe that the values that we've talked about today, the values that I talk about wherever I go, are the dominant values of British Columbians," he said.
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