Opposition leader Adrian Dix reaffirmed this week that the New Democratic Party campaign will be high-road all the way.
Positive. Respectful of opponents. Something of which the party will be proud.
His personal appearances and the central campaign will follow that theme. It will be interesting to see if they can hold the whole team to that standard for the duration.
It鈥檚 a sound approach to take for a number of reasons. The main one is that there鈥檚 no need for the NDP to launch negative attacks at this point. They鈥檙e comfortably ahead of a party that鈥檚 botched its third term and is struggling to complete it. They could just stay safely out of the way and still stand a good chance of replacing the sa国际传媒 Liberals in May.
The other reason is a sensitive one that is obliquely related to something that got some well-deserved play this week. It鈥檚 what female premiers put up with in the way of commentary from the public.
With five women premiers across sa国际传媒, blogger and free-enterprise online consultant Diamond Isinger put together a 鈥淢adam Premier鈥� website. It highlights how some people react to women in positions of authority.
It鈥檚 the vilest filth you can imagine, much of it unprintable. Ignorant people used to mutter this stuff under their breath. Now they post it online. It represents a small percentage of society (the bottom percentile, in terms of intelligence).
But seeing it all in one place makes you shake your head in amazement at what high-profile women endure in the way of casual commentary. As far as sa国际传媒 is concerned, there are lots of people with perfectly valid reasons to dislike Premier Christy Clark. But there is a small percentage of people who seem to despise her simply because she鈥檚 a woman. Madam Premier shows it鈥檚 the same elsewhere.
Deep down, most men in politics are aware that disturbing niche exists. So the corollary to that syndrome is that most decent men in politics tend to tread a bit lightly when it comes to publicly attacking female colleagues.
For gender-conscious people, a down-and-dirty attack on Clark would not go well for the NDP, and Dix knows it. Particularly after the NDP forced its own female leader out.
When former premier Gordon Campbell debated Dix鈥檚 predecessor, Carole James, in 2009, he got flustered at one point and said: 鈥淭his is a big job and it鈥檚 hard to get a handle on it.鈥�
The immediate, visceral read by a large share of the audience was that he was being patronizing and condescending to a woman. Campbell was much better off in the 2005 campaign, when he scarcely mentioned James or the NDP at all.
So while Clark supporters run ads attacking Dix鈥檚 integrity based on the memo he faked as chief of staff to then-premier Glen Clark 14 years ago, Dix will turtle down and not respond in kind.
This week, he touched on bigger reasons to avoid negative attacks. People are already disengaged from politics in record numbers. Not even half voted last time. Negativity just puts more of them off.
The counter-theory is that they work and do swing the vote. But if Dix is right, negativity is working on a steadily shrinking voting base.
鈥淲e need to bring people back to the political process and you don鈥檛 do that by tearing people down,鈥� he said.
He said the main opponent isn鈥檛 Clark or any of the other leaders. 鈥淭he main challenge is bringing people back to the political process.鈥�
Dix said he鈥檚 known Clark for 17 years, as they both worked in politics and at the legislature in various roles. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 know her well 鈥�. Premier Clark is a committed person. It鈥檚 important to treat her and other leaders in a respectful way and I鈥檒l continue to do that, no matter how many nasty, negative ads they run.鈥�
He also touched on last year鈥檚 U.S. presidential campaign, where two 鈥渙utstanding candidates鈥� spent billions over the year trashing each other.
鈥淲e have to resist that here.鈥�
