The NDP’s “positive campaign” and turn from neutral to against the Kinder Morgan TransMountain pipeline expansion proposal lost Harry Lali his provincial seat, the ex-MLA said.
“There are a lot of reasons why the NPD lost, but the Number 1 reason, I thought, was the failure to actually go after Christy Clark and the BC Liberals for their failures, their scandals, their boondogs and on their record,” Lali told the Herald. “It created a false sense of complacency in the minds of people,” Lali said. “The subliminal message to voters was that we’ve got this thing in the bag. When I look back at it, the NDP ran a campaign as if we were government, and the Liberals ran a campaign as if they were opposition.”
Lali said the other thing that killed the party and lost his seat was NDP leader Adrian Dix’s decision to oppose the Kinder Morgan expansion proposal for its TransMountain pipeline, which runs through Merritt. Dix announced the policy in late April.
“It destroyed any chance the NDP had to win. It was a killer for so many NDP candidates, especially in rural B.C., including myself,” Lali said. “This is a blue collar riding. The Kinder Morgan decision was basically a message to the middle-class and blue collar worker that the NDP is against development. We’ve got people who work in mining; loggers; sawmill workers; the forestry industry; people who work on ranches and farms; people who work in transportation; people working in construction jobs; tradespeople.”
Lali said in every campaign, about half a dozen people make those big decisions, but he felt rural MLAs should’ve been consulted on the decision as the pipeline runs through their ridings and employs many people in them.
“It was huge not to consult the people who it’s going to affect the most,” Lali said, adding his position was to wait to see the proposal before deciding if he was for or against it.
Lali attended the final NDP caucus meeting before the end of May to recap the election. After the numbers were in, he said about 1,500 of his regular supporters stayed home because the “positive campaign” convinced them the NDP seat was safe, while another 1,500 voters switched parties.
“I think the Conservative guy picked up a lot,” Lali said. “The Liberal vote virtually stayed the same. The Kinder Morgan was a real killer, and it cost us the election and it cost me my seat.”
Lali said the loss – his first in five elections – doesn’t mark the end of his political career.
“The plan after the office is shut down is to rebuild the constituency association and take the riding back in four years,” Lali said.
In the meantime, Lali is keeping busy.
“Closing down the office takes a lot of work,” Lali said of the space on Granite Avenue he worked out of as MLA for the local riding for 17 years. “We’ve got boxes of recycling; and two, three, four dozen boxes going to Kamloops for professional shredding, plus disposal of equipment and returning of electronics to Victoria.”
Lali said he’s also dealing with pay and severences for his staff in the Merritt and Ashcroft offices, as well as his own.
The Merritt office will close down by the end of the month.
