Former BC Premier leaves NDP
By Contributor
If the NDP is not ready for prime time, then former BC premier Mike Harcourt is not ready to continue his commitment to the NDP.
Harcourt decided to discontinue his membership in BC’s New Democratic Party saying series of bad decisions by the party’s leaders led to his decision.
Two concerns were the party decision to oust former leader Carole James in 2010 and the New Democrat opposition to the provincial carbon tax.
According to Harcourt, the last straw was current leader Adrian Dix’s sudden reversal on the Kinder Morgan pipeline, during the 2013 election campaign, an announcement Harcourt calls the dumbest move in decades.
He says, as a newly independent citizen, he won’t support anyone in the upcoming NDP leadership race, adding he hasn’t spoken to candidate and MLA Mike Farnworth in three years, although he supported Farnworth for leader during the party’s last convention.
Harcourt, who was premier from 1991 to 1996, says the BC NDP is not ready to govern.
