Editor:
Congratulations to Nicholas Simons on being re-elected. Our MLA is an honourable man who will continue to represent us honourably. However, I challenge his assertions that the electorate were "scared by the attack ads" and that "Adrian [Dix] did a fabulous job (Coast Reporter, May 17).
Two things count most in an election - character and policies - and Dix failed on both counts. He entered the election fray unpunished for his past ethical lapses and transgressions. He didn't even have the decency to return his severance pay when it was revealed that he'd been fired from the premier's staff for criminal behaviour. It's like the ethics of Senator Duffy, only with hair and an orange tie.
Dix's political opportunism at the expense of principle is breathtaking; his flip-flop on the Kinder Morgan pipeline and his unholy alliance with the right wing populist Bill Vanderzalm against the HST are just two examples.
The NDP also failed in the policy arena. Dix answered too many serious policy questions with non-answers, deferring the details until after the vote. That's the Kim Campbell school of contesting an election and it worked just about as well this time. For those few policies he did put forward - some of them good ones - he failed to provide a convincing story on how he would fund them without incurring more debt. He had no plan to balance the budget as our economy continues to recover and unemployment continues to fall - the NDP version of déjà vu.
This election was not determined by attack ads, vote splitting (Green or Conservative), voter apathy, voter suppression or any of the other theories we've heard from the pundits in the wake of the NDP collapse. The outcome was determined by character, policy, leadership and old-fashioned gum shoe campaigning.
Keith Maxwell, Sechelt
