A few New Democrats will be grieving ex-leadership candidate Mike Farnworth’s surrender on Tuesday and bemoaning the lost opportunity to build excitement over the next six months.
But they’re overlooking something that became obvious months ago — the whole concept of a dynamic, rejuvenating race was a dead loss from the get-go.
The lack of interest in succeeding Leader Adrian Dix became more apparent with every passing week after he announced plans to pack it in last September.
More than a dozen leading lights bailed out over the fall and winter. The highest profile non-starter was MLA John Horgan, who later changed his mind and stormed back in, then had the prize handed to him Tuesday when Farnworth abandoned the race.
It took them seven months to produce two candidates. Over that time, it became clear there was as much interest outside the party as there was inside — not much at all. Even if Farnworth had stayed in, the race would have been a tedious endurance contest. There aren’t enough differences between the two to spark much interest. The only potential for excitement would have been if things turned ugly, which would have been bad for the party.
So New Democrats are better off to just cancel the whole thing and hand it to Horgan.
It looks bad for a political outfit with a 34-member caucus not to be able to produce an interesting leadership race. But NDP leadership races can turn into screaming family fights at a moment’s notice. So they’re probably counting it as a net win to avoid the potential for embarrassment and just cancel the race.
The party never showed much interest in the race in the first place. The executive set an exorbitant entry fee of $25,000. And members rejected the initial plan to have an early vote, preferring to put it off as long as possible.
Horgan’s path to the leadership was nothing short of bizarre. He took himself out of the race in October 2013 because he thought he was too old and the party needed younger people to take over.
Over the winter, as the bailing-out continued, he was urged to reconsider. He organized a formidable campaign team and jumped back in on March 17. In the space of 22 days, he signed up about half the caucus as supporters, scared off Farnworth and has all but sealed the deal.
Not bad for a guy who came up well short in the 2011 leadership contest and last fall just wanted “to be free to be me.”
Even stranger was Farnworth’s aimless campaign. He came within 700 votes of winning in 2011 and was the presumptive front-runner from the moment Dix made it clear he was through. But he announced in a by-the-way fashion and his campaign never showed any oomph. Pushing the launch button is one thing. Achieving liftoff is another.
After Horgan scooped up more than a dozen caucus supporters, Farnworth showed up on the front steps of the legislature to unveil his team of endorsers. There were precisely two of them (Doug Donaldson and Lana Popham). It was painfully obvious he was going nowhere.
So after calling Horgan on the weekend to concede, he walked into the event Tuesday and cheerfully gave up, pledging full support to his rival. “You know what? I think he’s the best candidate.”
Horgan said he will press on campaigning, for the 2017 election. “Everywhere I’ve gone … I’ve seen smiling faces.”
Virtually the entire caucus was on hand to make it clear Horgan’s win is all but unanimous. There were a lot more people relieved the contest is over than disappointed it won’t run its course.
Just So You Know: Events moved Energy Minister Bill Bennett to take notice of Horgan, who has dogged him as a critic through a few portfolios. “I like him personally … has his heart in the right place.”
But he said Horgan and the NDP are conflicted on resource-extraction and energy issues. And the win-by-default “suggests to me they are completely lost, they don’t know who they are, or what they stand for.”
