Prediction: the B.C. Liberals will be punished for the disgusting attack ads on Adrian Dix

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      Today, I went out to B.C. NDP leader Adrian Dix's health-policy announcement at the South Granville Seniors Centre.

      As he was laying out his party's position, I couldn't help but marvel at what an example he has become to children across the province with Type 1 diabetes.

      It's an incredibly challenging illness, requiring tremendous courage seven days a week.

      Dix and others with this disease must inject themselves several times a day with insulin and regularly prick themselves to test their blood sugar.

      That's because their immune system kills the beta cells in the pancreas, which produce the hormone necessary to absorb blood sugar.

      But insulin injections and food consumption are a tricky combination. That's because if glucose levels rise too high over sustained periods for a long time, the blood becomes almost gooey, threatening internal organs, including the heart, liver, and kidney. That's in addition to the higher risk of amputations, blindness, and other horrors arising if levels are too high over many years.

      If the levels fall too low, there's a risk of falling into a potentially fatal diabetic coma.

      When blood-sugar levels go wonky, it can make you cranky, fatigued, and affect your concentration.

      Despite this, Dix is on the verge of becoming the premier of British Columbia. And throughout the campaign, he has refrained from personally attacking his oppponents.

      It has been an impressive performance, as anyone will tell you who knows the truth of what it's like to live with Type 1 diabetes.

      So what has been the B.C. Liberals' response? They've created a front group to run a bunch of horrific-looking ads designed to make Dix look like a gangster.

      The Progressive Conservatives tried this type of dirty campaigning in 1993 against Jean Chrétien when he was poised to defeat Kim Campbell. The close-up in one advertisement highlighted the Liberal leader's facial deformity, which was caused by Bell's palsy.

      It backfired on the Tories, who were reduced to two seats in the general election.

      The B.C. Liberals actually think that their friends' attacks on Dix's character will help their cause.

      But the longer this campaign goes on, Christy Clark's party is seeming to be increasingly irrelevant.

      As Dix takes the high road and trots out new policies on job training, education, health, and the environment, the B.C. Liberal leader has very little new to say.

      Sure, she talks about the government becoming debt-free while heading a regime that has raised the public debt. And there are flights of fancy about the export of liquefied natural gas and an oil refinery that will never be built near Kitimat.

      Soon, I suspect, she'll be unemployed.

      When your friends' ads go thermonuclear on an opponent like the Progressive Conservatives did on Chrétien, it's usually a sign of desperation.

      I can't wait to hear the post-mortems on May 15 from all those B.C. Liberal MLAs who will soon become ex-politicians. Especially those from the safest B.C. Liberal seats that will fall to the B.C. NDP.

      No doubt, some of that chatter will focus on the anti-Dix ads and why they were such a failure.

      Comments

      15 Comments

      Ray

      Apr 23, 2013 at 5:06pm

      Charlie, What the hell does him having Type 1 diabetes have to do with either your headline of the election in general? What puffery! But I do hear rumours of an October Surprise in the ready for Dix. Apparently lying to the RCMP was not the worst thing he has done in his political life. I'm sure, Charlie, that you will immediately follow up with an article of Dix volunteering at the animal shelter with a headline something like Dix helps save kitten run over by Clark's campaign bus!

      Jim

      Apr 23, 2013 at 6:55pm

      I must say that it has been extremely refreshing to see a politician like Adrian Dix take the high road and actually campaign on issues that mean something to the voters. You are correct, the Liberals ooze desperation and it will likely cost them dearly come May 14th. It is time for change in BC and it can't happen soon enough.

      Coach Dobbs

      Apr 23, 2013 at 7:22pm

      The diabetes issue is lost one me but the poor english isn't..."they've gotten a front group"...what is this all about??. Charlie Smith needs to go back to grade five grammar class. To say the least there is no such word as "gotten" other than CNN style American street slang.

      James G

      Apr 23, 2013 at 8:17pm

      I have watched every federal and provincial election (and been involved in some) for decades. I have never seen an incumbent party campaign in this manner. One day there are smiles and programs, the next day sinister warnings and nasty personal attacks, then day three back to smiles. It's a revolving door strategy and we don't know from day to day whether 'The Land is Strong' Christy Clark is on stage or if it is 'Tea Party' Clark day.

      I can't say it won't work because I can't recall anyone ever trying. Aren't they concerned that voters may think that the erratic way their campaign is managed might transfer to a similar style of governing?

      Charlie Smith

      Apr 23, 2013 at 8:29pm

      Okay Coach. I'll replace "gotten" with "created".
      Charlie Smith

      Ivan

      Apr 23, 2013 at 9:17pm

      Ding Dong the witch is gone.

      TRUTH Bomb

      Apr 23, 2013 at 9:47pm

      Coach Dobbs' attempt at being a grammar-Nazi are misguided at best. Gotten is, in fact, a word and has been for quite some time (since Middle English I believe). Here's a tip, Coach: do some homework before being a public jackass.

      Alan Layton

      Apr 23, 2013 at 10:45pm

      I'm sure Adrian Dix would've been very happy to downplay his diabetes as much as possible. His condition could really affect his ability to lead, which isn't exactly what people needed to know. Way to go Charlie.

      Chow

      Apr 23, 2013 at 11:09pm

      We are a quarter of the way through the formal campaign (and thankfully almost completely through the taxpayer funded Liberal campaign) and every time I hear Clark or on of her minions, I find myself thinking: "Is that all you've got? Seriously, after being in government for 12 years, have you run out of ideas, except unicorn like LNG plants and the fantasy of retiring the debt."

      Will

      Apr 24, 2013 at 12:54am

      Story makes some logic leaps. The most glaring is the argument that it was Conservative attack ads that brought the party down to Chretien in 93.
      It wasn't the attack ads, they were just the icing.
      It was complete fiscal incompetence, coupled with the rising reform, and the nasty campaign.
      Clark has no rising Reform to worry about, but her party's fiscal incompetence and lack of any sort of logical or reasonable plan makes up for it.
      That said, this article reads like a hack job. If the GS is looking for decent editorial writers, I'm currently unemployed. I'm sure I could write this sort of stuff, and I wouldn't have to resort to leaps of logic to make the point the BC LIBs should, and will, do down like Rita J and the Socreds.