New provincial NDP Leader John Horgan admits there is a sense of “profound disappointment about the election” among New Democratic Party supporters.
“But that’s in the past,” he said on Sunday during a visit to R&S Meyer Farms in Lister.
Horgan is on a mission to talk to individuals and small groups about their political concerns and to deliver his own message.
“The NDP has to be the party again that it was under Mike Harcourt,” he said during a break in which he wasn’t getting an earful from farmer Randy Meyer about changes enacted last week to the Agricultural Land Reserve. “We have to do some public education on our mainstream values to make sure that people understand that we are not that dissimilar, that the Liberals don’t corner economic issues.”
Horgan, MLA for Juan de Fuca, said that his visit to the Kootenays — two days of touring with Nelson-Creston MLA Michelle Mungall — brought back a sense of familiarity. A career civil servant, he was a lead negotiator in the Columbia River Treaty and helped to establish the Columbia Basin Trust.
“Of course we are strong on the environment,” he said, “but also have to develop our resources using a balanced approach.”
Horgan said that government and politics often aren’t as important to the public as they are often portrayed.
“There’s a saying that, ‘You wouldn’t worry so much about what others think of you if you realized how seldom they do,’ ” he said, quoting Eleanor Roosevelt. “Mostly, I think people are happy or unhappy with what we do, then they get on with their lives. It’s when your interests are affected that you take an interest in politics.”
To rebuild a party that had victory within in its grasp in 2013, only to see it disappear on election day, Horgan said he will focus on areas that have supported the NDP in the past.
“We wanted to renew NDP interest in places like the Elk Valley, which has roots in the party.”
In talking to Meyer, Horgan said he hears similar complaints about changes to the ALR wherever he travels — the lack of consultation has led to changes (dividing the province into two zones and including the Creston Valley in the less productive one) that benefit some, but could have devastating effects on agriculture.
“When I saw the changes I thought, I could break this farm up into seven or eight lots and be a millionaire pretty quickly,” Meyer said. “But my parents and grandparents didn’t farm so I could do that.”
Mungall said an NDP government would undo the ALR changes. And Horgan wants to be the premier responsible for the undoing.
“I don’t want to be Leader of the Opposition in three years,” he said. “I’ve learned that campaigns have to be right through to the end. The Liberals do not have a divine right to rule.”