Adrian Dix on election night. | Photo courtesy of BCNDP, Flickr

Last week Adrian Dix announced his resignation as leader of the BC NDP. He announced he’ll stay on until the new leader is selected in 2014. He also assumed responsibility for the party’s shocking election defeat – a noble if rote exercise in today’s leader-centric portrayal of politics.

Dix’s announcement comes after what must have been a difficult summer, leading the opposition in a rare legislative session while enduring endless public calls for his head. Even ex-premier Mike Harcourt called for him to step down.

The resignation was inevitable, but still disappointing, a reminder of an electoral defeat that was painful and stunning even for those of us who were thoroughly unimpressed with the extremely limited program of reforms the NDP chose to advance in the campaign.

The NDP has trimmed its sails significantly in recent decades. In this last campaign, they chose to be almost comically incremental – “change, one practical step at a time.” I would have preferred, “sweeping change, in order to undo a decade of destruction by corrupt corporate tools.”

Even on its “best behaviour,” the NDP was ruthlessly opposed by the majority of the corporate elite. The fact is that this province’s right-wing united and blocked the NDP from power yet again. The anybody-but-NDP coalition has been remarkably consistent and effective over the decades, even as party brands and names have come and gone.

Adrian Dix is a person of unusual substance and depth for a political party leader, in this superficial era of teleprompter readers. Despite the very limited political program he was running on, in conversation it was clear he understood and respected critiques from the left, as he demonstrated as a columnist in this very space (Left Bank) from 2000–2005. He could analyze and discuss French politics in great detail, among other things. Alas, bilingualism and voracious reading count for nothing these days.

There’s no denying the major blunders of the campaign, like the failure to aggressively attack the Liberals’ record while in power. A leaked report written by campaign manager Brian Topp explains how the NDP decided to hold their fire, even while incessantly negative TV ad bombs were being dropped on their leader.

“A consortium of trade unions pooled a substantial fund, hired an excellent team, and put together a television advertising program timed to air in March 2013… Unfortunately, at our explicit and hotly reinforced request, they avoided any negative attacks on Premier Clark and instead aired a relatively gentle flight of ads that had no public impact.”

For NDP members and progressive voters, this summer’s sometimes feverish calls for Dix to go, in my opinion, served the purpose of distraction from the grim conclusions that stem from the election defeat. A different personality at the helm won’t solve any of the political fundamentals in this province, which right now favour ongoing corporate dominance of political discourse and power.

The biggest problems are the long-term decline in power and militancy of the labour movement in B.C. and the lack of media democracy. The concentration of newspaper ownership and broadcast media means that a few voices have disproportionate power to shape political opinion and to limit the terms of debate.

Just look at the quote from Topp’s report. Why does the labour movement have to buy ads to get their perspective out? Because they don’t own any big media. There is no daily paper, no major talk radio, and no major TV personality that consistently hammers out a progressive, left-of-centre message – let alone a more radical message. The labour movement and the left are paying the price of their failure to invest in their own media institutions.

The hard fact is that Christy Clark seamlessly parlayed her access to mainstream media – she hosted a CKNW talk show during her break from politics – into the highest office in the land. She was able to do it, despite her vacuousness and past proximity to scandal, because she simplistically and smilingly delivered the message of the status quo.

I hope the leadership race will include candidates who speak frankly to these structural barriers to overcoming inequality and injustice. In other words, I hope we see candidates who are willing to openly condemn corporate power, and who don’t give a damn what the Vancouver Sun and Province editorial boards think of them.