_Reposted on May 28th/2017......______________________________________________
April 13th/2011
Born To Lead, The Honourable John Horgan
Written by Grant G...
Well here we go, coming down to the wire in the NDP leadership contest, three men left standing, Adrian Dix, Mike Farnworth and John Horgan, three superstars in their own right, let`s break down the nuts and bolts and get into meat of things.....
Adrian Dix, a pit bull, antagonistic, aggressive and capable, however, unfortunately Adrian brings out visceral feelings in people, he`s a love em or hate em type guy and those who hate him really hate him, personally speaking if Adrian didn`t have two sets of baggage with him I might have considered voting for him, the first set is the infamous memo-gate, Dix back dated a memo to cover Glen Clark`s rear end and got caught, that wasn`t a mistake of spoken words it was planned and executed, the Liberals will key on that in election ads and it will hurt,
actually it`s probably fatal, that would be hard enough to overcome by itself but when you add in the sack of cash separate from the stack of memberships Adrian dropped off at the deadline for new members, I`ve been told a few hundred of those ballots have been rejected...I suspect the BC Liberals would run an election ad like this....The caption, (A young Adrian Dix), they show a young Adrian sneaking into an office using white out on a document then return it to the file, then the next caption...(An older Adrian Dix)..They show a man with sacks of cash and stacks of memberships laughing and tee heeing, it would doom our party..But Adrian Dix would be a marvelous health minister.
Mike Farnworth, a fine man, dedicated, friendly and boring, he calls himself the most electable, actually he`s most like Carole James, too much like Carole James for me, Farnworth talks tough but he portrays weakness and mushy policies, his policies are good on paper but verbally not, his next liability is his speaking, he`s not bad with a practiced script but on his feet he`s mister eer and umm on every other word, it comes across badly, at least in my eyes and ears it does, liability number three, he`s gay, a life long partner, I would like to stress that it doesn`t matter to me but it will matter to some, probably at least 5% percentage points will shun Farnsworth because he is gay, imagine trying to win with Christy Clark and her family values routine and favourable press with CKNW, CTV, Global, Vancouver sun and Province, you might think I am over playing that angle but you would be wrong, let me give you an example of what the media is prepared to do for Christy Clark, let`s call it a Professional set, a professional picture, her make-up is perfect, let`s say she`s wearing a hockey jersey and talks about her son Hamish and their love of the game of hockey and they splash that on the front page, the media wouldn`t run puff pieces like that would they?....Think again, take a gander at this, no need to read the
story just check out the picture.
Shocking eh, look how the Province newspaper tries to connect Christy to canuck fever, what a staged picture, no bloody way was that was some media scrum photo, i`ll bet they took 50 shots from different angles and picked the best, the lighting was perfect, the story was syrupy drivel, so that is what Farnworth is up against, Christy and family against alternative lifestyle Mike, just imagine what the likes of a Phil Hocstein could do with that, can you imagine what ads he would run, remember his tactics in Ida Chong`s riding, heck, that was a vicious attack ad on a recall campaign, just imagine in a general election and especially if it was a close contest... The BC Liberals muse about running a positive campaign, I`ll bet dollars to doughnuts that the next Provincial election will be the dirtiest campaign on record, Farnworth also has ties to bingo-gate, regular readers here know already about the Farnworth tapes Global news has in their possession, it`s video of Jas Johal running after Farnworth who ducks into a car and speeds away, it`s a pretty damning video, it can and would be spun to high heaven. We can`t afford to give any percentages away if we want to win.
Then we get to the Honourable John Horgan, the man has a way of drawing your attention, he`s a policy hawk, the best speaker of the three, he speaks in clear positive terms and his platform is solid and complete, no mushy middle, some have said he has a temper, I have never seen it, he`s answered all my requests for years now, he`s open, friendly, easy to access, he never dodges a question, Gordon Wilson recently did a hatchet job on Horgan citing his temper, if he had one 15 years ago I don`t know, I consider Horgan`s speaking and style as...
Politely firm, the other advantage Horgan has is his memory, he can pull accurate stats and minute details from thin air at will, another big plus for John Horgan is
no baggage, no memo gate, no bingo gate,
no membership snafu, everywhere Horgan has gone he has won over the crowd and dominated the debates, I have heard from people all over this Province who never knew Horgan but after an hour or two hearing him speak he won them over, that folks is a quality that can`t be manufactured either you are born with or not, ...... John Horgan has a pretty wife and she`s real folksy, two good sons, he`s also a bladder cancer surviver, he`s a fighter!....Horgan knows the value of public health care, his number one goal is to preserve public health....
On the economic front we have a BC Hydro problem, no one has more experience than John on electricity, he`s been energy critic for years and he was on the energy file in the 90s, only Horgan can clean up the BC Hydro disaster Gordon Campbell created, John is on the record as saying that every secret IPP power buying contract will be reviewed and if deemed not in the public interest they will be renegotiated no matter what, Horgan will peg the price to the spot market, no more power losses.
I know many of you may choose Dana Larsen, you may like Adrian, some like Farnworth,
I like Horgan but for me it`s not about favorites it`s about winning the next election, we can`t afford as a Province to lose, BC is spiraling out of control under the BC liberals, I implore all NDP voters to vote with their heads and keep emotions out of the picture, whatever happens happens, we have one more chance, let`s get it right this time.
The list of Horgan's endorsements is long..Nicholas Simons, Harry Lali, Dana Larsen(who is still in the race).The Corrigans, Kathy and Derick, Burnaby city council, Dan Miller, Shane Simpson, Robin Austin,
Gary Coons, Maurine Karagianis,Scott Fraser, Bill Routley, Claire Trevena, former MPs Bob Skelly, Ray Skelly, Jim Manly, Construction trades council executive Tom Sigurdson, former NDP cabinet ministers Elizabeth Cull, Ann Edwards, Paul Ramsey, BCGEU general secretary John Flyer, CUPE president Paul Faoro, economist John Summerville, and this
endorsement..and many many more, he`s attracted both our union brothers and a little business, he has dissidents and superstars, Horgan has a way of attracting people from both sides, in fact even the BC Liberals showed Horgan respect in the house.
Anyway, I`m not easily won over but I`ll tell you what, I was so impressed with John Horgan years ago and he has gotten stronger, better, sharper, he so impressed me I wrote this
story in January 2009, a full year before the NDP cleansing, Carole was still in charge, the NDP were united, I wrote a hypothetical story about John Horgan becoming the new NDP leader and I find it a bit of a coincidence, I dated my hypothetical story (authored by Vawn Pawmer).March/15/2010...I was only out a year, I also wrote this
story as well, it was called, "
Born to Lead" and again that was well before any NDP infighting, that story was dated March 11/2010...A year before the squabbling.
Maybe I knew something then, like a vision, John Horgan emailed me at the time about those two stories I wrote last year, he thanked me for them, he was very gracious but he told me over and over again,
"The job is filled and Carole James is our leader"
I respected his solid support of Carole James especially since at that time I was very critical of Carole James but I remember like it was yesterday, in our email conversation, I told the Honourable John Horgan....
You were born to lead, you have a rare quality that can`t be manufactured, it`s a gift, use it, you have a unique karma, you don`t know it yet but you will be premier of British Columbia.
And the man has answered all my questions I`ve asked of him ever since, he`s not in my riding but he still answered all my requests and promptly, not just automated responses but thorough responses with clear details, Horgan does not hide, he`s a straight shooter and I fully endorse him and I hope all you fellow NDP members will support John Too!
The Straight Goods
Cheers Eyes Wide Open
