In a reversal of the 2009 campaign, the NDP appears much better organized than the B.C. Liberals this time around.
I have run into a dozen or so former B.C. Liberal government staffers and veterans of previous election campaigns who are sitting this one out. The result, potentially, may be a weaker effort when it comes to the party identifying supporters and getting them to a polling station on election day.
This can prove crucial (or fatal) in any tight riding races.
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When it comes to providing coherent, understandable answers to some straightforward questions, NDP leader Adrian Dix can display a knack for doing precisely the opposite.
His convoluted, hazy explanation of how and why he publicly revealed his position on the proposed Kinder Morgan project is a classic example of just that.
He may eventually provide a clearer response, but as of this writing that wasn't the case.
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Another way of looking at Dix's Kinder Morgan position is that it demonstrates very clearly that he is in charge of his party, which certainly wasn't always the case under previous leaders.
Mike Harcourt and Carole James frequently left the impression that party activists, if not the caucus, were running the show and not them. That's not the case with Dix. His one-man band dictation of the party's position on a lightening rod issue shows who's in control.
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B.C. Liberal leader Christy Clark has an extraordinary ability to take a bad issue and making it worse.
She did that with the notorious "ethnic memo" scandal, where she offered a personal apology only after days of controversy (and a simmering internal revolt over her leadership).
And she did it again when it was revealed she ran a red light with a Vancouver Sun reporter and her young son in the car. At first, she simply brushed it off when asked about it by a reporters. The next day, after current and past members of her caucus expressed serious concerns over what she had done, she admitted her actions were wrong.
The fact her admission came the same day that five people were killed when someone ran a red light in Surrey only put her actions in a harsher light.
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I am getting a strong impression that some B.C. Liberal candidates (and former MLAs) are fervently hoping their party loses this election to facilitate the dumping of Clark as leader.
There remains an uneasy tension between Clark and many of her colleagues (remember, only one MLA endorsed her leadership campaign) and a number of them are already planning a strategy to deal with rebuilding the party under someone else's leadership should it go down to defeat on May 14.
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I predicted in this space some time ago that one of B.C. Conservative leader John Cummins' biggest challenges would be to find credible candidates for his party and not people who would prove to be embarrassing to the party.
Well, he's had to dump four candidates for so-called "bozo eruptions," mostly involving their use of offensive language in the campaign.
To say this has been a blow to the party's credibility is an understatement, but given the resentment to the B.C. Liberals that seems entrenched in parts of the electorate, that credibility hit may not be enough to seriously erode the modest rise in the B.C. Conservatives' standing in the polls.
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Has Green party leader Jane Sterk has undergone media training or something?
Her television and radio appearances seem more polished (there was a consensus among many commentators that Sterk stood head and shoulders above the other leaders in the radio debate) than in 2009. We'll see if this pays off at the ballot box.
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Now that Clark cannot take action against any of her party's candidates if they choose to stray from her message and run their own campaigns (the deadline for refusing to sign their nomination papers passed last week) it will be interesting to see if any do just that.
Cabinet minister Dr. Moira Stilwell, for example, has considerable credibility when it comes to health policy and so she's announced her own policies on that front.
We'll see if others follow suit.
Keith Baldrey is chief political reporter for Global B.C. He can be reached at Keith.
