We are months away from the provincial election, but is NDP Leader Adrian Dix already letting down his guard?
Dix may be comfortably ahead in the polls right now, but he inserted foot firmly in mouth with his remarks this week about Foundation Skills Assessment tests in B.C. elementary schools.
Dix was first reported as promising to scrap the controversial tests, which have long been criticized by the B.C. Teachers Federation.
BCTF president Susan Lambert even said the NDP "have pledged to dump" the FSAs if they win May's election.
And thus the NDP's true stripes were revealed. The election hasn't even begun, and already the party is kowtowing to Big Labour.
Sounds like the same old NDP of the 1990s to us. And why wouldn't it be? Dix was, after all, Premier Glen Clark's right hand man.
Coincidentally, this was the same government that created the FSAs in the first place. But ever since the New Democrats have been in opposition, they been on side with the teacher's union to get rid of them.
Education critic Robin Austin later went into spin mode, saying the FSAs would be replaced by some other kind of provincewide testing.
But the damage was done.
The NDP, of course, wants teachers' votes. But why would the BCTF be so opposed to testing students' literacy and math skills?
Because low scores also red flag poor teaching, and that leads to problems for its union members.
Four months is an eternity in politics. Dix had better not get too comfortable. Just look at the meteoric rise and fall of the B.C. Conservatives for proof.
- Managing Editor
Jon Manchester