Christy Clark talks to a truck driver near Campbell River a few days before the election.
Basically the Myers-Briggs test is a well regarded personality test that strives to determine an individual's balance balance between two relative values. One of the measurements is T, thinking, vs. F, feeling. In other words, some of us see the world through our thinking, rational minds, others see the world more through the emotions. Both are valuable...and all of us are a complicated mish-mash of the two. Her insight from this exercise was that [like me] she's a T in a world of F's, and that she'd better pay attention to the needs of the F's if she wanted to play well on any team, including the great big British Columbia team. It seemed to her that political junkies, especially those who consider themselves to be progressive ones - like she and i, are overwhelmingly Ts, Mr. Dix very much included. Ms. Clark was able to pull the F strings - fear, anxiety about change, financial insecurity, etc. while exhibiting a sunny personality. The NDP disastrously underestimated the power of this.
While Dix's body language and style demonstrated a level of arrogance that at least sub-consciously disgusted voters and non-voters alike, Christy's constant photo-op ready smile and quick confident sense of humour - well learned from years of working in the media and government - connected her emotionally to everybody, including those Ts like me who disagree with her politics.
Most folks don't have time like an old retired hermit gardener does to study the details of intricate issues. Most folks are to busy working, trying to raise a family, trying to make ends meet in this tilt-a-whirl culture. Folks may catch the weather to see what they and the kids should wear to work/school tomorrow, they may check the sports scores or the the odd headline on the radio while driving to work or shopping but otherwise not many have the time or energy to do more. BC, like almost everywhere, has become populated by over stretched folks who vote with their feelings both because that's what most people do and because they are so busy they only can think about immediate issues like their wallets.Christy Clark's buoyant personality - always upbeat, positive and optimistic - even as she lambasted the NDP's policies and personalities, combined with Dix's lack of charisma even more than his party's lack of viable alternative vision is why BCers nixed Dix.
Tomorrow The Mud Report will delve into the 'T' side of why the NDP got the shit-kicking it earned, but for me there was one particular 'F' moment that, when it happened, was the 'ah-ha' moment for me. It happened outside Campbell River a few days before the vote. Christy was striding along, casually dressed, smiling and shaking hands, journalists in tow, along side a row of big rigs idling in a lineup. She turned and a very gracefully climbed up the ladder while at the same time pulling herself up on the mirror support bar and talked to the trucker inside. She looked totally natural and confident in her movements, she talked warmly with the trucker, her smile and her confidence with him was, or at least seemed, totally genuine. My heart sank, i felt it too, it was obvious she'd win.
