Prime Minister John Horgan is at present on the absolute top of his political profession, with sky-high public approval scores and a latest election victory that crushed his political opponents.
A lot of that success is right down to a person you have in all probability by no means heard of, however whose silent resignation just a few weeks in the past left an enormous void on the earth of BC politics.
Bob Dewar, Particular Advisor to the Prime Minister and Marketing campaign Director of the final two BC NDP campaigns, mentioned goodbye to the Prime Minister in late June.
It is laborious to overestimate its significance.
Put merely, with out Dewar, there would in all probability be no Prime Minister Horgan. Simply ask the premier himself.
“I believe with out Bob we’d positively not have succeeded,” Horgan informed Day by day Hive.
Metro Vancouver voters, abruptly lured into the NDP within the final two elections, sensed the attain of Dewar with out understanding who he was – the concentrate on “affordability,” childcare and housing had been key selections for Dewar as marketing campaign chief and The massively well-liked promise to abolish bridge charges for the Decrease Mainland within the 2017 elections was completely his craft.
However to essentially perceive the story of Horgan and Dewar, one has to return to 2016 and to one of the vital necessary telephone calls Horgan has ever made.
On the time, Horgan regretted his choice to turn out to be chief of the BC NDP within the opposition.
He had tried to duck out of the race just a few years earlier, however actually nobody else wished the job. He was dragged again, solely to search out himself depressing within the opposition, combating with reporters, and being overtly ridiculed as “Hulk Horgan” by then Prime Minister Christy Clark and her BC Liberals.
Few thought of him a premier-in-waiting.
A trusted ally, Marie Della Mattia, prompt that Horgan introduce himself to a lanky gray-haired strategist from Manitoba named Bob Dewar. He may have the ability to flip issues round, she prompt.
Horgan hesitated. He did not know Dewar. He thought of the 64-year-old strategist with many years of expertise within the federal authorities and in different federal states to be too outdated to be helpful in a contemporary election marketing campaign. He hesitated and hesitated for months earlier than lastly selecting up the telephone.
“I am so grateful for making this name,” Horgan says now.
Horgan, the vigorous Irishman, and Dewar, the ironic strategist with an infectious chortle, bought alongside nicely.
“He is an important man,” mentioned Horgan. “Bob is simply a simple going man who understands individuals. And that’s in the end politics – not technique, however relationships and folks. Precisely. And that is the place Bob is simply an knowledgeable. “
A significant key to Dewar’s success in British Columbia politics was that he was from Manitoba and had little expertise within the West.
As illogical as which will sound, as an outsider from one other province, Dewar was in a position to parachute into the BC NDP in 2016 – he did not owe anybody a favors, had no different loyalties than Horgan, and will have his say as marketing campaign supervisor no matter he did thought would win the celebration votes.
Dewar was fast to acknowledge the price pressures on Metro Vancouver voters, which stay the central theme of the Horgan administration and the supply of its rising energy base within the decrease mainland.
“I did not have baggage with anybody – I’d ask anybody something,” Dewar informed Day by day Hive in an interview. “After I bought in I had one objective in thoughts and that was to make him prime minister.”
It labored.
The Dewar NDP shocked the Liberals with a near-tie within the 2017 election. Horgan shortly tasked Dewar with convincing BC Inexperienced chief Andrew Weaver to work with the NDP to carry down the Liberals. Once more Dewar discovered the way in which to success.
When Horgan turned Prime Minister, Dewar turned his “particular adviser”. He saved the Greens comfortable, the Prime Minister targeted on the fitting political recordsdata and the NDP eager on the following election marketing campaign.
Dewar was again on high in September when Horgan held early elections throughout the pandemic to reap the benefits of the Greens and Liberals at their weakest second.
The end result was an orange wave of assist for the NDP that swept throughout the Decrease Mainland, giving Horgan a super-majority within the legislature.
Dewar determined this is able to be his swan track.
The 69-year-old ended his contract as Horgan’s particular adviser in June and moved again to Manitoba the place his household was ready for him.
“I actually consider you should not be there ceaselessly,” he mentioned of high-level strategists like him. “It’s a must to have individuals who transfer to make these juices circulate.”
Thus ends a brief however extraordinary partnership between Horgan and Dewar, two guys who did not know one another in any respect in 2016, however who dominated BC politics for nearly 5 years within the historical past books.
“We each influenced one another and went on this journey collectively, the place we did not know the place we had been going at the start,” mentioned Dewar. “We bought fairly shut. I think about him a buddy. “
“He is an important man,” mentioned Horgan. “He will likely be my buddy ceaselessly.”
Collectively they helped lead the NDP to supremacy in Metro Vancouver in 2017, overthrow the BC Liberals from energy, strike a historic power-sharing cope with the BC Greens, maintain collectively one of many longest minority governments in historical past, throughout the govern the best well being disaster of our time and remodel a minority authorities into an excellent majority in an early election.
“It’s totally distinctive, most individuals do not undergo that of their political life,” mentioned Dewar. “A part of that’s being the fitting particular person in the fitting place on the proper time. It simply occurs …
“When you consider it, it sounds fairly exceptional. However in case you do it day after day, it was solely at some point in your life. I believe it was a privilege. Not many individuals have the flexibility to do all of those. And I actually loved doing it. Now could be the time to maneuver on. “
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