Former B.C. NDP premier Mike Harcourt quits own party, calls it “out of touch”

B.C. was hit with a political bombshell today: The man who led the NDP to election victory in 1991, after almost two decades in opposition, has quit the party.

Former B.C. New Democrat premier Mike Harcourt, a elder statesman highly respected across party lines and still courted for his advice on public policy matters, has revealed he has let his NDP membership lapse out of disillusionment with the party's direction and leadership.

The news rippled through social media Tuesday, with some feeling obliged to say it should be taken seriously, despite the announcement coming on April 1.

In an interview with the Globe and Mail, Harcourt said the NDP is not ready to govern and its policies hostile to resource development have alienated it from voters outside big urban centres like Metro Vancouver and Victoria.

“I just decided it’s time for me to become an independent,” Harcourt said. “I don’t know whether it’s a trial separation or a decree absolute.”

Although Harcourt, 71, is no longer active in senior NDP circles, his announcement is a stunning blow. The former three-term mayor of Vancouver led the New Democrats to victory in 1991 over Social Credit, which had been in power since defeating B.C.'s first-ever NDP government in 1975.

Harcourt resigned in 1996 over the so-called Bingogate scandal, which revealed almost a million dollars had been skimmed from bingo games operated by NDP-affiliated non-profit groups and funneled into party coffers. He took the fall even though the illegality took place in the 1980s, before he was leader.

The NDP won re-election under new leader Glen Clark but he, too, resigned after being accused of breach of trust and conflict-of-interest. The party, tainted by that scandal and dogged by criticism it mismanaged the province's finances, was crushed by the Liberals in 2001.

Harcourt, who made a courageous comeback from a 2002 fall that left him partly paralyzed, carved out a new career as an academic, speaker and consultant on issues such as sustainability.

[ Related: B.C. Liberals within striking distance of NDP because of a masterful campaign ]

Harcourt told the Globe his disaffection began years ago but the NDP's botched 2013 election campaign was the breaking point.

The party, under then-leader Adrian Dix, seemed poised to defeat the three-term Liberals led by Christy Clark. Dix decided to run a positive campaign and not hammer the Liberals on their record despite negative Liberal ads pummelling him and the NDP.

But what troubled Harcourt the most was was Dix's unilateral mid-campaign decision to come out against a proposed twinning of an existing Kinder Morgan pipeline into Vancouver so it could be used to export Alberta oil sands bitumen.

Up to that point, Dix had said he would wait until the formal application for the expansion was filed before taking a position. He changed course without consulting anyone in the party.

Harcourt told the Globe it was an "astonishingly stupid decision" that probably cost the NDP 20 seats in resource-dependent ridings and widened the breach between the party's traditional labour supporters and its environmentalist, anti-development faction.

“Coming out against Kinder Morgan just finally did it for me," Harcourt told the Globe. "I thought that was so stupid and unnecessary."

The move was widely seen as the turning point in the campaign, resulting in Clark's Liberals being handily re-elected to a fourth term. Dix belatedly fell on his sword and the NDP next September will choose its fourth leader since 2001.

Harcourt said the NDP now must find a leader who connects not only with urban supporters but with people working in the resource sector, "loggers, drillers and ranchers," the Vancouver Sun reported. The new leader needs to balance its environmental and economic visions for the province and build a team capable of governing, he said.

Harcourt, whose party membership lapsed in December, is not endorsing anyone in the leadership race, though he told the Globe that Victoria-area MLA John Horgan is "a very capable guy" with a balanced approach on resource issues.

[ Related: Former B.C. premier Mike Harcourt provides $50,000 to help house Vancouver’s mentally ill ]

Horgan and former cabinet minister Mike Farnworth are the only two candidates so far. Farnworth lost out to Dix in the 2011 leadership campaign.

Farnworth had Harcourt's endorsement in 2011 and said last weekend he hoped Harcourt would support him again, the Globe said.

But Harcourt said he never heard from Farnworth after his 2011 endorsement.

“I would expect a phone call or, ‘We want to talk to you about this or that on occasion,’” he told the Globe.

Farnworth said he's disappointed by Harcourt's decision, CKNW News reported.

“But I also understand his frustration because I know a lot of people were extremely frustrated with the fact that we didn’t win in May," Farnworth said.

Horgan said he's unhappy Harcourt quit the party but told CKNW News Harcourt's criticisms about the NDP's disconnect with the resource sector echo his own.

“If you compare my comments in the fall to Mike’s comments today they’re almost exactly the same, so absolutely I understand that, and again I believe that we can change that and that’s why I’ve stepped up, that’s why I’m building support right across B.C. in every corner of the province to change.”

The Liberals can only be chortling over this latest blow to the only party that could challenge its grip on power. It doesn't have to face voters again until 2017. A new NDP leader has until then to convince voters Harcourt's criticisms have been addressed.