Political career
Early career
Dix's first job in politics was as an aide to federal NDP MP Ian Waddell in Ottawa. In 1991,he returned to BC to become an assistant to Glen Clark in the provincial ministry of finance. [4]
After Clark became Premier of British Columbia in 1996,Dix was named his chief of staff. Dix was dismissed in 1999 for back-dating a memo to protect Clark from conflict-of-interest charges. [5] Dix has said of this incident,"It was wrong,it was wrong. I'm out there and I've admitted it and people will judge. But I'm not trying to hide my mistake." [6] This memo would later become a focus of a number of opposition BC Liberal Party ads in the 2013 provincial election. [7]
Subsequently,he went on to work as the executive director of Canadian Parents for French in their B.C./Yukon branch. The Vancouver Sun summarized his work in this position as "successfully encouraging more school boards to offer French immersion programs." [2]
From 2001 to 2005 Dix was a political commentator in various media,writing a column for the Victoria Times-Colonist and The Source ,a prominent intercultural newspaper in Vancouver. He was also a contributor to The Tyee [8] and the CBC. [9]
Entry into elective politics
In 2005,Dix was elected as the MLA for Vancouver-Kingsway. He first served as the opposition critic for Children and Families and then served as the Health critic. [10] As MLA,he cites among his achievements "bringing insulin pumps to children with Type 1 diabetes and his work on a successful campaign to stop three schools from being closed in Vancouver-Kingsway." [11]
Leader of the NDP
After NDP leader Carole James announced her resignation, Dix was one of several candidates to run for the leadership. The last candidate to publicly launch his leadership bid, Dix campaigned on a platform of eliminating the HST, rolling back reductions in the corporate tax rate, supporting the redirection of carbon tax revenue to pay for public transit and infrastructure that reduces greenhouse gas emissions, supporting an increase in the minimum wage rate to $10 per hour, creating a provincial child care system, restoring grants to the post-secondary students, reducing interest on student loans, and restoring the corporation capital tax on financial institutions. [12] [13] [14]
His candidacy was endorsed by former interim BC NDP leader Joy MacPhail, amongst others. [15]
Dix led throughout the voting, narrowly defeating rival Mike Farnworth on the third and final ballot with 51.8% of the vote. [16]
Going into the 2013 election, nearly all polls showed the NDP well ahead of the BC Liberals, with at least one showing the NDP ahead by as much as 20 points. Two months prior to the election, The Province newspaper's front page featured a column by pundit Michael Smyth with the banner headline: "If This Man Kicked A Dog He Would Still Win The Election." [17] However, in a result that shocked the party and political pundits, the BC Liberals won a fourth majority government. [18] [19] [20] The BC NDP won 34 seats, one fewer than in 2009.
Dix announced on September 18, 2013 that he would resign as party leader once a new leader (John Horgan) would be chosen in 2014. He also announced his intention to run for re-election as an MLA in the next provincial election. [21]
Cabinet minister
After the NDP formed government as a result of the 2017 election, Dix was appointed Minister of Health. [22] After Horgan stepped down and was succeeded as premier by David Eby in 2022, Dix retained the portfolio in the new Eby ministry. [23]
On August 30, 2021, Dix announced an initiative to bring 4000 housekeepers and food service workers in provincial hospitals back under government employment by March 2022. This was an effort to reverse the fallout of the British Columbia Liberal Party administration passing the Health and Social Services Delivery Improvement Act in January 2002. The act facilitated the contracting of hospital support jobs to private employers, leading to thousands of hospital support workers to be laid off from the public sector and rehired under private contractors for reduced wages and benefits. [24] One employee reported an hourly wage decline from $18.10 with benefits and a pension while under direct provincial employment to $10.15 with neither benefits nor pensions under the private sector. [25] The Hospital Employees' Union had also reported the halving of wages upon being contracted by the private sector. Additionally, Premier John Horgan noted that these wage declines disproportionately affected women. [26]
Having served as health minister since 2017, Dix oversaw B.C.'s response to the COVID-19 pandemic but also faced sustained criticism for difficulties facing the provincial healthcare system. Following the 2024 election, in which healthcare was a major issue, Dix was shuffled out of the health file by Premier Eby and was named Minister of Energy and Climate Solutions.
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