Berger’s defeat paved the way for Dave Barrett, who was acclaimed BC NDP leader in 1970 at the party’s Chilliwack convention. Barrett was a brilliant campaigner, who spent the next two years repositioning the NDP. Instead of focusing on electing a government, Barrett distanced himself from unions, worked to inoculate the party from the ‘godless’ label, and campaigned for a stronger opposition that would be a check on the Social Credit government while standing up for ordinary people – ‘the little people’ he often called them.
A new decade; a new leader
