The Globe and Mail reports in its Thursday edition that the NDP surprised everyone by losing the election in British Columbia. The Globe's Gordon Gibson writes that NDP leader Adrian Dix's opposition to Kinder Morgan's Trans Mountain pipeline and Enbridge's Northern Gateway pipelilne weighed on the minds of voters. His stated goal to ban significantly greater tanker traffic out of the port of Vancouver, did not sit well with voters. This would doom the export of Alberta oil to the Pacific. Mr. Dix had vetoed the Northern Gateway earlier, but seemed open-minded on the southern route. His new position was a stunning turnabout on his clear promise to withhold judgment until the pipeline application (and the details) had been filed. His anti-Green gamble failed and, worse for the NDP, the Greens elected their first MLA. This new force will split the vote on the left for years to come. That will be in the future but, for the purposes of this election, Mr. Dix's cynical move triggered the beginning of a major switch in voting intentions, one not captured by the pollsters but surely clear enough on Tuesday night. Mr. Dix help to crystallize fears that were latent in the minds of voters.