Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Adrian Dix.

Our next premier.

If the latest poll is right, sometime on the night of May 14, 2013, it will be so (plus or minus 3.5 per cent).

For a while, the polls have shown the NDP ahead of the governing Liberals in voter sentiment. But for the first time, an Angus Reid poll shows voters believe NDP leader Adrian Dix is a better choice for premier than Christy Clark.

Poor Christy. The people have tied one end of a chain around the HST and the other around Christy’s ankle and tossed her into English Bay. It will take a political miracle for her to recover over the next 16 months and lead her battered and bruised Liberals to another term in office.

Which leaves Adrian Dix, the last man standing after what seems like an endless process of leadership battles and referendums, churned up in the “see ya, don’t wanna be ya” exit of the notorious Gordon Campbell.

I’m trying to keep an open mind. Dix was elected to the legislature in 2005, after spending the first part of the decade wandering around the political wilderness as a B-list pundit. He acquitted himself very well, earning a reputation as an astute, if humourless opposition critic.

Somehow, he beat the equally beige Mike Farnworth to become the NDP leader. And as leader, he’s been a bit of surprise. In a good way. Turns out he has a sense of humour as well as a head on his shoulders. Compared to the perpetually giddy Ms. Clark, he seems comfortable in his own skin – sharp, but level headed, left-wing without appearing extreme. Kind of the Greg Selinger of BC politics. You know, the NDP premier of Manitoba? They’re doing all right in Manitoba, aren’t they?

But there’s still a nagging doubt about Adrian Dix. In 1999, at the height of the Glen Clark scandal, Dix was chief of staff to the Premier. He was forced to resign after it came to light that he wrote a phoney, back-dated memo to make it appear that Clark had instructed him to keep him at arms-length from the process of awarding casino licences.

A big mistake? A lie? Yep. Maybe “Tricky Dix” has learned his lesson and will never tell another lie.

And maybe he hasn’t. So far, he’s pretty much had a free ride from the Anybody But Christy Movement. But the last time Mr. Dix occupied the Office of the Premier, he resigned in disgrace.

I’d be careful what you ask for.