AS nominations for the NDP leader’s post close the day after tomorrow and it’s quite obvious that John Horgan will be the sole candidate, the party president, Craig Keating, sent out an appeal on Tuesday for money to counteract anticipated attacks on him by the Liberals.

Keating said: “In a way this is very exciting — we can come together as soon as May 1 when nominations close and start building towards winning the next election.

“However, we also need to be very careful: the BC Liberals play by a very specific right-wing playbook.  It is the same playbook that Stephen Harper used to destroy Stephane Dion and Michael Ignatieff before they even had their feet under them.

“That playbook says smear your opponents from the start.

“We know that the BC Liberals will spend big money to attack.  We need to be ready to introduce our new leader to protect them from the attack ads that the BC Liberals will spread.

“Those attacks could start as soon as May 1.”

He then appealed for donations.