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NDP leader Adrian Dix busted on SkyTrain with no ticket

NDP leader Adrian Dix was let off with a warning after SkyTrain police caught him riding the transit system without a ticket on March 3.
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NDP leader Adrian Dix

NDP leader Adrian Dix was let off with a warning after SkyTrain police caught him riding the transit system without a ticket on March 3.

The incident came to light three weeks later after a Vancouver newspaper was tipped off by someone in the transit police, Dix told reporters at the legislature Monday.

Dix said he has ridden transit thousands of times, and always buys a ticket. He couldn't produce one when transit police asked him during a random check of passengers, and the situation was "entirely my fault," Dix said.

He was initially issued a ticket for riding without paying, but was later told that the ticket was reduced to a warning. Dix said since the March 3 incident, he always puts his proof of payment in his wallet when riding transit.

Former NDP MLA and now Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson was fined $173 after he was caught in 2007 riding SkyTrain for two zones while only buying a one-zone ticket.

Dix acknowledged that he decided to say nothing about his fare evasion incident. He rejected suggestions that his credibility was weakened by keeping quiet, or by "apples and oranges" comparisons to his production of a fake memo in an effort to protect former premier Glen Clark in a 1999 investigation into the award of a casino licence.

Dix was fired as Clark's chief of staff, and Clark later resigned over the affair.