BC Liberal backbencher Harry Bloy has apologized to Opposition New Democrat Leader Adrian Dix for calling him a liar, cheat and a thief during a heated debate in the legislature.

Dix said Tuesday that Bloy personally apologized for his comments, which Dix said he accepted and he now wants to move on.

Premier Christy Clark said Bloy should not have made the comments and his apology was the right thing to do under the circumstances.

But she denied suggestions from Dix that the Liberals have been conducting attack campaigns against him and John Cummins, the leader of the BC Conservatives.

"The things that Harry Bloy said were a unique circumstance and they certainly don't reflect the views of the government and they don't reflect anything that the government has been attempting to do over the last year or our political party," Clark said.

Dix said he wants to keep personal attacks out of politics, but he's been the target of personality-driven Liberal publicity campaigns over the past year.

"They launched a website," he said. "Then they had an online ad."

Some of the Liberal campaigns included the slogans, "Can't afford Dix" and "Risky Dix."

Dix said an NDP ad campaign aimed at Clark and called "Christy Crunch" was intended to be fun and not personal.

Recently, Dix was caught riding the Lower Mainland's SkyTrain without a ticket, but wasn't fined.

Dix's free SkyTrain ride was highlighted in Liberal campaign brochures in the Port Moody-Coquitlam byelection race.

Some political pundits are forecasting two Liberal byelection losses Thursday in the traditionally safe Liberal ridings of Chilliwack-Hope and Port Moody-Coquitlam.

During the 1990s when Dix was a political aide, he back-dated a document to take political heat off former NDP premier Glen Clark, an incident the Liberals often mention publicly.

Bloy's personal comments about Dix came during debate about the government's smart metre program.

"It really makes me wonder how a Leader of the Opposition can steal from the public," he said in the legislature.

Bloy went on to compare Dix to former federal NDP MP Svend Robinson, who admitted stealing an engagement ring in April 2004.

Dix said he was initially angry with Bloy for making comments about his engagement to his wife, but cooled down and accepted his apology.

Bloy -- the only member of the Liberal caucus to formally support Clark's Liberal leadership bid -- resigned his cabinet post as minister of state for multiculturalism last month after leaking a government email to a member of the public.

Earlier, Bloy was demoted from his cabinet post as Social Development Minister.