Is this one of the strangest elections in BC history?
It’s definitely in the running. In fact, it could be considered one of the strangest in Canadian politics. The idea that the Official Opposition party would fold and withdraw its candidates right before the writ drops is remarkable. Today it’s more important to look at the overall picture as we close in on Oct. 19 and consider how Kevin Falcon’s move affects not his candidates, but our local Prince George voters.
We’ll talk about voter apathy in a moment. For now, let’s consider the BC United supporters left stranded after Falcon tore their hopes from the sky, bringing their party’s campaign to the ground.
Before that happened, they knew where their votes were going. They knew their candidates, one of whom was longtime MLA Shirley Bond, the other was Coralie Oakes, and had no doubts about where they’d mark their ballots.
But that was taken away, and the field is far more polarized than it was with BC United in the mix.
Some BC United voters will no doubt move to the rising BC Conservatives, as did some of their BC United candidates (locally, that includes Kiel Giddens). Others, likely fewer, may consider voting NDP or Green simply because they lean more left of centre (or because of the more extreme views of some of John Rustad’s Conservative candidates).
There are still a lot of people who aren’t sure.
For these voters, knowing who’s on the ballot is important, especially considering that of the 11 candidates in our three ridings, only one is an incumbent: Coralie Oakes, and she’s running as an independent this time, after being elected three times as a BC Liberal MLA.
We have to urge those unsure voters against skipping the vote altogether because of the situation. Your vote matters, as we’ll get to.
Consider another oddball election in BC.
The 1996 vote came after Premier Mike Harcourt resigned in scandal, leading Glen Clark to lead the party to the polls against Gordon Campbell, who had taken over as Liberal leader after Gordon Wilson had resigned in scandal. It was a scandalous time, apparently.
That year, the NDP took 39.45 per cent of the popular vote and the Liberals 41.82 per cent, but the NDP still formed a majority government with 39 sears over the Liberals’ 33. Fewer votes, but more seats.
In other words, it’s BC politics, and anything can happen Oct. 19.
