Wednesday April 3, 2024 | VICTORIA, BC
Political insights by Mary P Brooke | Island Social Trends
One of the BC NDP MLAs has crossed over to the BC Conservatives.
Gwen O’Mahony will now be the Conservative Party of BC candidate for Nanaimo-Lantzville.
Gwen O’Mahony was elected in a 2012 by-election to serve as an NDP MLA in Chilliwack-Hope in 2012 (which lasted for a year, until the May 2013 election). In 2021, O’Mahony unsuccessfully sought the federal NDP nomination for Nanaimo—Ladysmith.
About 15 reporters showed up for the BC Conservatives Wednesday afternoon announcement just outside the Legislative Library. Rustad and O’Mahony were accompanied by the party’s house leader, Bruce Banman.
Political shift:
O’Mahony has never really been high-profile in the BC NDP. There seems no sense of loss in the current BC NDP ranks. The big win today was for the BC Conservatives is to try to emphasize dissatisfaction with the governing party.
After the announcement, Conservative Party of BC leader John Rustad posted in social media: “Gwen O’Mahony is a former NDP MLA who is now running for the Conservative Party of British Columbia in Nanaimo. She is a hardworking, everyday British Columbian who wants to see common sense in BC!”
Building the 2024 campaign:
Today’s new candidate announcement puts the Conservative Party of BC at 57 candidates so far for the upcoming provincial election which is scheduled for October 19, 2024. There are 93 ridings in BC for this next election (up from the current 87).
Starting out with focus on decriminalization and addiction:
O’Mahony’s announcement was focused mostly on her dissatisfaction with the BC NDP government’s position on decriminalization of illicit drugs. That seemed to be her deal breaker for her commitment to the BC NDP, which at least at the start seems to point her campaign into the danger zone of single-issue focus.
The approach of today’s announcement ran the danger of beginning to paint the BC Conservatives into a corner of just hardline positions on decriminalization, SOGI education, and the COVID vaccination requirement of health care workers.
Rustad said in a response to Island Social Trends asking about the apparent lack of breadth in the BC Conservatives platform, that a broader campaign platform is forthcoming.
Dropping the COVID vaccine mandate:
Rustad said that if the BC Conservatives were to form government, the first thing they would do is drop the COVID vaccination mandate requirement for BC health-care workers, as one way to bring more staff back into the broader health-care system.
BC Health Minister Adrian Dix has stuck to his guns since managing the province through the COVID-19 pandemic that the BC government will protect everyone in the health-care setting by maintaining the COVID vaccination requirement for health-care workers. That’s based on the premise that if people come in for care they are not to be further potentially exposed to additional illness.