Saturday October 10, 2020 | VICTORIA & VANCOUVER, BC [Last Updated 2:10 pm]
Profile by Island Social Trends | Mary P Brooke, Editor
Saturday October 10 is Day 20(*) on the Election BC campaign trail (*calling September 21 as Day 1, the day the election was called). This is the Thanksgiving long weekend (October 10 to 12).
The Provincial General Election Day is on Saturday October 24. Advance voting and voting-by-mail are available. Elections BC info.
Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic which requires physical distancing, most campaign activities are done remotely online, both for the media and the voter audiences.
All Candidates Meetings are posted on the Island Social Trends Events page.
BC NDP: On Saturday October 10, two BC candidates made an announcement at 10 am about education. NDP Leader John Horgan was not at this session (likely taking a day off from the non-stopcampaign trail).
Speakers: Brenda Bailey, BC NDP candidate for Vancouver-False Creek and George Heyman, BC NDP candidate for Vancouver-Fairview at Athletes Village Housing Cooperative in Vancouver. They said a re-elected NDP government would take care of getting a new school built in that core area of Vancouver where previously families would need to drive or bus their kids to schools in neighbouring areas.
Various questions from media were answered, including Heyman articulating how the NDP had to repair damage to schools and the education system caused by the BC Liberal government during 2001-2016. He described those 16 years as having failed students, families and communities due to self-interest by the BC Liberal party.
BC Liberals: BC Liberal Leader Andrew Wilkinson addressed media at 1:30 pm from Richmond, making an announcement on health care. He said a BC Liberal government would finally build an expansion to the Richmond Hospital.
However, NDP Leader John Horgan (as Premier) and Adrian Dix (as health minister) announced in July that a renewed design was now ready for construction which would meet modern medical requirements. The new nine-storey tower will have almost 220 beds, bringing the hospital’s total to 350, up from its current 240.
Vancouver-based media did a good job of calling Wilkinson on that oversight. “The plan is the same but we would get it done,” said Wilkinson in response. Wilkinson also said that the BC Liberals approved the hospital build in 2016, adding: “The NDP have accomplished nothing… can you trust John Horgan and the NDP? This is a hospital tower that needs to be built.” A medical doctor “who is very familiar with hospital acute care”, Wilkinson said the BC Liberals “commit to this hospital tower being built on the day we take office”, even though the construction development green light is already underway under the NDP.
Wilkinson stated that “not single hospital” was built by the NDP, and that the BC Liberals built 14 acute care hospitals “in an equivalent period in time” (comparing to 13 years of NDP governments, before and after BC Liberal governments).
BC Green Leader Sonia Furstenau on Saturday October 10 will hold a press conference at 12:30 pm from Fernwood Square in Victoria. There will be a sign waving event at 1:30 pm in Victoria.
A televised leaders debate will be held on Global TV on Tuesday October 13 from 6:30 to 8 pm.
