Friday January 17, 2020 ~ BC
Editorial Insights by Mary P Brooke ~ West Shore Voice News
In the wake of BC Green Party Leader Andrew Weaver stepping down from party leadership and also now becoming an independent MLA in the BC Legislature, the BC Liberals have set the date for a candidate nomination meeting in the riding of Oak Bay-Gordon Head which they call “the latest step in the party’s preparation for an election that could happen at any time”.
Meanwhile, Weaver and the Greens have said they have every intention of propping up the NDP government, in keeping with the Supply and Confidence Agreement that was crafted largely by Premier John Horgan and signed by both NDP and Green party leaders in July 2017 to make possible a stable minority government in BC.
The BC Liberal candidate for Oak Bay-Gordon Head will be nominated on Saturday, April 4. Prospective candidates have until February 28 to submit an application, and any resident of the riding who is a party member as of March 7 will be eligible to vote for the party’s nominee.
“We look forward to offering the people of Oak Bay-Gordon Head a strong candidate and a renewed BC Liberal vision for opportunity, prosperity, and protection of our environment for future generations,” said Andrew Wilkinson, BC Liberal leader. “We wish Andrew Weaver and his family all the very best as he moves on from public life, and thank him for his service to Oak Bay-Gordon Head and British Columbia.”
Through the BC Liberals’ proactive efforts toward the end of 2019 to recruit a candidate team that renews the party and reflects BC’s full diversity, the party has received hundreds of applications from qualified individuals throughout the province.
The BC Liberal Party slogan in this phase is “Opportunity for all of BC”. In general, the BC Liberals which now sit in Opposition feel that business and investment opportunities are being downplayed in favour of the NDP’s funding of social programs and efforts to reduce poverty in various legislative and bureaucratic pockets of the system.
That the BC Liberals could take away the breath of fresh air that the Horgan NDP government has produced for the widest range of British Columbians — with economic supports and in the health care and education systems — is a surefire motivator for NDP forces around the province.
The party’s announcement of open nominations in what it considered to be 11 battleground ridings last November — mostly to unseat sitting NDP MLAs — signaled “the BC Liberals’ continued renewal while working to make British Columbia the best place to live, work, and achieve your dreams”, it was stated by the party today.
In the last election the NDP won by 189 votes in Courtenay-Comox cost then-Premier Christy Clark her legislative majority and set the stage for the New Democrats to take office in partnership with the Greens.
BC Liberal Leader Andrew Wilkinson has been scrappy in the BC Legislative Assembly on behalf of his party’s interests over the past couple of years, but is rarely a political match for Premier John Horgan — not just in the legislature but among the general population that has appreciated a fair chance at aspects of socioeconomic revival.
It will be up to Horgan to keep the majority of voters aware of his government’s accomplishments if he is to block the frustration that fuels the BC Liberals now.
Prime targets for the BC Liberals includes five seats they lost to an NDP surge in Metro Vancouver: two in Maple Ridge, plus North Vancouver-Lonsdale, Port Moody-Coquitlam, and Vancouver-Fraserview. All were won by the New Democrats, with margins ranging from 325 votes to just under 2,000.
Also on the BC Liberal target list are three seats where the government margin is solid, so it’s a more questionable plan of political attack or use of resources: Mid Island-Pacific Rim, represented by Indigenous Relations Minister Scott Fraser; Vancouver-Fairview, held by Environment Minister George Heyman; and New Westminster, with Mental Health Minister Judy Darcy.
The BC Liberals always attempt to run a candidate with strong backing in the Langford-Juan de Fuca riding on Vancouver Island which now-Premier John Horgan has held since 2005. But they are notably not saying anything public yet about their intentions there for the 2021 election. When the BC Liberals were in power they were not eager to please that riding with many perks or benefits, which is one of the reasons the Highway 14 improvements of the past two years took so long to come about and why more advanced health services have lagged in the Sooke area.
The BC Liberals have previously announced nomination meetings in Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows on February 1 and Abbotsford South on February 8.
Much as few might like to readily admit, the professor-by-trade Andrew Weaver has been at the fulcrum of legislative accomplishment and stability since 2017.
Weaver’s departure has pulled out a linchpin that could see BC’s progressive momentum slide back to where it was, or move forward. It will be up to the presently successful NDP team to keep the present train on the track.
The next BC provincial election is set for October 16, 2021. That would be the 42nd general election. Premier Horgan could call an election earlier than that, but as he said effectively said publicly — ‘why would he’?
======= RELATED ARTICLES by West Shore Voice News:
BC Greens appoint Adam Olsen, MLA as interim leader | Anyone age 16+ can vote for next leader, even if not a Green Party member (December 21, 2019)
BC Green Leader appointed deferred until late December (December 6, 2019)
BC Green Leader Andrew Weaver stepping down (November 27, 2019)