The rebranded B.C. United Party is asking for its old name to be included on the ballot for the October provincial election.
The move comes after another bruising week for the Official Opposition, as another B.C. United MLA defected to the surging B.C. Conservatives and a poll puts United in fourth place provincially.
B.C. United spokesperson Adam Wilson said the party intends to ask Elections B.C. to include “formerly B.C. Liberals” in brackets next to the B.C. United name on the ballot in October.
Mary Polak, a former B.C. Liberal MLA, says the rebranded B.C. United party under leader Kevin Falcon has struggled to articulate a clear message and connect with right-of-centre voters.
Polak, who represented the B.C. Liberals for Langley from 2005 to 2020, said she left the party a few months ago and she’s not surprised B.C. United MLAs are doing the same.
“If over time you feel that you’re not being listened to and there’s not the appropriate leadership to take the party forward, you have to consider your interests,” Polak told CBC News. “Because you’re there as an MLA trying to represent your constituency, and you need to have confidence in your leaders.”
Polak was supportive of the party’s decision to change its name in April 2023, which was partly to avoid any association with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s federal Liberals.
But despite spending $1 million on a rebranding campaign, internal polling shows around 30 per cent of party members are unfamiliar with the B.C. United name.
Polak said it’s overly simplistic to blame the party’s problems on the name change alone.
“Any sober analysis will tell you the launch of the rebrand was botched quite terribly,” she said.
“There really wasn’t any meat on the bones when it was rolled out. The message was ‘We’re B.C. United’, but the question was, united for what?”
In recent months, Falcon and other party members have stressed that B.C. United is the same party as the one that led B.C. for 16 years under former premier Gordon Campbell.
Hamish Telford, a political scientist with the University of the Fraser Valley, said a nod to the former B.C. Liberal name on the ballot won’t be enough to overcome flagging polling numbers.
“I don’t think there’s any doubt that the rebranding exercise … was botched,” Telford said. “But I think this idea of putting ‘formerly B.C. Liberals’ on the ballot smacks of desperation.”
However, Telford doubts B.C. United would be doing any better if they were still called the B.C. Liberals, even though the provincial party has no affiliation with the Liberal Party of Canada.
“Justin Trudeau has destroyed the Liberal brand in this country for the time being,” he said. “This is what has allowed for the surge of the federal Conservatives and the B.C. Conservatives have followed on that wave.”
Elections B.C. spokesperson Andrew Watson said B.C. United has not formally asked for a change to how their name appears on the ballot.
However, he said the Elections Act does not prohibit a party from listing its former name on a ballot.
‘Brand confusion’
B.C. United MLA Peter Milobar, who represents Kamloops-North Thompson, acknowledged there’s still “brand confusion” among party supporters and he said having the B.C. Liberal name on the ballot is about having an “informed electorate.”
“There’s no doubt that the surge of the federal Conservative brand that we’ve seen, almost at the same time as when we changed our name provincially … no one could have seen that coming,” Milobar told CBC News at an event in Kamloops.
“So there is a worry about overall brand confusion out there. There are people who think we changed our name to the Conservatives.”
This week, Teresa Wat became the latest B.C. United MLA to flee the party for the B.C. Conservatives. Wat, who has represented Richmond North Centre since 2013, will run for her new party in the riding of Richmond-Bridgeport.
Since John Rustad became leader in March 2023, the B.C. Conservatives have also poached former United MLAs Elenore Sturko, Lorne Doerkson and Bruce Banman.
Richmond North Centre MLA Teresa Wat says she moved to the B.C. Conservatives after listening to people in her riding. She’s the fourth MLA to leave Kevin Falcon’s B.C. United party.
A new poll released Tuesday by Research Co. shows the Conservatives in a near tie with the governing B.C. NDP, while the Official Opposition is in fourth place with nine per cent support behind the B.C. Greens.
Meanwhile, the B.C. Conservatives will be on the ballot as the Conservative Party. The provincial party has no affiliation with the federal party led by Pierre Poilievre.
B.C. Conservative Leader John Rustad was not available for comment Wednesday. A party spokesperson, Anthony Koch, said Conservative Party was also listed on the ballot in the 2020 provincial election.
“This has been the name on the ballot for nearly four years now. The name on the ballot simply reflects the name of the party,” he said. “Unlike other parties, we aren’t interested in having our old name on the ballot.”