Now that the Official Opposition B.C. United has thrown its support behind John Rustad and the Conservatives, he and his campaign team have just days to decide the roster of 93 candidates who will run under the Conservative Party banner.
On Wednesday, B.C. United Leader Kevin Falcon made the bombshell announcement that he was suspending the party’s election campaign and encouraging his candidates and members to support the B.C. Conservatives.
B.C. Conservative campaign director Angelo Isidorou says they’re attempting to finalize the full slate of the party’s candidates by Labour Day, with a tentative announcement early next week.
Some of the B.C. Conservatives’ 83 candidates could be dropped in favour of more established B.C. United MLAs, but most of the candidates on the chopping block are from the B.C. United team, which has 57 confirmed.
“Falcon is going to have to make a lot of difficult phone calls,” Isidorou says, whereas he expects to be making four or five to B.C. Conservative candidates.
From the list of 10 incumbent B.C. United MLAs, the B.C. Conservatives are courting four.
- Ian Paton, the MLA for Delta South.
- Peter Milobar, who represents Kamloops-North Thompson.
- Tom Shypitka in Kootenay East.
- Trevor Halford in Surrey-White Rock.
B.C. United MLAs who were cabinet ministers in the previous B.C. Liberal government, such as Todd Stone, Shirley Bond and Mike Bernier, will not be brought into the Conservative fold. Bond and Stone announced Thursday they wouldn’t be running.
Bernier says he’s considering running as an independent in Peace River South, a riding he’s held since 2013.
He says he’s not comfortable with the “divisive, extreme” policies touted by Rustad.
Rustad has said climate change is not an emergency and has opposed sexual orientation and gender identity policies in B.C. schools.
Another B.C. United candidate Meagan Brame, who was running in Esquimalt-Colwood, says she rejected an offer from the B.C. Conservatives to run for the party.
“My family and I had already made the decision. We made the decision months ago when the [merger] talks were going on that I would not run Conservative,” Brame told CBC’s All Points West. She says some of the Conservative policies conflict with her values on women’s rights, climate change and LGBTQ+ rights.
The backroom deal
In May, talks between B.C. United and B.C. Conservative representatives fell apart after the two sides couldn’t agree on a non-competition agreement.
Since then, the bad news kept coming for B.C. United, with three MLAS — Lorne Doerkson, Elenore Sturko and Teresa Wat — defecting to join Rustad’s party that has been polling neck and neck with the governing NDP.
Falcon faced constant pressure to avoid splitting right-of-centre voters, so on Sunday, he tasked Caroline Elliott, the party’s former vice president and Falcon’s sister-in-law, to reach out to the B.C. Conservatives.
Isidorou says he met Elliott at Brown’s Socialhouse in North Vancouver, where the pair talked for two hours about how to work together.
Elliott was there with B.C. United executive director Lindsay Coté, and Isidorou was joined by B.C. Conservative president Aisha Estey. Halfway through the three-hour meeting, Falcon joined, having just flown in from Victoria, where he made a forestry announcement.
“What struck me was his sincerity,” Isidorou says. “But also his concern, his concern for the province and the gravity of the situation.”
The group pulled out candidate lists and spreadsheets and talked about where B.C. United candidates could fit into the B.C. Conservatives, which already has 83 candidates confirmed.
Elliott came to the meeting armed with a trove of opposition research on some B.C. Conservative candidates, some of whom have been accused of spreading conspiracy theories online.
Lagging in the polls and struggling to bring in donations, it was the only bargaining chip B.C. United had. It was an attempt to salvage as many B.C. United candidates as possible, in hopes that the B.C. Conservatives would pick more established Official Opposition members over political newcomers.
At 9:30 p.m. Tuesday, Falcon and Rustad met in Estey’s law firm and hashed out the deal for B.C. United to withdraw from the provincial election campaign. Falcon agreed not to run in his riding of Vancouver-Quilchena, but he did not step down as party leader.
Just after midnight, Falcon and Rustad shook hands and the deal was done.
Former B.C. Liberals lament the party’s demise
Karin Kirkpatrick, the B.C. United MLA for West Vancouver-Capilano, says she’s furious that Falcon chose not to step down as leader but instead is “overseeing the dismantling of the party.”
Kirkpatrick, who had already decided this spring not to run but is now considering running as an Independent, says she’s concerned Falcon’s unilateral decision leaves a huge gap in the political landscape with no party that speaks to centrist voters.
Former B.C. Liberal cabinet ministers Mike de Jong and Terry Lake told CBC News they’re devastated by what’s happened to the party. Both say it was a mistake to rebrand a party that had a strong reputation and spent 16 years in power.
Falcon explains why his party is getting out of the race and its plans to work with the Conservatives to defeat the NDP.
De Jong says Falcon was “very much at the forefront of the decision to change the name of his party … and the results speak for themselves. De Jong retired in May after 30 years representing Abbotsford West and is now running for the federal Conservatives.
Former B.C. Liberal premier Christy Clark told CBC News she believed there needed to be a centre-right coalition, but she didn’t foresee a situation where B.C. United is almost entirely absorbed into the B.C. Conservatives, which only secured two per cent of the vote in the 2020 election.
“I was surprised at how the whole thing landed,” she said. “I had presumed this … might have been a coalition. Over the years it’s been Liberals and Conservatives getting together, but it doesn’t appear that there’s a coalition. It just appears that it’s one party now.”
Clark says she wonders “how it will work when there’s one party on the right, one party on the left, and people increasingly polarized.”