Welcome to battleground Richmond Centre, where the push for votes is dynamic and unpredictable due to the changing political landscape and shifting electoral boundaries, making the riding one to watch on election night.
In the past, the riding has swung from the B.C. Liberals to the B.C. NDP by slim margins, but this time, a notable candidate, Wendy Yuan, is running an independent campaign.
Outside her bustling campaign headquarters across the street from the Richmond public market, a dozen volunteers wearing matching white hats and bright red campaign T-shirts hold up signs and shout “Go Wendy go!” as cars pass by.
Yuan joins them and says voters are looking for a candidate who is “middle of the road” and centrist on the political spectrum.
“The biggest issue in this riding is decriminalization of drugs, and also equally as important is the unaffordability of housing, so these two issues are my top priorities,” Yuan said.
Yuan has worked in political backrooms before as a volunteer and was hoping to run for B.C. United until Leader Kevin Falcon suspended the party’s campaign on Aug. 28.
WATCH | Supporters of Independent candidate Wendy Yuan rally outside campaign office:
In the past, the riding of Richmond Centre has changed hands from the B.C. Liberals to the B.C. NDP.
This time a notable former B.C. United candidate is running as an Independent after that party’s collapse. Meera Bains reports on what could shape up to be a surprise result.
She is unfazed..
Yuan said she was not interested in joining the B.C. Conservatives earlier on because of loyalty to B.C. United, and later, they did not want her.
“I honestly think I am the best possible candidate in this riding, and I was not taken, so it’s not my loss,” Yuan pointed out.
The candidate for the B.C. Conservatives, Hon Chan, is new to waging a political campaign, and he is setting his sights on the NDP.
“This is the government that is leading … to all this chaos,” Chan said.
Chan is an experienced journalist who worked for Fairchild TV and pointed out health care, public disorder, and fear of a drug consumption site getting approved in the future are concerns in the riding.
“Richmondites, they are worried about the drugs issue. They are worried about the consumption sites,” Chan claimed.
The incumbent B.C. NDP candidate Henry Yao has his work cut out for him with more competition and the shift in the electoral boundary to the north.
Yao said, “When we door knock, about 90 percent of our community is still undecided. They’re asking a lot of questions.”
The B.C. NDP flipped the riding in a surprising win in 2020, but barely.
Finalized results showed Henry Yao with just 179 votes more than B.C. Liberal candidate Alexa Loo, a former Olympian and current Richmond city councillor who was considered a star candidate.
Yao has worked with youth-based and community organizations before winning in the last election and says housing supply is key.
“We understand the importance in Chinese Canadian culture of families staying nearby. We have a really strong intent to ensure that we actually support a community to increase the supply and to address the housing issues,” Yao said.
Ground game and air game campaign strategies
Political experts say the race for Richmond Centre could come down to the ground game and success at door-knocking.
Andrew Reeve, the director of communications for B.C. United, says he considered Richmond Centre a “winnable” riding and says Yuan’s volunteers have remained, although a big factor could be party support.
“She [Yuan] had them when she was running as a B.C. United candidate, and she still has them running as an Independent. She won’t have the air game, unfortunately. She won’t have the ads that both the Conservatives and NDP are running on TV and social media.”
Still, the riding is diverse, with a large number of Chinese immigrants and a big question mark on what role social media will play.
Andy Yan, the director of the city program at Simon Fraser University, says immigrants make up 68 per cent of the riding.
“With the very sizeable percentages in terms of newer immigrants, particularly those who speak Chinese, is perhaps being done in cyberspace, and I think the issue is that is there anyone to monitor what’s going on in cyberspace and the ability to activate that,” Yan stated.
Two other Independent candidates, Dickens Cheung and Sunny Ho, are also running to represent the riding.
With so many variables, it’s an unpredictable race in what’s shaping up to be an exciting election night in Richmond Centre