An attempt to launch a new political party just ahead of the B.C. election could attract voters, according to one political watcher.
Hamish Telford is a political science professor at the University of the Fraser Valley.
He says the collapse of the BC United Party — the rebranded Liberals — has left their moderate or centrist voters with few choices.
“I certainly think a lot of former BC Liberal voters feel that [another] option is necessary, and it’s no longer there. Of course, many former BC Liberal voters have been happy to go over to the Conservatives,” he explained.
“But the old party always styled itself as a coalition of liberals and conservatives, so not surprisingly, the more conservative-minded members of that coalition were happy to go to the conservatives, but the more liberal-minded members [feel they have been] abandoned, stranded.”
He says those voters left homeless by the collapse of BC United could use another option.
Telford’s assessment comes after former federal MP Herb Dhaliwal tried to revive the BC Liberal name as the New Liberal Party. However, Elections BC rejected that name.
More to come.