British Columbia’s provincial election campaign is a “semi-shadow box of the federal election,” says University of B.C. political scientist Stewart Prest.
By that he means the political parties — chiefly the BC Conservatives and BC NDP — have jockeyed to position themselves or the others as aligned, or not, with respective federal leaders.
BC Conservatives try to capture Poilievre popularity, move toward centre
With just three days before voting day, the BC Conservative Party has taken pages from the playbook of the federal Conservative Party of Canada, although it has come up short of being explicitly endorsed by the latter’s leader, Pierre Poilievre.
“The BC Conservatives are trying to look and sound and talk and act like the federal conservatives, and they are doing so pretty successfully,” said Prest.
On Tuesday, BC Conservative leader John Rustad unveiled his party’s platform titled A Common Sense Plan for BC, taking a motto often espoused by Poilievre both in the House of Commons and in media advertisements.
Prest said the BC Conservatives have moved toward the centre, aligning with Poilievre’s so-far successful marriage of fiscal conservativism and “skeptics of modernity.”
They have done this but not without stirring some controversy within the conservative ranks.
There are several BC Conservative candidates, for instance, who had previously aligned with the NDP, the most notable being former NDP MLA Gwen O’Mahony, who is now running as a BC Conservative for Nanaimo-Lantzville. O’Mahony now opposes current policies around gender identity and sexual orientation in schools and an erosion of women-only spaces (excluding biological transgender males), as at least one example of how she has said the NDP has changed.
The BC Conservatives were also subject to an anonymous campaign on now-shuttered FireJohnRustad.ca that pointed out other candidates that were said to be unaligned with the party’s more conservative values, such as former BC Liberal Teresa Wat, now a star BC Conservative candidate; Wat forged close relations with the Chinese Communist Party in China and CCP-aligned entities in B.C. as international trade minister, culminating in the first memorandum of understanding (MOU) on the Belt and Road Initiative by any senior-level government in the West.
There are also mixed signals on the policy front.
Whereas Rustad has stated “We stand with Pierre Poilievre in his call to axe the tax,” in reference to the carbon tax, the BC Conservatives have opposed broad-based rezoning reform brought in by the BC NDP that, in fact, more aligns with one of Poilievre’s key ‘Bring it Home’ messages, to remove municipal “gatekeepers.”
Nevertheless, BC NDP leader David Eby has in turn signalled concern that British Columbians have married the provincial and federal conservatives despite the lack of an explicit endorsement from Poilievre.
“I think it's abundantly clear to the point that the NDP are making court challenges over it,” said Prest, referring to an unsuccessful court application by the BC NDP to place “BC” in front of “Conservative Party” on the ballot, so as to distinguish between the two.
Prest said it is “interesting” that Poilievre has not endorsed the BC Conservatives.
“I think we've seen some forms of endorsement, but it may be that for Mr. Poilievre it's all downside, without a lot of upside, in terms of sticking his neck out to support what is still an unproven BC Conservative Party. So I think whatever way this election goes, the BC Conservatives are going to be part of that conservative movement. But if this turns out to be a flash in the pan, perhaps there's some value in not being seen to be too close to the provincial conservatives,” said Prest.
Conservatives try to align Eby with Trudeau
Prest said the BC Conservatives have also tried to draw a line from Eby to Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who is faltering in the polls.
“The BC Conservatives are simultaneously trying to turn the NDP into a proxy for the federal Liberals, trying to paint them with a similar brush,” said Prest.
For example, on Sep. 22, the BC Conservatives issued a statement titled ‘John Rustad Denounces Rise in Gang Violence Under the Eby-Trudeau Alliance.’
On Sep. 23, the BC Conservatives issued a statement titled ‘Conservative Party of British Columbia Condemns Eby-Trudeau for Turning a Blind Eye to Dangerous Criminal Activity at Nanaimo Drug Den.’
Again, the BC Conservatives used Poilievre’s language to describe drug consumption sites as “drug dens.”
“The Conservatives really want to draw that line between Mr. Eby and Mr. Trudeau, as much as they can,” said Prest.
NDP leader Jagmeet Singh mostly on the sidelines
As for federal NDP leader Jagmeet Singh, he has been largely on the sidelines outside of an appearance door-knocking with Burnaby candidate Reah Arora on Oct. 4, according to Arora’s post on X.com.
“With some voters, it's important to see that common cause between federal and provincial NDP,” said Prest, noting the federal NDP and provincial NDP are aligned by their constitutions, not like the conservative parties.
“But I think there's also a certain distance between the federal and provincial parties in Alberta and in B.C. as well — between that federal NDP and the provincial counterpart.
“So I think there is a sense of doing the needful, in terms of showing up, but not making this more than they have to a proxy campaign for the federal NDP, or the federal Liberals,” added Prest.
