They’re Off! All Three Parties Launch Official Campaigns

A day ahead of today’s official start to British Columbia’s election period, Premier David Eby was in Surrey shifting into full campaign mode.

“There’s a very specific reason we launched this campaign in Surrey,” Eby said alongside Baltej Dhillon, a former RCMP officer who is now the NDP candidate in Surrey-Serpentine River.

“When you think about the challenges we face, not just in British Columbia, across Canada, many parts of North America, you’ll find every one of those challenges here in spades in Surrey.”

A rapidly growing population, pressure on public services, challenges around affordable housing and impacts on cost of living have put a strain on people, he said.

“In many ways Surrey is the epicentre of many of the challenges we face and in many ways Surrey is representative of how we got here,” said Eby, blaming the former BC Liberal government that left office seven years ago for failing to prepare.

“Everybody saw this coming,” he said, listing the failure to build schools, implement rapid transit or plan for growing health-care needs. “They saw it coming and they didn’t take action.”

Surrey is a key battleground in what many expect to be a tight election. With the redrawn electoral boundaries, 10 of the province’s 93 constituencies are in the Lower Mainland city and few of them could be considered safe for any of the Conservative or NDP candidates.

The NDP enters the election with a solid majority in the BC legislature, but recent public opinion surveys have shown the governing party tied with the BC Conservative Party under Leader John Rustad.

A former BC Liberal cabinet minister, Rustad was kicked out of the party over a dispute around climate change and party discipline. He became leader of the Conservatives in 2023 and the party has grown exponentially since then, attracting donors, MLAs, candidates and public support from his former party.

The Tyee’s requests for an interview with Rustad over the last month have gone unanswered.

In recent weeks The Tyee spoke with Premier Eby about what’s at stake in the election and with Green Party Leader Sonia Furstenau about her pitch to voters.

Rustad has campaign events planned today in Vancouver and at a winery in Black Creek on Vancouver Island, then in Surrey on Sunday and Monday.

On Friday Rustad was in Vancouver to give a speech to the Union of BC Municipalities meeting of local government officials where he made a 10-year commitment of a billion dollars annually for infrastructure. He also promised to return more control over housing decisions to local governments.

The Conservatives got a major boost in late August when Kevin Falcon, the leader of the former BC Liberal Party which had been renamed BC United, suspended the party’s campaign saying he didn’t want to split the centre-right vote and allow the NDP to form government again.

BC United released a statement Friday confirming that its campaign remains suspended. After considering running a few candidates in the election to maintain party status, it has decided not to run anyone. “Furthermore,” United said, “to ensure compliance with the BC Election Act, the Party Executive has made the decision not to produce or share any materials in relation to the upcoming provincial election for the duration of the campaign period.”

Some of BC United’s incumbents and former candidates are running for the Conservatives, while others are running as independents or have endorsed NDP or Green candidates.

In news releases in the last week Rustad has criticized the NDP on drug policies, “substandard care” at the Surrey Memorial Hospital, forestry policy and flip-flopping on key issues.

One of those issues was the carbon tax. After months of defending it, Eby has said if federal requirements change he would eliminate it for consumers while continuing to require big polluters to pay.

He has also committed to implementing involuntary care for people struggling with addiction, mental health and brain injury.

Both position changes bring the NDP closer to where the Conservatives stand and take issues where the party felt vulnerable to Conservative attacks off the table.

BC Green Leader Furstenau criticized both parties’ climate change positions in a statement saying that extreme weather and supply chain disruptions are already adding to the cost of groceries and services like insurance.

“Neither the BC NDP nor the Conservatives have a plan to pay for the lost revenue from the carbon tax, not to mention the rebates that 80 per cent of British Columbians are receiving,” she said, noting that both Rustad and Eby previously voted for the carbon tax.

“The writ hasn’t even dropped and already we’re seeing them abandon the truth for political convenience,” she said. “B.C. deserves serious leadership that will stand with local governments in their efforts to protect their communities from the climate crisis.”

Furstenau planned a press conference this morning before canvassing with other Greens.

Speaking in Surrey Friday, Eby said changing positions on the carbon tax and involuntary care were the right decisions to support people in the province. “The only thing that matters to me isn’t whether someone’s calling me a name, it’s about whether British Columbians need it,” he said. “Whether it supports British Columbians is the only thing that matters to me, and I will stay focused on that every day.”

Responding to a question about the tone of the election and negative campaigning, Eby said his focus is making sure people feel like someone is supporting them at a time when they are really struggling.

“And I won’t shy away from pointing out that John Rustad wants to ban climate science textbooks in our classrooms,” he said, “or that his candidates believe that vaccines not only don’t work, but are harmful, because those are threats to our kids ability to learn, those are threats to our health-care system as a whole.”

When Rustad was part of the BC Liberal government, Eby said, it increased costs for people in the province through bridge tolls, Medical Service Plan premiums, higher car insurance rates and rising rates for electricity.

According to Eby, his government’s efforts to improve people’s lives are starting to have an effect. Speaking at the UBCM convention Thursday he said that over the last seven years B.C. has added more homes per capita than any other province.

Rents are down six per cent in Vancouver this year, he said, though he acknowledged they are down from record highs. Health care isn’t meeting expectations, including his own, he said, but he argued there are signs of improvement, giving examples of the Surrey hospital construction and the number of people getting connected to primary care.

“Now is the time we need to be building, not cutting,” he said.

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