Strategic vote key in battleground British Columbia

With just over a week to go until election day, there are signs that the ground is beginning to shift in British Columbia.

With 42 ridings in all, B.C. may be a key battleground on Oct. 19, and nowhere is this more true than in the Lower Mainland region in and around Vancouver. Vassy Kapelos of Global News and Peter O’Neil, the Ottawa correspondent for the Vancouver Sun, both told The West Block‘s Tom Clark that voters fed up with Stephen Harper may end up pooling en masse behind one of the other main parties in a strategic effort to oust the Conservatives.

“In Ontario, you have the Conservatives and the Liberals as the main combatants, whereas here, it depends on where you are” O’Neil said.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "In Ontario, you have the Conservatives and the Liberals as the main combatants, whereas here, it depends on where you are" O'Neil said.

“It’s the NDP and the Conservatives in the interior, parts of Vancouver Island, some ridings in the Lower Mainland, whereas it’s the Liberals and Conservatives and other urban seats. In a couple of Vancouver Island seats, it’s the Greens and the NDP, so it wreaks havoc on anyone trying to strategically vote, I can tell you that.”

In spite of a downturn in national numbers, said O’Neil, the NDP is actually still putting up a strong fight in B.C. as a result of having more people on the ground. But Kapelos predicted that Tom Mulcair’s party may start to lose ground if strategic voters begin to feel that the Liberals have a better chance of forming the next government.

The Green Party can count on Elizabeth May re-capturing her own seat, Kapelos and O’Neil said, but beyond that, their effort to snap up a few more in the region will likely be stymied by people heading to the Liberal and NDP camps to, again, ensure a Conservative defeat.

WATCH: Battleground BC in federal election campaign

Surrey will be one interesting riding to watch, the observers agreed. With a large South Asian population and comparatively high crime rate, it is shaping up to be a tight race between the Liberals and Conservatives.

“I would say from having spent some time in Surrey, everyone we spoke to was really concerned about crime, and it’s sort of a test for the Conservatives because they do have that tough-on-crime agenda, but it’s not necessarily playing that well because it doesn’t seem to be working there too well,” Kapelos noted.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "I would say from having spent some time in Surrey, everyone we spoke to was really concerned about crime, and it's sort of a test for the Conservatives because they do have that tough-on-crime agenda, but it's not necessarily playing that well because it doesn't seem to be working there too well," Kapelos noted.