Federal Election 2015: Where the leaders went in B.C.

Bob Mackin is a Vancouver multimedia journalist who covers news, politics, business and sports for a variety of outlets. He is the author of Red Mittens & Red Ink: The Vancouver Olympics, an e-book about the 2010 Winter Games.

The road to victory is through the Aria Banquet and Convention Centre in Surrey.

An analysis of CPAC’s leader-tracking map for British Columbia shows that it was the only location in the province visited by Stephen Harper, Tom Mulcair and Justin Trudeau.

Full results from B.C. in the 2015 federal election

NDP leader Mulcair was first on Aug. 19 for a roundtable with South Asian media outlets. Conservative Harper’s event on Oct. 8 with Surrey area candidates was part of a Lower Mainland swing that earlier included the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver and a roundtable for ethnic media at the Red Truck Brewery in Vancouver. Trudeau’s penultimate Liberal rally on Oct. 18 was at Aria.

The hall in Surrey’s Prospect neighbourhood, near the Pattullo Bridge, opened in July 2014 with a ribbon-cutting by then-Surrey Mayor Dianne Watts, the Conservative South Surrey-White Rock candidate. The Link Paper described Aria as “the most glamorous, imaginative and sophisticated halls to open in Surrey.”

Federal Election 2015: historic change in communicating voting results

Harper’s agenda included 12 B.C. dates, with emphasis on the Fraser Valley, Okanagan and Metro Vancouver. The tour ended Oct. 18 at Cascade Aerospace in Abbotsford, just like in 2011.

The Conservative national tour emphasized stops at blue-collar locations, such as factories and warehouses. Harper addressed the Syrian refugee crisis on Sept. 3 at Fruitcana Warehouse in Surrey, which was originally planned for an announcement of funding for Surrey’s proposed light rail transit line. Harper released the Conservative platform at a Richmond car repair shop on Oct. 9.

Trudeau’s first stop of the campaign on Aug. 2 was the Vancouver Pride Parade, where he was photographed with a topless woman. His Sept. 10-11 trip to Vancouver coincided with his mother Margaret’s 67th birthday and was pivotal for the campaign. The Sept. 10 morning announcement of transit infrastructure funding promises took place on the roof of the City of Vancouver’s engineering department offices. Later that day, Liberal video crews buzzed around Trudeau at John Lawson Park in West Vancouver for footage that became the focus of national advertising. The next morning, his under-an-hour hike of the Grouse Grind formed the basis for a spot that targeted British Columbia voters.

Full results from the 2015 federal election

The Liberal campaign wound-up at the Shipyards in North Vancouver’s Lower Lonsdale on Oct. 18. The date would have been his famous father Pierre’s 96th birthday.

Trudeau made 15 campaign stops in B.C., but did not visit the Fraser Valley or Okanagan. The CPAC map showed he made one appearance in Victoria.
Mulcair’s campaign almost came full-circle. On Sept. 13, he hosted a rally at Jack Poole Plaza. His last Vancouver appearance was another rally, Oct. 17 inside the adjacent Vancouver Convention Centre. He had 14 event days in B.C.

Green Party leader Elizabeth May stopped in Vancouver, the North Shore, Howe Sound, but spent much of her time on Vancouver Island and her Saanich-Gulf Islands riding.