Spring has just begun, but it’s the fall that the BC United Party is focused on this weekend — Saturday, Oct. 19 to be exact, the date of the next provincial election.
“It’s been exciting. We got hundreds of people from across the province going through training and campaign preparation, and all the things they’re going to need to know to make sure we bring the message of change to British Columbians,” BC United Party Leader Kevin Falcon said.
The B.C. election is still six months away but the province’s opposition held a campaign rally in Vancouver on Saturday.
BC United is hoping to right the ship after the latest poll showed the party sitting third in voter popularity.
According to new polling by Leger, the BC NDP is leading the pack with 43 per cent, followed by the BC Conservatives at 26 per cent and BC United at 18 per cent. The BC Greens are in fourth with 11 per cent support.
“For the B.C. United party’s perspective, it doesn’t have the full ownership of that alternative to the BC NDP that it usually had or has historically had,” said Gerald Baier, a UBC political science professor.
“That’s kind of a challenge for the BC United.”
Falcon said he recognizes that the party’s decision to change its name to BC United from the BC Liberal Party last year plays into that challenge.
“People know that BC United has always been the coalition party, whether we were called BC Liberals or Social Credit before that… We had the leadership of former leaders like Gordon Campbell who knew how to get things done in this province and that is what we have to get back to.”
With just over six months of campaigning ahead, Baier said a lot can happen.
“It could really spell a disaster both for the BC United and the BC Conservative, frankly, because the centre and centre right vote has really only succeeded when it’s been relatively unified,” he told Global News.
Falcon said poll numbers are not written in stone, and recent history proved that.
“Remember in 2013, we were in the exact same position, 22 points down. But when the firing gun starts, I think we will end up in the same result we saw in 2013, where the BC Liberals, now BC United, won that election,” he said.