B.C. election 2020: Liberals to focus on housing Friday as Wilkinson faces leadership concerns

With B.C.’s election campaign set to enter its final week, BC Liberal Leader Andrew Wilkinson is facing serious questions about his position as the face of the party.

Wilkinson will be taking questions on Friday for the first time since BC Liberal membership chair Nicole Paul sent a series of tweets questioning Wilkinson’s leadership.

4:12 Laurie Throness out as BC Liberal candidate

The multi-tweet thread outlines longstanding concerns about Laurie Throness. The long-time MLA resigned as a BC Liberal on Thursday after making comments at an all-candidates debate earlier this week comparing the NDP’s free birth control plan to eugenics.

Paul’s tweets outlined concerns about the current direction of the BC Liberals and focused on trying to get back to the values that made her join the party.

“I continue to stand by the values of free enterprise that originally drew me to this party. The BC Liberal Party under Andrew Wilkinson does not reflect values I support,” she wrote.

“I am pleased to see Laurie Throness will no longer be a candidate or caucus member, this is action that any reasonable leader would have acted on months, if not years ago.”

Wilkinson has been under increased pressure over the last few days — first over his laughing during a roast for retiring MLA Ralph Sultan where Liberal candidate Jane Thornthwaite was seen making sexist jokes about NDP candidate Bowinn Ma, and then in dealing with Throness.

The Liberal leader will be making an announcement in Port Moody on housing on Friday afternoon. The party promised to establish an incentive fund for municipalities with housing policies that enable increases in the construction and supply of new housing.

The party is also promising to implement tax and permitting changes to boost housing supply, including rental and market housing.

The Liberals are promising to develop tax-relief measures to help people hurt by COVID-19 economic impacts to keep their homes, and implement split assessments for the commercially-rented portion of buildings through a new commercial property sub-class.

6:24 B.C. election 2020: The leaders’ debate on 980 CKNW

Part of the plan includes changing BC Assessment practices to ensure rental properties are no longer valued based on the highest and best use, but rather on actual rental use.

Wilkinson is also campaigning against the Speculation Tax by changing it to a condo-flipping capital gains tax.

BC NDP Leader John Horgan will be in Pitt Meadows on Friday to discuss the party’s affordability strategy.

Horgan will be pushing the party’s recovery benefit, including a one-time $1,000 direct deposit to families whose household income is under $125,000 annually, with a sliding scale up to $175,000. It also includes a one-time $500 direct deposit to single people earning less than $62,000 annually, with a sliding scale up to $87,000.

2:25 BC NDP pledges $1000 in COVID-19 relief to certain families if re-elected

If elected, the NDP will be freezing rents to the end of 2021 and capping increases after that. The party will also bring in an income-tested renter’s rebate of $400 a year for households earning up to $80,000 annually that are not already receiving other rental support.

“The suddenness of COVID-19 has made all of us appreciate the idea of home more than ever,” Horgan said.

“More than it already was, it became a place of safety, of recovery, and for many of us an often-chaotic mix of work, play, child care and much more. For a few months, everything in your life happened in your home — proving again that your home, in turn, is everything.”

–With files from Simon Little