The BC Liberals’ new leader will soon get his first chance at a seat in the provincial legislature since taking the party’s top job, as the province has called a byelection in the riding of Vancouver-Quilchena for April 30.
The byelection is to fill the seat vacated by former BC Liberal Leader Andrew Wilkinson, who resigned in February.
Kevin Falcon, a former cabinet minister in the Christy Clark government and who the BC Liberals chose as their new leader in February, is expected to run for his party.
Falcon was previously elected to the legislature in the Surrey-Cloverdale riding in 2005 and 2009.
The BC NDP have nominated Jeanette Ashe for the riding, who is the chair of Douglas College’s political science department and is also married to Vancouver Mayor Kennedy Stewart.
The BC Greens have nominated emergency management expert Wendy Hayko.
The BC Liberals have won the seat in the last five elections, receiving between 56 per cent and 70 per cent of the vote.
The parties have until 1 p.m. on April 9 to nominate their candidates. Eligible voters can register or have until April 20 to update their voter information.
Advance voting will be held from Friday, April 22, to Wednesday, April 27, and Elections BC said voters will be notified of locations in the days to come.
Elections BC says the byelection will be the first B.C. vote held under changes to the province’s Election Act, which will allow the use of electronic tabulators to count paper votes and electronic voting books to manage voting day, both of which are expected to speed up the voting process.
Editor’s note: A previous version of this story stated that the BC Greens had not nominated a candidate for the byelection. In fact, they have nominated Wendy Hayko.
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