EDITORIAL – What this province really needs is another left-wing party

An editorial by Mel Rothenburger.

WHEN BC CONSERVATIVE candidates Ward Stamer and Dennis Giesbrecht held their introductory news conference last week, the first question they were asked was if they felt they would split the free-enterprise vote between themselves and BC United.

Not at all, they replied. There are “significant differences” between the two parties, they said. Voters are looking for a change in government, and BC United isn’t the answer, they said.

Flash forward to this week and that theory has pretty much blow out of the water an Angus Reid Institute poll that shows B.C. free-enterprise voters are, indeed, split evenly between the upstart Conservatives and the BC Liberals-turned BC United.

According to the poll, 43 per cent of B.C. voters would support the incumbent NDP, while the Conservatives and BC United would attract 22 per cent each. The right doesn’t get much more split than that.

The situation harkens back to the old days of B.C. politics when the New Democrats enjoyed the advantage of a split on the right side of the political spectrum. Only when the Liberals and Conservatives both crumbled was Social Credit able to dominate the NDP.

Read More >>

Mel Rothenburger is a regular contributor to CFJC Today, publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, and is a recipient of the Jack Webster Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award. He has served as mayor of Kamloops, school board chair and TNRD director, and is a retired daily newspaper editor.  He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.