September 7, 2020
For BC’s provincial Liberals, it may already look like “game over” in the next provincial election.
The latest BC polling results by Angus Reid are absolutely terrific for the governing NDP: a whopping 48% popular support; the Liberals trailing badly at 29%; the Greens at 14%.
The next BC election isn’t due until Oct 16, 2021 but now BC’s media and political pundits are suddenly all over the possibility of an early vote … something we discussed here both BC and the federal governments way back June 1: http://harveyoberfeld.ca/blog/watch-for-trudeau-and-horgan-to-call-early-elections/
The poll released Friday supports that for BC.
“An early election would, indeed, present Horgan and his party with quite the irresistible opportunity, should they choose to take it,” a press release from the polling institute stated.
Needless to say, the prospect seems tantalizing to Premier John Horgan.
“I’m advised there’s an election underway right now in New Brunswick, and an election underway in Saskatchewan, and Elections B.C. is prepared to provide a safe way to vote if that is something that comes up,” Horgan told reporters Thursday.
The rationale for going this Fall is the same as I stated in the Blog back then: both the provincial and federal governments have handed out BILLIONS in cheques, grants and loans to voters and businesses; both are generally regarded as having handled the Covid-19 crisis well; and both realize that, starting next year, they are going to have to start paying off the bills … and start recouping all the dollars they’ve handed out.
So the polling numbers sure make a Fall election tempting!
But it’s in no way a sure thing: Labour Day gatherings; schools starting up; and, people spending more time indoors in the coming weeks could increase the spread of Covid and severely complicate and impact campaigning, volunteering and, most importantly, voter turnout.
And don’t write off the BC Liberals yet.
Remember, despite the legacy/scandals/controversies of the Christy Clark and Gordon Campbell Liberal governments, the party still captured 43 seats in the 2017 election, the NDP 41 … requiring the Greens’ 3 seats support to form the current minority government; the Liberals won 40.36% of the popular vote, the NDP 40.28%.
Now?
My view: the Liberals have a lackluster leader, a shadow cabinet few voters could even name (except for Jas Johal), and so far, the party projects little public appeal or signs of any meaningful attractive message or policies.
BUT there is fertile ground out there for the Liberals … if they cultivate it.
Talk to British Columbians … not just those receiving and/or living off government handouts, but those still getting up every morning and going to work, paying taxes and unhappy with the state of BC beyond Covid.
Many are indeed mad as hell … and don’t want to take it anymore.
Mad about what?
About the NDP government spending hundreds of millions of dollars to provide/build more and more free housing in Vancouver and Victoria …. for people who may not even be from either place.
About the NDP government pouring a millions of dollars a day into the continuing deteriorating drug and crime infested downtown eastside … while inadequately funding drug treatment facilities and refusing to re-open the badly-needed Riverview Hospital.
About the NDP government working with and supporting their radical left municipal allies to locate and fund huge expansion of social service projects/facilities right in Vancouver and Victoria’s downtown cores, killing off business and shopping in the areas and letting homeless from all over BC and Canada take over local parks, destroy residential neighbourhoods … rendering them frightening, dangerous for residents and their children to venture outdoors.
About the NDP government pandering to environmental anarchists, blockaders, blackmailers who have been allowed to repeatedly disrupt the lives of thousands of innocent British Columbians, without facing any repercussions.
About the NDP government saying/doing nothing to respect, preserve and protect BC’s early Canadian/British and European heritage/monuments when they are attacked, vandalized, ripped down.
About the NDP government doing little or nothing during Covid for seniors/families fighting the Great Pharmacy Ripoff of monthly prescription renewals; about ICBC’s failure to issue rebates to motorists despite the Covid lockdown; about the great suffering inflicted by the government on rental owners (many of them seniors living off the income) by banning evictions, allowing tenants to squat rent-free for months, even as they destroyed the property.
Yes, a lot of people ARE mad as hell about what they see happening around them in BC … beyond Covid … and feel left out, ignored by the NDP government.
Fertile ground for the Liberals and if they sow the right seeds, they could yet harvest a bumper crop of votes … without handing out a single cheque to bribe them.
