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Baldrey: How 'federal Liberals and orphaned Greens' may decide the 2024 B.C. election
These voters hold a lot of power with the loss of the B.C. Liberal Party and lack of finalized Green candidates, says columnist Keith Baldrey.
Two groups of potential voters may prove to have a decisive impact on the outcome of the provincial election.
One group is the roughly 600,000 people who voted for the federal Liberal party in B.C. in the 2021 election. Presumably most of them voted for the B.C. Liberal Party — remember it? — during provincial elections, and a fair number voted for the NDP.
But with the B.C. Conservative Party taking a hard swing to the right and aligning itself with the positions and language used by the Pierre Poilievre-led federal Conservative Party, how much of that federal Liberal voting bloc will swing to the B.C. party?
Former B.C. Liberal stalwarts such as former B.C. health minister Terry Lake have already publicly expressed concerns they no longer have a “home” when it comes to supporting a political party. Former B.C. Liberal MLA Karin Kirkpatrick says this lack of a “home” — she says she can’t support either the B.C. NDP or the B.C. Conservatives — is what is partly motivating her to run as an independent candidate in the West Vancouver-Capilano riding.
NDP leader David Eby’s promise this past weekend of a $1,000 tax cut seems aimed directly at the middle-class federal Liberal voter. And don’t be surprised if the New Democrats convince a prominent federal Liberal — such as a current or past MP — to endorse their campaign or at least one of their candidates.
The other pool of voters is a much smaller group, but they are strategically located.
These would be the roughly 20,000 people who cast votes for the B.C. Green Party in about nine ridings in 2020 and 2017, but now find themselves without a Green Party candidate to vote for.
That is because the B.C. Greens were unable to find candidates in 24 ridings before the deadline to fill spots expired this past weekend.
The question now becomes who do those orphaned Green Party voters opt for with no Green candidate on the ballot?
These voters hold a lot of power with the loss of the B.C. Liberal Party and lack of finalized Green candidates, says columnist Keith Baldrey.
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