Party Standings in BC Legislature and Election Candidates
A provincial election in BC will be held on October 19, 2024. At the time of the dissolution of the Legislative Assembly on September 21, the NDP had 55 seats, BC United 20, Conservative Party of BC eight, BC Green Party two, and Independents two -- a total of 87 seats with none vacant. BC voters will be electing 93 Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs), six new seats having been added, four in the Vancouver area, one on Vancouver Island and one in the Interior.
Elections BC reports that at the close of nominations on September 28, 323 candidates had registered. The BC NDP and the BC Conservative Party are each running in all 93 ridings and the Green Party in 69. BC United, the Official Opposition at the time of dissolution, will not be running any candidates. There are 40 Independent candidates and 14 unaffiliated candidates, some of whom are former BC United candidates. Candidates of the Christian Heritage Party, the Communist Party of BC and the Freedom Party are also running.
The BC Liberal Party was in power in BC from 2001 until 2017 under Gordon Campbell and then Christy Clark. In the 2017 election the Liberals won 43 seats, one short of a majority. The BC NDP and the BC Green Party agreed to a Supply and Confidence Agreement and their combined 44 seats allowed them to defeat Clark's government on a confidence vote on June 29, 2017 after which Clark resigned as premier and the lieutenant governor asked NDP leader John Horgan to form a government. On September 21, 2020, in violation of its Supply and Confidence Agreement with the Green Party, Horgan called a snap election in which the NDP won a majority with 57 seats. Horgan announced in June 2022 that he was stepping down as party leader and premier once a new leader was chosen. On October 21, 2022 David Eby was acclaimed as NDP leader and premier.
Following several years of bitter rivalry and acrimony between the two parties, BC United leader Kevin Falcon and BC Conservative leader John Rustad held a press conference on August 28 at which Falcon announced the suspension of BC United's participation in the 2024 BC election. At that time the two parties had nominated 140 candidates so the backroom deal that resulted in BC United throwing its support to the Conservative Party was followed by notice to candidates of both parties who had been campaigning that they no longer had the endorsement of their party. Some BC United candidates chose to run as independents, some withdrew altogether and some were endorsed by the Conservative Party.
This article was published
in
Volume 54 Numbers 8-9 - September 2024
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/Tmlm2024/Articles/MS540812.HTM
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