A commentary by a Victoria lawyer.
I ran for the B.C. Liberal Party in the 2020 pandemic snap election.
Even limited door-knocking and engaging in person with voters during that campaign revealed, to my surprise, that the electorate had a level of confusion over the name of the B.C. Liberal Party.
When voters told me they were conservatives I embarked on an explanation as to how the B.C. Liberal Party was actually not a liberal party but a “big tent” free enterprise party that had room for both liberals and conservatives.
I explained that unless free enterprise voters were to band together, the NDP would inevitably win any election.
Because of this confusion I had observed first hand, notwithstanding that the B.C. Liberals governed British Columbia for 16 years, I supported the party’s name change to BC United: a name containing neither the word liberal nor conservative for a party that contained both types of voters.
It is disappointing to see that the B.C. Conservative party is already facing a similar challenge with its name to the one the B.C. Liberal Party did: free enterprise liberal voters saying they are not inclined to support conservatives.
Ironically, the only possible beneficiary of that attitude, as we have seen, can ever be the NDP.
NDP stands for New Democratic Party, which evolved from the previous Co-operative Commonwealth Federation. If it ever was, that party is neither new or democratic. It is socialist and not inclined toward promoting business enterprise.
If centre-right voters do not get themselves banded together, the far left party will again come up the middle and govern. It seemed encouraging to recently see the B.C. Liberals (United) and the B.C. Conservatives getting back into the “big tent.” Hopefully they will figure out how to reside there cooperatively.
Any British Columbian voter who feels better off today than they did seven years ago should obviously support the NDP.
The rest, I suspect by far the majority, must band together to vote for the centre-right, free enterprise party on offer, whatever it may be called.
If there are two parties competing for those voters, the NDP will be back for another term of more of the same, irrespective of how unsuccessful their governing reality may have been as of late.
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