Following last night’s British Columbia Leaders’ Debate — where little of consequence occurred — John Horgan and the B.C. New Democratic Party remain on track to form our province’s next, majority government.
On points I'll give it to @SoniaFurstenau . On the big picture, @jjhorgan wins because Andrew Wilkinson couldn't really land a punch. He had to make up enormous ground, and I doubt the needle moved much, if at all. @SoniaFurstenau just may have saved her seat tonight.
— Keith Baldrey (@keithbaldrey) October 14, 2020
B.C. Liberal and B.C. NDP internal polls show B.C. Green Party leader Sonia Furstenau and her colleague, Adam Olsen, running a distant third in their respective Vancouver Island ridings. Perhaps Global BC legislative reporter Keith Baldrey is right when he states that, arising from her heartfelt performance in the debate, Ms. Furstenau “just may have saved her seat”.
We won’t likely know whether Ms. Furstenau will be returned to the Legislature until the last mail-in ballot is counted, most probably on Tuesday, November 10th. Certainly, Ms. Furstenau did no damage to the Green cause in British Columbia, reason enough for Green celebration.
As for B.C. Liberal Party leader, Andrew Wilkinson, his calm and not-at-all hesitant presentation did him no harm, but as Mr. Baldrey points out, he “couldn’t really land a punch”, so for Mr. Wilkinson, the debate result was at best a draw, neither good nor bad, but adequate for the task at hand.
Unfortunate for Andrew Wilkinson, though, throughout the first three weeks of the campaign, the B.C. NDP have successfully been able to define the B.C. Liberal Party leader as “working for his (rich) friends”, more prone to cutting taxes for the yacht class than implementing any government policy designed to serve the interests of working people across our province.
Tonight wasn't bad for Andrew Wilkinson.
But it wasn't great either, and in an election where the NDP are up big in the polls with 11 days to go, that's not enough. https://t.co/w3sw5HGD7u
— Justin McElroy (@j_mcelroy) October 14, 2020
And no matter how many times the B.C. Liberal leader “mentioned” that he was a doctor, at no point was Mr. Wilkinson able to assuage voter concerns that he was anything other than a compliant tool for the billionaire class.
So, where does that leave us 10 days out from election day, October 24th? Answer: with the very real prospect of a majority B.C. NDP government.
Although the polls may tighten a bit before election day, overall one has to believe that the people of B.C. are, overall, satisfied with the performance of the John Horgan-led B.C. New Democratic Party government, since they formed power in July 2017, and aren’t about to change horses in mid-stream. Health care and the COVID-19 pandemic remain the top-of-mind concerns for most British Columbians — on that front, Adrian Dix and Dr. Bonnie Henry have performed superbly, with the support of an ebullient Premier John Horgan throughout, as his government sought to steadily increase funding for health care, build Urgent Care Centres across the province, implement policies that would pay long term and assisted living care workers more, when combined with Mr. Horgan’s promise to not only build a new full-service hospital in Cloverdale, but fund the creation a second Lower Mainland medical school at the Simon Fraser University campus in Surrey, only serves to reassure British Columbians right across our province that a John Horgan-led B.C. NDP government has their best interests at heart. And that, folks, is what — mid-pandemic — leads a John Horgan-led British Columbia New Democratic Party to form a comfortable, activist, working class, 2nd term majority government post November 10th.
More tomorrow on VanRamblings, when we’ll publish our very conservative election outcome seat count. We’ll see you then.
