Category Archives: Politics

#BCPoli | The Uncommon, Remarkable Genius of Dimitri Pantazopoulos

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Dimitri Pantazopoulos, President @ Yorkville Strategies, Inc. | Partner @ Maple Leaf Strategies

Dimitri Pantazopoulos could very well play a determinative role in the outcome of the 2024 British Columbia provincial election.

Should John Rustad’s fledgling B.C. Conservative Party emerge victorious late on the evening of Saturday, October 19th, such an outcome will arise in part from the genius organizing skills of Mr. Pantazopoulos, the pollster / de facto co-campaign manager for the upstart, recently revived British Columbia political party.

Dating back to 2004, Dimitri Pantazopoulos was Conservative Party leader Stephen Harper’s pollster, a role he played through until the defeat of the Harper government in 2015. Mr. Pantazopoulos remains to this day the definitive pollster for Pierre Poilievre’s — certain to be government in 2025 — federal Conservative party.

When it comes to British Columbia, Dimitri Pantazopoulos’ myth-making claim to fame arises from B.C. Liberal Premier Christy Clark’s come from behind victory at the polls on Monday, May 13, 2013, in that year’s all-important provincial election.

When Dimitri Pantazopoulos arrived in British Columbia in early 2013, from his home in Ottawa, to survey the political scene in our province on behalf of the B.C. Liberal party, Mr. Pantazopoulos and his crack team from Maple Leaf Strategies set about to conduct intensive polling in the, then, 84 provincial ridings that comprised British Columbia’s tumultuous, voter capricious political landscape.

At the time, an unpopular Premier Christy Clark was mired at 26% in the polls, while newly-minted B.C. New Democratic Party leader Adrian Dix was riding a wave of unprecedented popularity, registering 49% support from British Columbia residents, an electorate eager for change, ready to make Mr. Dix B.C.’s 35th Premier.

In late mid-March 2013, a confident, ebullient Dimitri Pantazopoulos told the Premier, B.C. Liberal campaign manager Mike McDonald, and top B.C. Liberal fundraiser, Bob Rennie that the election could not only be won by Premier Clark, but that she could secure a majority government early in the evening of May 13th.

To say that Premier Clark, Mike McDonald and Bob Rennie were incredulous upon hearing what Mr. Pantazopoulos had to say would be to understate the matter.

Here’s what Dimitri Pantazopoulos told the political trio of disbelieving doubters.

“Having surveyed the province, my team and I believe that the B.C. Liberal party could win 50 seats on election night. We’ve identified those 50 seats. The remaining 34 ridings are write-offs, and represent unwinnable NDP strongholds into which the B.C. Liberals, although you may nominate candidates in those ridings, should not put one plug nickel into supporting the B.C. Liberal candidates running in those ridings.

On the other hand, in the 50 winnable ridings for the B.C. Liberal party, you’ll want to pour all of your resources into those ridings. Maple Leaf Strategies will conduct nightly polling in those 50 ridings, and “meet” with the candidates in those ridings each morning to advise them of the issues — identified in our nightly polling in the riding — that should be the focus of their activity and public pronouncements that day. I guarantee, should the B.C. Liberal party move forward on my recommendation, the party will secure victory in each of those ridings, as we run a hyper-local campaign for office in 2013.”

Premier Clark, Mike McDonald and Bob Rennie thought that Mr. Pantazopoulos had lost his marbles — but what did they have to lose in adopting Dimitri’s electoral strategy? Defeat seemed almost certain at that point. Dimitri Pantazopoulos offered the doleful B.C. Liberal election team a ray of hope that the party would not be wiped out at the polls, as unconvinced as they remained of the prospect of victory at the polls two months hence.


Premier Christy Clark, grinning like the chesire cat that both got the cream, and swallowed the canary

Premier Christy Clark did, indeed, emerge victorious with a comfortable majority government on May 13, 2013 thrilling the Premier, her campaign manager and major fundraiser. Dimitri Pantazopoulos had been right and there was untold joy at B.C. Liberal election headquarters that night.


Conservative Party of British Columbia leader John Rustad. Soon to be 38th Premier of our province?

In 2024, Dimitri Pantazopoulos has returned to British Columbia with a vengeance, working overtime to a secure victory for the band of untested newbies running for office with the embryonic, nascently inchoate British Columbia Conservative party.

Nine years on, Mr. Pantazopoulos and his team have identified 55 winnable ridings for the B.C. Conservatives, a number that may rise now that B.C. United has folded into the B.C. Conservative party. The fly in the ointment in 2024, though? The B.C. Conservative Party is woefully underfunded, having raised a paltry three million dollars, a fraction of the $26 million with which Premier David Eby’s New Democratic Party of British Columbia will fight the upcoming provincial election.

In some measure, the success of the B.C. Liberal campaign in 2013 was due to the 30-second game changing ads that ran incessantly, multiple times during the Global BC, CTV Vancouver and CBC morning, noon, 5pm, 6pm and 11pm newscasts — not to mention, every radio station across the province — that cast Adrian Dix as an ineffectual flip flopper, and a poor choice for Premier of the province. Add to that two botched debates by the NDP leader.

Taking into consideration Dimitri Pantazopoulos’ game plan, together with the devastatingly effective campaign ads run again Mr. Dix, and the poor debate performances by the NDP leader, spelled electoral doom for Adrian Dix’s New Democratic Party, which lost and lost badly to Christy Clark’s B.C. Liberals.

Underfunded or not, Dimitri Pantazopoulos and his team believe a victory for John Rustad’s B.C. Conservative party a near certainty — not, of course, if Premier David Eby’s BC NDP have anything to say about the matter. And they do, and they will.

All said, the wind is at the back of British Columbia’s provincial Conservative party, as they ride the wave of popularity that federal Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre currently enjoys in all parts of British Columbia, and across Canada.

Add to that, members of the election teams that helped secure victory for Conservative Premier Tim Houston in Nova Scotia, a second term for Ontario Premier Doug Ford, and last year a surprise victory for far-right-of-centre Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, the outcome of British Columbia’s upcoming election — our provincial election officially gets underway on Saturday, September 21st — may be far from certain, but given, as well, that the B.C. Conservatives, apart from the controversy that some of their soon-to-be-former candidates caused, could win it all on Saturday, October 19th, and form the next government.


Two fine B.C. Conservative candidates, one of whom we’ll endorse, the other who we like very much

Wednesday and Thursday on VanRamblings, we’ll take a look at the Vancouver-Yaletown and Vancouver-Little Mountain ridings, where two strong B.C. Conservative candidates for office are currently vying for elected provincial office.


The Curse of Politics podcast, where the ineffable David Herle, Jordan Leichnitz and Kory Teneycke discuss and debate the shenanigans that have gone on in British Columbia politics this past week.

#BCPoli | David Eby Brings Constitutents Up-To-Date

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British Columbia Premier David Eby, who serves as a Member of the Legislature representing Vancouver-Point Grey — which he calls home — alongside his 9-year-old son, Ezra, newborn daughter, Gwen, and his 5-year-old scalliwag daughter … Iva, who celebrated her 5th birthday this past Friday.

In what is becoming a contentious upcoming 2024 British Columbia provincial election — set to take place on October 19th — there seems to be a tendency afoot to dehumanize those courageous persons who have come forward to place their name before the electorate to represent not just those persons who live in their riding, but serve to make a constituent difference to the livability of our province.

On this Labour Day 2024, VanRamblings wishes to introduce you to the man we have known since his arrival in our province in 2007 to article with PIVOT Legal in service of completing his law degree, the father and the husband, the friend, the principled man of gregarious good will who means well for our province, and the man who has steadfastly served with compassion and distinction all those, in this particular instance, who reside in his west side Vancouver-Point Grey riding.

VanRamblings has asked David Eby’s senior constituency assistant, Saad Shoaib, for permission to publish excerpts from the quarterly newsletter David Eby posted to those persons who reside in his Vancouver-Point Grey riding. Permission has kindly been granted. Forthwith, David Eby’s most recent constituency newsletter.

Enjoy what we are sure you will find to be an extraordinarily humane document.

Hello Neighbours!

With September comes the real start of the new year for many people in our community, including our family.

I was excited to attend the Brock House Community Fair again this year. Ezra and Iva bought some beautiful jewelry, and we enjoyed the performance of the Brock House Band as always. I also had a great time at Greek Day in Kitsilano, joining local elected officials for the opening ceremony, and welcoming Greek cultural organizations from across the Lower Mainland.

This year though, for the first time since being elected, I missed attending the Khatsahlano Street Party. While I’m sure this year was as epic as ever, I had what I think is a decent excuse … I missed the party due to the birth of our wonderful new baby girl, Gwen.

Gwendolyn Kay Eby was born at St. Paul’s Hospital on June 27, joining our family of now, amazingly, five! Baby Gwen is happy and healthy and is fitting right in around our busy house.

I’ve also been notified by Barry Leinbach, the “Captain” of the Kitsilano Showboat, that he’s working hard trying to get clarity from the Park Board on the future of this stage that has hosted community performances for almost 100 years, since the Great Depression.

Because of problems at the Kitsilano pool, and a fire two years ago at the site, the existing Showboat was due to be demolished; however, the demolition was stopped by the City since the time of writing this newsletter.

If you have time, please join me in writing to the Park Board to encourage them to work with Barry and identify the next location for this iconic institution. Use the address 2305 Cornwall on the feedback form at this link https://vancouver.ca/your-government/contact-park-board.aspx to share your thoughts.

The Kitsilano Showboat has entertained families for free for generations — it shouldn’t sink on our watch!

In good news for our neighbourhoods, geological testing has begun for the completion of the Broadway subway from Arbutus to UBC. You may see the big rigs drilling in the neighbourhood. The geological information gathered, combined with traffic and population projection studies will be combined into a “business case” which sets out station locations and routing for the project.

In the meantime, an agreement with the Translink mayors means new busses are being purchased to expand express bus service across our fast-growing region.

In other news, a beautiful new rental housing building in our community has been covered extensively by media with some suggesting that government should not have been involved in the project at all. Given that it’s in our neighbourhood I thought I’d share some of the background.

The owners of a closed church at the site in Kits had sold the land to a developer. Because of high interest rates and increasing material costs that are threatening rental housing projects across Canada, without government involvement this site in Kits would be developed for luxury condos or townhomes, both of which were fully allowed under existing zoning.

Instead of luxury condos, our government provided a loan guarantee for the financing of the project, reducing the homebuilder’s interest costs in exchange for an agreement to deliver 68 new rental housing units with 14 of those units (20%) renting at below market rents. On completion of the project, which is imminent, the developer pays back the full loan, and all of the associated interest.

Normally, a below-market unit costs $500,000+ for government to build directly.

In this case, this loan guarantee delivered affordable rental units that cost taxpayers nothing, even the interest on the loan is repaid by the homebuilder, not taxpayers. The remaining rental housing units, with market rents, are desperately needed as we added 180,000 people to our province, 15,000 every month, in 2023.

I look forward to welcoming those 14 families into their new Kitsilano homes.

As we’re gearing up at our house for a return to school on Tuesday, for Ezra — and his sister Iva’s first year of big kid school at Kindergarten!

I hope that you and your family and friends are well, and you’ve enjoyed a restful and relaxing summer in our beautiful Vancouver. We’re so lucky to live in such an amazing city, and this summer I was reminded again of how it’s our neighbours in this community who make so many of these special things we enjoy possible.

See you around the neighbourhood!

David Eby

#BCPoli | Falcon | The King is Dead, Long Live the King

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When BC United leader Kevin Falcon announced yesterday afternoon in a joint press conference with BC Conservative leader John Rustad that he would be resigning as leader of his party — while suspending BC United’s campaign for office in the upcoming British Columbia election, leaving John Rustad’s B.C. Conservative party to represent the alleged centre-right in a two-way race with David Eby’s British Columbia New Democratic Party, Kevin Falcon did so with a heavy heart.

Today on VanRamblings, we’ll provide you with the background that led to Kevin Falcon making his decision to step away from British Columbia electoral politics.

Make no mistake, there is no love loss between Kevin Falcon and John Rustad.

Kevin Falcon continues to believe — as he espoused to Global BC’s Keith Baldrey in a breakfast / walk around the Legislature grounds on Tuesday morning — that John Rustad represents an existential threat to the health and well-being of British Columbians, in particular to the interests of families raising children.

Interesting that Kevin Falcon — as VanRamblings has been writing all week — gave as rationale for his resignation, the interests of his two young daughters, and by extension all children across the province.

Focusing on the interests of children was the code Mr. Falcon employed to state that he remains adamantly opposed to the climate denialist, homo-and-transphobic, racist, misogynist,  anti-vaxx, Christian dominionist-wannabe, Trump-like John Rustad-led BC Conservatives.

So, what led Kevin Falcon to make the very difficult decision to leave politics?

Sources tell us, two weeks ago representatives of the development industry in our province met with Mr. Falcon, demanding he resign as BC United party leader, and fold the B.C. United tent in favour of supporting John Rustad’s B.C. Conservative party, a “request” that was anathema to Kevin Falcon.

The development industry was not simply making a suggestion to Kevin Falcon, an idle request he might consider, but a demand, backed up by a threat …

“Either you resign as leader, and fold the B.C. United campaign for office, or we assure you that you will never work again in British Columbia, no one will hire you, you will be unemployable, and unable to provide for your family.”

Representatives of the development industry were not making an idle threat.

Kevin Falcon was given two weeks to make up his mind as to what course of action he would take. In coming to a decision, Mr.Falcon took the interests of his wife, and his two daughters, Josephine and Rose, as his priority and .. resigned.


Dimitri Pantazopoulos, currently employed as B.C. Conservative pollster, and co-campaign manager

Earlier this week, Kevin Falcon met with his longtime friend Dimitri Pantazopoulos, long Stephen Harper’s Conservative party pollster, B.C. Liberal and Vancouver Non-Partisan Association pollster, who is currently employed by the surging B.C. Conservatives as that party’s pollster, and de facto co-campaign manager. As you may recall, it was Mr. Pantazopoulos who in British Columbia’s 2013 provincial election identified the 50 B.C. ridings that the B.C. Liberals could win — this at a time when B.C. Liberal Premier Christy Clark was mired at 26% in the polls, with Adrian Dix soaring at 49% voter approval. Indeed, on May 14, 2013, Christy Clark did, in fact, win the 50 seats Mr. Pantazopoulos had identified.

When Dimitri Pantazopoulos met with Kevin Falcon, Mr. Pantazopoulos told him …

“Kevin, not only will B.C. United be decimated at the polls on the night of October 19th, none of B.C. United’s candidates will win in their ridings, and that includes you. At the moment, Kevin, you are running a distant second to Dallas Brodie, the B.C. Conservative candidate and longtime resident within your Vancouver-Quilchena riding, while you continue to maintain your family home across the inlet in North Vancouver. You’re going to lose, and lose badly, an embarrassing and regrettable loss to be sure, but a most assured loss, and a humiliating end to your once promising political career in British Columbia politics.”

And with that piece of devastating news, Kevin Falcon’s decision was made.

The ironic aspect to the present British Columbia political circumstance, where John Rustad stands on the precipice of victory at the polls on October 19th, is that Mr. Rustad doesn’t even want to be British Columbia’s next Premier.

At 61 years of age, having celebrated his birthday on August 18th, Mr. Rustad believes he’s had his day in the sun — as British Columbia’s once upon a time B.C Liberal government Minister of Aboriginal Relations and Reconciliation, and Minister of Forests, Lands and Natural Resources. Not for this man from the hinterlands, the cut and thrust of electoral politics. Mr. Rustad simply wants to rest.

When John Rustad was unceremoniously dropped from the B.C. Liberal caucus on his birthday in 2022, for his antediluvian stand on LGBTQ issues, his vehement opposition to the SOGI 123 (Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity) programme, his contention that climate change is a hoax, his support of the anti-vaxx movement, and his adherence to any number of QAnon conspiracy theories, including wireless 5G as a root cause of COVID, John Rustad was only too happy to leave what he considered to be a “too progressive” BC United party.

When, some months, later — on Friday, March 31st, 2023 — John Rustad became leader of the B.C. Conservative party, he expected that he’d been heading a conservative party better aligned with his alt-right values, and a provincial political party that in 2024 would likely secure only 1.92% of the vote, as the B.C. Conservatives had in the 2020 British Columbia provincial general election.

Colour John Rustad surprised and disappointed when that presumed outcome of his leadership of the B.C. Conservative party did not come to pass.

So, what does this hill ‘o beans all mean?

Well, there are a couple of issues to consider before we wrap today’s column.

According to an extensive polling of British Columbians from across the province that was conducted last evening, David Eby’s New Democratic Party finds itself in pretty good shape following Kevin Falcon’s resignation as B.C. United leader, with an expected win of 57 seats (a 10-seat majority) in the next (post election) session of the Legislature, to only 36 seats for John Rustad’s B.C. Conservatives.

Given how Kevin Falcon came to define his B.C. United party as a fiscally conservative, yet socially progressive, political party, the thinking among the political cogniscenti is that the remaining adherents of B.C. United just can’t stomach John Rustad’s alt-right B.C. Conservative party and have headed over to the political party, the B.C. New Democrats, that better align with their values.

Next up: you know how we were discussing the power of the development industry to influence the state of politics in British Columbia? Well, listen up, cuz we’ve got a story of wit and (who knows how much) wisdom to tell you.

Turns out that the development industry is pretty darn happy with David Eby’s “we’re gonna build 100,000 units of housing in our next term of government” development ethos. Through Geoff Meggs — former Vision Vancouver City Councillor, former Chief of Staff to Premier John Horgan, and since 2005 the left’s political liaison to the development industry, and at present a senior housing development advisor to Premier David Eby and Minister of Housing Ravi Kahlon — they’ve been only too happy to fund David Eby’s NDP re-election bid.

Who’da thunk, huh?

The development industry does not want John Rustad’s B.C. Conservatives to win — gain 40 seats, sure, but hell’s bells, not win — so that John Rustad, who doesn’t for gawd’s sake even want to be Premier, might be replaced within the next year by someone who would, sure, be conservative, but a more pragmatic and palatable to the general public conservative.

Hell, if the antediluvian John Rustad were to win, the development industry would lose billions of dollars in revenue from the David Eby ‘transit-oriented projects’ that would be sidelined were the B.C. Conservatives to win majority government on Saturday, October 19th.

With an easily manipulated Brad West, Elenore Sturko or that youngster, Gavin Dew, installed as the next B.C. Conservative party leader — following John Rustad’s ouster —  should the development industry tire of David Eby come the next provincial election in 2028, they’d have their favourite ambitious, developer-friendly guy or gal in place to do their bidding.

Everybody wins, except us.

Today, we are 52 days away from knowing the outcome of the 2024 British Columbia provincial election, an election VanRamblings predicts will experience a record low turnout — as happened in the last Ontario election, when a paltry 43% of the population turned out to vote, by orders of magnitude the lowest ever turnout in any provincial election, ever.

What does David Eby’s New Democratic Party have in their favour that might contribute to victory come the evening of Saturday, October 19th? A ground game. There is no political party in Canada, and in B.C. in particular, that has a better, more sophisticated and vibrant Get Out the Vote (GOTV) mechanism.

VanRamblings has worked on dozens of federal and provincial NDP campaigns.

We can tell you that you don’t know the meaning of the word organized until you’ve worked on a B.C. New Democratic Party election campaign.

Not to mention, David Eby’s NDP are, by far, the best funded B.C. political party.

What do the B.C. Conservatives have in their favour?

We’ll get into that next week — when, unlike above, we promise to be kind.

#BCPoli | Kevin Falcon Definitively Defines BC United’s Politics & Goals

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BC United leader Kevin Falcon, and BC Conservative leader John Rustad: poles apart on the issues

When Kevin Falcon was elected leader of the B.C. Liberal party on Saturday, February 5th, 2022, through until Saturday, April 30, 2022, when he won the recently vacated Vancouver Quilchena seat — long held by the B.C. Liberals, and before that the Social Credit party — taking his seat in the British Columbia Legislature, Mr. Falcon sought to re-define the values of the party he now headed, to bring the B.C. Liberal party into the 21st century, as a forward thinking, big tent party, well accepting of members of the LGBTQ community, and the broad cultural and ethnic communities that comprise the British Columbia we all call home.

Meeting individually with the 27 other members of the B.C. Liberal caucus in the two-month interregnum between February 5th, 2022 and April 30th of that year, Kevin Falcon sought to work with the members of his caucus to identify the values of his party as an inclusive, welcoming political party.

Not for Kevin Falcon, nor most members of his B.C. Liberal caucus, the fiasco of the 2020 provincial election, when Chilliwack-Kent B.C. Liberal candidate Laurie Throness’ comments on eugenics — a movement that promotes selective human breeding to weed out characteristics seen as undesirable — were captured in a Zoom recording, with Throness adding, “contraception would be a low priority for medical spending” should the B.C. Liberal party be elected to government.

Many in the B.C. Liberal party believed that Laurie Throness’s inflammatory statements, and then B.C. Liberal party leader Andrew Wikinson’s failure to repudiate Mr. Throness’s comments, caused such controversy among the B.C. electorate that on Election Day, October 24, 2020, the B.C. Liberals were denied government, and the B.C. NDP government of John Horgan was elected to a majority government.


Elenore Sturko, a Surrey RCMP sergeant and media spokesperson, took leave from the force to run as a B.C. Liberal candidate in the Surrey-South riding, winning the by-election held on September 10, 2022

Consistent with the B.C. Liberal party’s new, inclusive, welcoming and and expansive philosophy, Mr. Falcon sought well-known, Surrey-based lesbian activist Elenore Sturko to run as the B.C. Liberal candidate in the Surrey South seat that had become vacant when B.C. Liberal incumbent Stephanie Cadieux resigned her seat to become Canada’s first Chief Accessibility Officer.

Throughout the Surrey-South by-election period, Kevin Falcon continued his meetings with members of the B.C. Liberal caucus, one of whom was former B.C. Liberal Environment Minister, John Rustad, who had represented the northern riding of Nechako Lakes (Prince George-Omineca; 2005–2009) since 2005.

Kevin Falcon was astounded to find John Rustad was fundamentally opposed to the “new direction” of the B.C. Liberal party under Mr. Falcon’s leadership, that he disagreed with welcoming members of the LGBTQ community, that Mr. Rustad was vehemently opposed to the non-mandatory SOGI 123 (Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity) programme that had been implemented by the Christy Clark government in 2015, that Mr. Rustad felt climate change was a hoax, that he was a supporter of the anti-vaxx community, and adhered to any number of QAnon conspiracy theories, including wireless 5G as a root cause of COVID, a “theory” recently espoused by current B.C. Conservative candidate for Prince George-Mackenzie, Rachael Weber,  who was caught amplifying online conspiracy theories that 5G wireless networks are “genocidal weapons” and spread the coronavirus.

In a 2021 Facebook post, Ms. Weber voiced concerns about “microchips,” cashless payments and the threat of “total government dependency / control” by saying “the anti-Christ comes before the rapture.

As B.C. Conservative party leader, John Rustad has not disavowed Ms. Weber’s inflammatory comments, past or present, attributing calls for her removal as a candidate as a function of “culture wars.” Ms. Weber remains the B.C. Conservative candidate for Prince George-Mackenzie.

In posts on both Facebook and Twitter, Rustad shared a graphic and post arguing that people had been “hoodwinked” by climate change science and they should be glad CO2 is being emitted into the atmosphere.

In response, Kevin Falcon distanced himself from Rustad’s stance.

Long story short, on August 18, 2022, Kevin Falcon removed John Rustad from the B.C. Liberal caucus for boosting a social media post casting doubt on climate change science and urging people to “celebrate CO2.”

Ms. Sturko won the Surrey South seat with 52% of the vote, in a decisive victory over the B.C. NDP’s Pauline Greaves, receiving 5,568 of the 10,742 votes cast.


Elenore Sturko, and B.C. Liberal party leader, Kevin Falcon, celebrate Ms. Sturko’s landslide win

Sadly, Kevin Falcon’s jubilation at Ms. Sturko’s win was relatively short-lived.

On Friday, March 31st, 2023, John Rustad became leader of the B.C. Conservative party, and the rest is — as they say —  history.

As BK Anderson, in a Facebook comment on a VanRamblings post earlier in the week, writes: Kevin Falcon — a man of conscience, a visionary leader, a good man who cares deeply for all the citizens of our province — in bringing the B.C. Liberal party into the 21st century, positioned the party as too liberal for many party members, such that the renamed B.C. Liberal party, now called B.C. United, has become a pale imitation of David Eby’s centrist B.C. New Democratic Party.

Put simply, there is no sunlight between the B.C. United and BC NDP positions on the social and cultural issues in our province — unlike John Rustad’s regressive, antediluvian B.C. Conservative Party. Not for the good and progressive Kevin Falcon, the Trump-like culture wars that have plagued American politics, since Donald Trump’s marginal victory to become U.S. President in November 2016.

Rather than fight the ‘no win’ culture wars that have sewn division across the vast range of states in our neighbour to the south — the ground where B.C. Conservative leader, John Rustad, seems to want to fight the coming provincial election — Kevin Falcon is instead mounting a dynamic campaign of renewal, based on economic policy, towards building a better and more vibrant full employment economy, a stronger and better funded public education system, a renewed health care system where emergency room closures will be a phenomenon of the past, a democratic party where the voices of British Columbians from across of province will be heard, where job number one will be to ensure the construction of 100,000 new homes in the coming term of government.

Tomorrow on VanRamblings, we’ll conclude our four-part series on Kevin Falcon and the B.C. United party, with how Mr. Falcon intends to fight the coming provincial election campaign — set to get underway on Saturday, September 21st — and how B.C. United will fight the regressive forces of John Rustad’s out of touch B.C. Conservative party, so that his children — and all the children across our province — might grow up to adulthood to raise their own families, secure in a province where clean air, a vibrant public education system, and a full employment prosperity economy — where parents can earn a decent wage in order to care for the needs of their children — will cause all who reside within our province to thrive.