Category Archives: Vancouver

#BCPoli | Charlie Smith Weighs In| Campaign 2024

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In a change of pace, on VanRamblings today we will publish the latest column written by respected British Columbia journalist, Charlie Smith, for nearly two decades the Editor of The Georgia Straight newspaper.

In the 2024 British Columbia provincial, Mr. Smith has come forward as an Independent candidate for office in the riding of Richmond-Bridgeport.

Please find below an “abridged” version of Mr. Smith’s column. The original, unexpurgated column may be read in its entirety by clicking or tapping here.


Protesters against vaccine mandates often invoked Nuremberg 2.0.

Random thoughts on John Rustad, Nuremberg 2.0, and Teresa Wat’s decision to join the B.C. Conservatives
Richmond-Bridgeport Independent candidate Charlie Smith wonders how Rustad could have misunderstood “Nuremberg 2.0”, given all the publicity

This week, the anti-science leader of the B.C. Conservatives apologized for his earlier response to a question about trying public-health officials for war crimes. John Rustad expressed regret for saying he would “certainly be participating with other jurisdictions”.

This came after he was asked in an online meeting about his position on Nuremburg 2.0.

Rustad professed that he misunderstood the question.

As the Independent candidate in Richmond-Bridgeport, I am feeling skeptical. If he indeed misunderstood, then he is remarkably ignorant about a subject that has received tremendous attention in recent years.

I say this as someone who has written several articles about how opponents of mRNA vaccines have been raising a ruckus about Nuremberg-style war crime trials.

In fact, I’m currently being sued for defamation by someone who sent me a notice of liability. This notice purported that I had violated the findings of the Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal through my reporting on COVID-19 vaccines.

In the past, I also received threats of lawsuits from others who opposed the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines. They too claimed that I was committing grave crimes through my reporting.

A group called Action4Canada created these notices of liability. They were widely distributed to politicians, health officials, and media workers.

One of them states …

“Members of the Media who lied and misled the German People were executed, right along with Medical Doctors and Nurses who participated in medical experiments using living people as guinea pigs. Those who forget the past are condemned to relive it.”

Sometimes, the activists would gather outside TV and radio stations and distribute these notices of liability. In one of these notices that I obtained, this message appears under a photo of Nazi war criminals being hanged.

Politicians hanged in effigy

Then, there was the highly publicized rally in front of the B.C. Legislature on December 9, 2021. Provincial NDP politicians were hanged in effigy as part of the protest. This took place at an event promoted as the 75th anniversary of the Nuremberg trials.

Just over a week later, a sandwich board sign was placed outside a Vancouver church declaring “Nuremberg Trial 2.0”. This phrase appeared above the face of Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry after she had prohibited in-person church services to stop the spread of the Omicron variant.

Earlier that year, I wrote about a COVID-19 denier who warned staff at the Castanet media outlet that they will hang for “being involved with the most corrupt hoax in history”. The man’s associate mentioned the Nuremberg trials.

I wrote another article about how a former People’s Party of Canada candidate wrote “should happen again” on social media. She did this in response to a meme declaring: “During the Nuremberg trials, even the media was prosecuted and put to death for lying to the public.”

Then, there were the mass protests at hospitals by opponents of mRNA vaccines. Outside Vancouver General Hospital, a crowd chanted “lock her up” in response to a speaker mentioning Dr. Henry by name. Health workers complained that they had trouble getting through the crowds.

“Some of these activists are eager to hold Nuremberg-like show trials for public-health officials and politicians who support vaccine passports,” I wrote at the time.

Yet Rustad claims that he misunderstood the question about Nuremberg 2.0 when he was in a Zoom meeting with people who opposed the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines. This week to defuse the controversy, he insisted that it was a “distortion of history” to draw links between the crimes of the Holocaust and the mass immunization of the public against COVID-19.

A political double standard

All I can say is if Rustad did not know the meaning of Nuremberg 2.0 after playing political footsie with the people advancing this idea over the past two years, then he hasn’t really been listening to what they are saying.

I also marvel over the incredible double standard that we have in B.C. politics.

When a brown and renowned pediatric cardiac surgeon accidentally hit a “like” on a tweet mentioning a Nazi war criminal, a media and political uproar drummed him out of politics. But when a white leader of a right-wing party proclaims that he misunderstood the meaning of Nuremberg 2.0 in response to a direct question, all is forgiven.

Rustad is still in the race to become Premier.

I’m running in Richmond-Bridgeport for several reasons. One of them is so that residents have the option of voting someone who has always favoured evidence-based responses to the COVID-19 catastrophe.

Richmond-Bridgeport has many voters of Chinese ancestry. I admire how they played a leadership role in the early days of the pandemic by being among the first to wear masks to stop the spread of COVID-19. Chinese community leaders were among the first to call for more testing and greater use of masks. I know this because I edited an article by two of them.

To her credit, my Conservative opponent who is seeking re-election in Richmond-Bridgeport issued stirring words at the start of the pandemic.

“I rise today to remind everyone that the coronavirus is a common enemy, one we must fight and overcome together,” Teresa Wat said in the legislature on February 12, 2020 as a B.C. Liberal MLA.

“We must also fight hard against the spread of fearmongering and stigmatization,” Wat continued. “Negative stereotypes towards any group have no place in British Columbia or in Canada. It is in times like this, more than ever, that we as Canadians have a responsibility to protect our multicultural communities and support our local businesses.”

Bravo.


Teresa Wat sided with Rustad against ex-colleagues who back mRNA vaccinations.

Wat sides with the B.C. Conservatives

But now more than four years later — after Rustad pandered to the Nuremberg 2.0 crowd — Wat decided to abandon her caucus colleagues. She did this despite B.C. United caucus members consistently supporting mRNA vaccines to fight COVID-19.

Instead, Wat threw her lot in with Rustad after already qualifying for a lucrative MLA pension if she chose not to seek reelection.

Wat became a B.C. Conservative MLA even though the party was built, in part, by leaders in the movement against mRNA vaccines. Some in this movement talk seriously about Nuremberg-style war crimes trials for public health officials, politicians, and journalists.

One of the anti-mRNA vaccine movement’s slogans has been “the media is the virus”.

Donald Trump uses the racist phrase “China virus”.

I urge the voters of Richmond-Bridgeport to keep this history in mind when they go to the polls. I will fight for the health of all voters regardless of race, ethnicity or national origin by proposing evidence-based responses to public-health issues.

It’s an obscenity against the victims of the Holocaust to liken the work of B.C. public health officials, politicians, and hardworking journalists to sadistic mass murderers who were hanged after the Second World War.


You may subscribe to Charlie Smith’s necessary and invaluable Substack by clicking or tapping here.

#BCPoli | John Rustad and Issues of Con-cern | Pt. 1

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Women comprise 51% of British Columbia’s population, and electorate.

As such, whether provincial, federal or municipal, political parties offering candidates seek to ensure fair representation of the candidates running on their slates.

In the 2024 British Columbia provincial election, approxiately 60 per cent of B.C. NDP candidates, 45 per cent of B.C. Green candidates and 25 per cent of B.C. Conservative candidates are women, heading into the October 19th election.

According to a a Sunday article published in the Victoria Times Colonist the online journal Equal Voice, which advocates for gender parity in provincial and federal elections and tallies up the nominees on its ­election tracker, notes that 42.5 per cent of MLAs elected in the last ­provincial election in 2020 were women.

Kimberly Speers, a University of Victoria assistant teaching professor in the School of Public Administration, said political parties in British Columbia need to ensure their candidates for office reflect the population the party is seeking to represent.

“Otherwise, they may face voters who do not see their needs and themselves reflected in the policies and faces of political party and will vote for the party who has made the effort,” she said.

According to Statistics Canada, women make up just over half of the 5.6 million people living in British Columbia, 2.85 million women versus 2.75 million men.

Ensuring a legislature or council effectively represents its population is critical for a well-functioning government and society, said Speers.

While women run for all ­political parties and have varying perspectives on how to govern, “the common trait is that they represent a group that has been underrepresented in positions of political power,” said Speers.

Women candidates for office are dramatically underrepresented on the slate of 93 candidates John Rustad’s Conservative Party of B.C. are offering to the people of British Columbia, which in 2024 must be seen as regressive, and a step backwards.

The lack of women candidate representation in the B.C. Conservative Party is a source of concern that must considered when casting your ballot, at either an advance polling station — which open this upcoming Thursday, October 10th — or on Election Day, just 13 short days from today, on Saturday, October 19th.

Do British Columbians Really Want to Elect an Anti-Vaxx Premier?

In a series of interviews conducted with the press, B.C. Conservative Party leader John Rustad has expressed deep concern about the COVID-19 vaccine — both Pfizer and Moderna — saying he regrets having had three COVID-19 shots, attributing a heart condition with which he was afflicted months later to the COVID shot.

Mr. Rustad is also on record as stating that should he become Premier of B.C., a first order of business for his B.C. Conservative administration would be to fire Dr. Bonnie Henry — who, it should be noted enjoys a 62 per cent approval rating — as British Columbia’s well-regarded Provincial Health Officer. Firing Dr. Bonnie Henry, who got us through the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic, is that a course of action with which most British Columbians would find themselves in agreement?

According to a September 23rd Vaughn Palmer column in the Vancouver Sun …

  • He (Rustad) now regards the COVID mRNA shots as “a ‘so-called’ vaccine.”;
  • He (Rustad) wishes he had not been vaccinated.;
  • He (Rustad) thinks the vaccine mandate was about “control of the population.”

Rustad has been accused of harbouring crackpots. On the video, included in today’s VanRamblings column, “he sounds like one himself,” writes Palmer.

As the icing on the cake of the craziness and chaos that would follow the election of John Rustad as British Columbia’s 48th Premier, he states that his administration would be open to joining other jurisdictions in legal proceedings inspired by the Nuremberg Trials, aimed at prosecuting those deemed responsible for COVID-19 public health measures and vaccines.

The Nuremberg trials were held in Germany after WWII to hold to account the Nazi leaders responsible for the murder of 8 million Jews, and LGBTQ and disability communities. John Rustad equates Dr. Bonnie Henry with WWII Nazi war criminals.

Nuremberg 2.0 advocates typically call for those who created, justified or enforced public health measures — including politicians, doctors, academics, journalists and police — to be jailed and even executed for “crimes against humanity.”


The BCPS Employees for Freedom Society interview with B.C. Conservative Party leader John Rustad (you have to skip the first video that loads) who states that if he is elected Premier, he would replace Dr. Henry, and further would compensate with government funds health care professionals who he believes were discriminated against and mistreated under the “regime” of Dr. Bonnie Henry.

Timothy Caulfield, a Canada research chair in health law and policy at the University of Alberta who specializes in online misinformation and conspiracies, says “it’s horrifying” to hear a political leader “legitimizing and normalizing” any talk of a “Nuremberg 2.0.”

“This is dark, nasty stuff,” Caulfield told Press Progress. “They’re not talking about some kind of careful judicial process, it really is code for execution and retribution. That’s what’s at the heart of Nuremberg 2.0.”

Peter Smith, an investigative journalist and researcher with the Canadian Anti-Hate Network, says people who talk about Nuremberg 2.0 are typically fuelled by grievances about pandemic public health measures.

“It is a phrase that emerged during the pandemic and was supposed to be the title for these coming trials for ‘crimes against humanity’ that would be brought against doctors, politicians, police and more for enforcing and carrying out COVID-19 health restrictions,” Smith told the folks at Press Progress. “It is essentially accusing a large number of public and private individuals who acted during a health crisis of being on par with one of the worst campaigns of subjugation, humiliation and destruction in modern history,” Smith added, referencing Nazi atrocities during the Second World War.

A question: do you want taxpayer funds to go to compensation for the small rump group of British Columbia health workers who refused to get the COVID-19 vaccine to keep their patients safe, and further to fund a far-right-inspired government campaign to hold health officials, including Dr. Bonnie Henry and B.C.’s Minister of Health, Adrian Dix, “to account”? That’s what you’ll get if you elect John Rustad.

#BCPoli | David Eby Comes to the Rescue of the Failed 2024 B.C. NDP Campaign

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VanRamblings has known David Eby since he first arrived in town in 2007 to article with the grassroots and activist Pivot Legal Society, where he fought the good fight for the residents who reside on Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.

In all the time we’ve known David — registering voters and getting the vote out in the 2009 provincial election, in his time as an activist Executive Director with the B.C. Civil Liberties Association, and working closely with David in his campaigns for provincial office in 2011, 2013, 2017 and 2020 — we’ve always been inspired by David Eby’s utter brilliance and command of the issues, his compassion and kindness, his ability to connect with people on a visceral level, his commitment to the public good, and for the welfare of everyone who has come to him for help.

Sadly, the David Eby we’ve known well for 17 years, and the David Eby who everyone who has worked with David knows so well and is so passionate about, has not been on display in the B.C. NDP 2024 campaign for office, as if somehow David is a lightning rod, and the campaign team wants to keep him under wraps.

What a terrible mistake the B.C. NDP campaign has made in “hiding” the David Eby those who care passionately about David know so well, and believe in David as the leader we know him to be, with all of our heart and conscience and utter devotion.

Today on VanRamblings, we’re going to introduce you to the David Eby we know well, and will suggest that it is David Eby, and David Eby alone, who will rescue the failed 2024 B.C. NDP campaign for office, that it is David Eby who will lead a 180-degree turnaround of the campaign, as the most inspiring and energizing presence on the hustings, a David Eby who many British Columbians will see for the very first time, a vigorous and tireless campaigner for the public good, in the sprint to the finish of a campaign that will conclude with victory on Saturday, October 19th.

First of all, something you may not know about David.

Our good Mr. Eby has a temper on him, and although not quick to anger, allow us to tell you from first-hand experience, you do not want to be on the receiving end of David’s anger — of course it is a directed and controlled anger, a good anger meant to redefine the circumstance in which one might find oneself, to inspire a change for the better.

In the lacklustre 2024 B.C. NDP campaign for office, we have not witnessed David’s anger — and, migawd, we should, we must — because the David Eby we know is right pissed off with what an antediluvian, regressive John Rustad Conservative administration would mean for the people of British Columbia.

In two words, chaos and hurt.

In the final two weeks of the 2024 B.C. election campaign, let us all see more righteous and palpable anger from David Eby, anger that will cause British Columbians to sit up and take notice, and say …

“Hey, this guy’s passionate about creating a better British Columbia for our family. This David Eby fella, he’s a leader, the kind of leader we need in 2024, someone who is passionate about fighting for us, and is committed to making our lives better.”

We’ll tell you something else you may not know about David Eby.

David Eby does not suffer fools gladly, least of all the so-called leader of the regressive Conservative Party of British Columbia. In the third day of the current campaign that became obvious, when reporters asked the NDP leader to respond to an allegation made by John Rustad that educators were indoctrinating students, so much so that his government would ban 4,000 books currently available in British Columbia schools, “including pornography made available to Grade 4 students as a part of the province’s SOGI 123 programme,” a programme designed to support gender variant children enrolled in our public education system with compassion.


CBC’s Michelle Elliot’s interview with John Rustad, where he says pornography is being made available to students enrolled in B.C.’s public education system, as part of the province’s SOGI 123 programme.

David’s Eby response to John Rustad’s absurd remarks was a roiling amalgam of anger, incredulousness and risible derision, as he rolled his eyes, stating to reporters that he was unsure if he’d ever heard anything more preposterous stated by a political leader. Going forward, the 2024 B.C. NDP campaign must hear, and witness, more fiery and passionate responses from B.C’s NDP leader, and more rolling of his eyes at the nonsensical rantings of the leader of the B.C. Conservatives.

Now, something you already know about David Eby, the Premier of our province.

David Eby is a take charge kind of guy. We’ve seen that every day since he became Premier of British Columbia in November 2022.

Here’s a personal example we’ve experienced: In the 2017 British Columbia election campaign, VanRamblings as we’ve written previously worked the front desk in David Eby’s campaign office. One bright afternoon when David returned to the office following an hour of mainstreeting along West Broadway, from Macdonald to Alma, upon entering the premises David queried us as to how things were going. “Fine,” we said, to which David responded, “Raymond, I know you. You’ve got concerns. Spill. What’s going on? Give me the straight goods. C’mon now.”

We expressed to David that every second call we’d received that morning and early afternoon expressed a concern that although a constituent and supporter had ordered a David Eby re-election sign to be delivered, sometimes as long as two weeks previous, the signs had yet to arrive. David responded, saying, “Raymond, my car is out back. Load up the hatchback with 200 signs, and you and I will spend the afternoon delivering and putting up signs. I’ll get the list from Gala.”

In fact, the two of us spent three hours putting up signs. But we’re talking David Eby here. VanRamblings would put up a sign. David would frown, saying “Two signs, at the corner of the lot, one facing west, the other facing north, for maximum visibility.” And so it went. David Eby very much in control.  200 signs up in 3 hours, sign requests completely up to date, David Eby once again being the hands on, take charge candidate satisfied and energized. That’s the David Eby we know.

Let’s talk about the issues that David Eby is running on.

British Columbia’s Housing Shortage. David Eby, as the feet on the ground visionary leader of British Columbia, working with his 55-member B.C. NDP caucus, has developed a realistic, multi-faceted plan to build housing for …

  • Members of our vulnerable population living on the streets, unhoused, or in substandard, rat-infested SROs located on Vancouver’s DTES, and similar areas in Prince George, Victoria, Kelowna, Nanaimo, and elsewhere will find accommodation in dignified housing in David Eby’s next term in office;
  • Seniors who have found themselves poorly housed, or on the verge of eviction arising from the build, build, build ethos of developers will be afforded accommodation in dignified, and supported where necessary, housing where no resident will pay more than 30% of their income to be housed;
  • Individuals with incomes between $30,000 and $88,000 annually, where one hundred thousand units of co-op housing will be built across the province on federal or provincial Crown land, a place you would own collectively with your neighbours, where no housing co-op member would pay more than 30% of their annual income in housing charge, where vulnerable, low income seniors, and families would be housed in safety and comfort;
  • British Columbians earning an income between $88,000 and $254,000 annually, there’s the B.C. Builds programme, dedicated to the development of new homes for middle-income working people living in communities throughout British Columbia;
  • British Columbians who want to own their own homes, where the B.C. NDP would subsidize 60% of the purchase of a home for first time buyers, and 40% of the purchase price of a home for homeowners who wish to upgrade their housing, in both instances allowing the new homeowners to reimburse government over a 25-year period for the portion of the house purchase subsidized by the province.

David Eby’s government is committed to training and hiring 700 new doctors, and 1500 new nurses each year until every British Columbian has a family doctor, and where wait times for those entering hospital are reduced or eliminated.

David Eby is the man with the plan, running against a tired old, right wing ideologue, bereft of ideas, not on your side, with no action plan whatsoever.

On Thursday, David Eby announced the B.C. NDP’s public transportation programme, which includes an extension of the Millennium line to UBC; a light rail system to Squamish and Whistler; and a rapid bus system to the North Shore, to eventually be replaced by light rail transit or Skytrain, and much more.

In the sprint to the finish in Campaign 2024, David Eby will have to dramatically up his energy level, develop the fire in his belly style of campaigning that Justin Trudeau perfected in the 2019 and 2021 federal election campaigns, where Trudeau carried a flagging Liberal party campaign on his back, emerging in both instances with a substantial minority government.


The Honourable Thomas R. Berger, leader of the British Columbia New Democratic Party in 1969.

There’s been some talk among the punditry that has suggested in 2024 David Eby and the B.C. NDP are running a losing 1969 Tom Berger campaign.

B.C. NDP leader Tom Berger in 1969 ran a progressive campaign for office, but was viewed by the public as that most hoary of things: an “intellectual”, his style of campaigning human scale and reasoned, but devoid of warmth and the signifying entertainment value that always defines a successful campaign for office.

When the 1969 election results came in late on the summer evening  of August 27th, British Columbians had wholly rejected Tom Berger as B.C. NDP leader, awarding him only 18 seats — for a loss of four seats, including Mr. Berger’s own seat of Vancouver Burrard — in a 55-seat Legislature, instead re-electing the tired administration of Premier W.A.C. Bennett to a seventh consecutive term in office.

The David Eby VanRamblings knows will not, under any circumstance, allow his and our B.C. New Democratic Party campaign to falter and fail, and will in these final two weeks of Campaign 2024 turn on the jets to run a high energy, inspiring, populist campaign for office, a take charge campaign where David Eby will be louder, angrier, more pointed in his criticism of B.C. Conservative leader John Rustad, more visible and surrounded by thousands of supporters in ridings spanning the province, the galvanizing leader we know him to be and need him to be, imbued with the spirit and best interests of British Columbians front and centre in his campaign, rallying the citizens of our province in common cause to ensure going forward that there will be accessible and ready health care services for everyone, housing for everyone, a vibrant public transportation system, and a thriving green economy, the touchstones of the British Columbia New Democratic Party’s winning campaign for office in the 2024 British Columbia provincial election.

#BCPoli | A Troubling Race in Vancouver-Point Grey

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In the 2024 British Columbia election, Premier David Eby is once again seeking re-election in his home riding of Vancouver-Point Grey, a constituency known for its progressive values and highly educated voters.


To read Vote Mate candidate profiles of the Vancouver-Point Grey candidates, click here.

David Eby, leader of the British Columbia New Democratic Party (NDP) since November 2022, is facing several challengers, but the one drawing the most controversy is Paul Ratchford, the B.C. Conservative Party candidate.

Mr. Ratchford’s incendiary, partisan remarks about his now fellow B.C. Conservative candidate Elenore Sturko, a former B.C. United MLA, have raised concerns about homophobia and intolerance, potentially shaping the tone of the election campaign in Vancouver-Point Grey, and beyond.

In response to Ms. Sturko’s victory in the Surrey South by-election in 2022, Mr. Ratchford called the just elected MLA a “woke, lesbian, social justice warrior.”

Such language immediately triggered a backlash.

Ms. Sturko — a wife, a mother, and a high profile longtime spokesperson for the Surrey RCMP detachment, as well as a novice candidate in 2022 running with the recently renamed B.C. United political party  — was, as may be seen in the photo above, decidedly over the moon at her victory in the Surrey South riding.

Who, with any degree of integrity and humanity would seek to impinge in a partisan manner on Ms. Sturko’s good fortune in Surrey South, with a cruel comment on what must have been a joyous and halycon night for Elenore Sturko?

Ratchford, in referring to someone’s sexual orientation as part of a derogatory attack plays into harmful stereotypes and marginalizes the LGBTQ community.

The following day, Mr. Ratchford escalated his rhetoric by calling Ms. Sturko a “groomer,” a term long used in anti-LGBTQ narratives to falsely suggest LGBTQ individuals are trying to influence or “recruit” children into their community.

These remarks are not just harmful to Ms. Sturko, who has since joined the B.C. Conservative Party —  in 2024, running in the riding of Surrey-Cloverdale — but also to the broader LGBTQ community, and voters at large.

The “groomer” trope is especially damaging as it revives debunked homophobic and transphobic fears that still resonate in some corners of society.

Employing such a term in modern political discourse reflects an effort to exploit those fears, polarizing communities and harming vulnerable individuals.


L-r, candidates for office in Vancouver-Point Grey: David Eby, Paul Ratchford & Devanyi Singh

For candidate Paul Ratchford running to unseat David Eby in Vancouver-Point Grey — an urban riding that has historically voted for progressive candidates — such comments are likely to alienate a significant portion of the electorate.

Vancouver-Point Grey is home to a socially conscious, diverse population that places a high value on inclusivity and equality.

The area has a substantial LGBTQ population, and its voters are likely to be repelled by the kind of divisive rhetoric Mr. Ratchford has employed.

Residents of the Vancouver-Point Grey riding, many of whom work in education, health care, and in the public service, are generally attuned to the implications of such inflammatory language, recognizing its potential to incite hate and discrimination. Mr. Ratchford’s injurious remarks will likely reinforce perceptions of the B.C. Conservative Party as out of touch with Vancouver-Point Grey’s values.

In addition to offending the LGBTQ community, B.C. Conservative candidate Paul Ratchford’s comments are also problematic for the broader electorate.

Many voters in Vancouver-Point Grey prize civility and fairness in politics.

Personal attacks, particularly those based on sexual orientation, are viewed as inappropriate, but also as distractions from substantive policy discussions.

While issues like housing affordability, health care, and climate change dominate the concerns of Point Grey and Kitsilano residents, Mr. Ratchford’s rhetoric may be seen as a diversion that detracts from addressing these pressing issues.

Given the gravity of his comments, the question arises: Has Paul Ratchford apologized to Elenore Sturko, now his fellow B.C. Conservative candidate, for his earlier hurtful and incendiary remarks?

As of yet, no public apology has been issued.

The absence of an apology underscores the broader challenge facing the B.C. Conservative Party under John Rustad’s leadership.

While Elenore Sturko’s defection to the B.C. Conservatives suggests the party is attempting to broaden its appeal, Mr. Ratchford’s explosive comments stand in stark contrast to this effort, signaling internal contradictions within the party.

At the upcoming all-candidates meeting in Vancouver-Point Grey, where both Paul Ratchford and incumbent Member of the Legislature David Eby will share the stage, Premier Eby is likely to address these remarks head-on.

As a strong advocate for human rights and social justice, David Eby could seize the moment to challenge Mr. Ratchford’s intolerant views, framing the contest as a battle between progressive values and regressive intolerance.

David Eby’s response would resonate with the riding’s electorate, many of whom value inclusion and equality as fundamental principles of good governance.

Given David Eby’s calm demeanour and legal expertise, Mr. Eby will likely approach the issue with a measured tone, appealing to voters’ sense of fairness while subtly highlighting the unsuitability of his opponent.

Meanwhile, the B.C. New Democratic Party’s “war room” has proven adept at capitalizing on their opponents’ missteps.

With the release of footage earlier this week of B.C. Conservative leader John Rustad’s controversial views on COVID vaccines and his insinuation that Dr. Bonnie Henry’s rationale for decisions taken on how to fight COVID and keep British Columbians safe was, in his estimation, tied to efforts to ensure “population control,” … well, it’s entirely plausible the NDP might have additional material that could further undermine Mr. Ratchford’s credibility.

If the B.C. NDP possesses video of Paul Ratchford making similarly offensive comments about the LGBTQ community, they could release it strategically to reinforce the narrative that the B.C. Conservative Party harbours intolerant views.

Such a revelation would almost certainly derail Mr. Ratchford’s campaign, making it difficult for him to gain traction in a riding like Vancouver-Point Grey.

Ultimately, Paul Ratchford’s controversial remarks about Elenore Sturko are likely to be a significant liability in his campaign to unseat David Eby.

In a riding that embraces diversity and progressive values, Paul Ratchford’s mean-spirited and untoward commentary is out of sync with voters’ priorities.

As a result, Paul Ratchford’s contemptuous remarks could serve to strengthen David Eby’s chances for re-election, as voters in Vancouver-Point Grey seek a representative who reflects their commitment to tolerance, respect, and inclusivity.

The upcoming all-candidates meeting will offer a pivotal moment for these dynamics to play out in real time, potentially sealing the fate of Mr. Ratchford’s candidacy.