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#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.

#BCPoli | The Rise of BC Liberal MLA Kevin Falcon

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BC United leader Kevin Falcon, with his arm around his much cherished 14-year-old daughter, Josephine, standing with his beloved wife Jessica, and their endearing 12-year-old daughter, Rose.

VanRamblings is flummoxed. For the life of us, we cannot understand how it is that one of the most successful political leaders in British Columbia history seems — if the polls are correct, and are the polls correct? — to have fallen on hard times, the citizens of the province seemingly deserting him en masse, his political fortunes not just in decline, but so low as to barely register on the political landscape, as 2024’s British Columbia provincial election looms, only 54 short days from today.

Kevin Falcon has had a storied quarter-century career in B.C. politics.

Back in 1999, having fought for the B.C. Liberal nomination in his home riding of Surrey-Cloverdale — defeating B.C. Liberal incumbent Bonnie McKinnon — only two short years later, 38-year-old political novitiate, Kevin Falcon, was selected to sit as the duly-elected Member of the B.C. Legislature, to represent the interests of his much cherished constituents — on whose behalf he fought for all of his time in politics — Mr. Falcon came to sit on the governing front bench of newly-minted Premier Gordon Campbell’s B.C. Liberal government.

Wanting to undo the “economic damage” that the British Columbia New Democratic Party had wrought in their 10 years in power — from October 17, 1991 through May 16, 2001 — said the newly-elected Premier, Mr. Campbell appointed the novice MLA from Surrey-Cloverdale as Minister of State for Deregulation, his job to undo arcane regulations impeding economic growth across our province.

Mr. Falcon took to his task with alacrity, élan, energy and dedication.

So effective was Kevin Falcon as Minister of State for Deregulation that the woebegone resource industries across B.C. began to thrive as they had not for generations, the mining and forest industries experiencing unimaginable growth, in consequence creating good paying union jobs for those living in rural communities across our province, all the while pouring hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue into government coffers, monies that would pay for an expanded health care system to meet the needs of all British Columbians, with the portent (it was hoped) of future growth in British Columbia’s long ignored transportation system, as well as benefiting our province’s beleaguered public education system.

Kevin Falcon’s reward for a job well done?

On Monday, January 26, 2004 with a show of confidence arising from his successful achievements in government, exceeding expectation, Premier Gordon Campbell appointed Kevin Falcon as British Columbia’s new Minister of Transportation, a position he held through June 10, 2009, at which time the eight-years-in-power Premier Gordon Campbell called his second provincial election.

As both a builder and a visionary, the newly-minted Minister of Transportation set for himself the task of ensuring the construction of a rapid transit line from Vancouver to Richmond, an idea that was pooh-poohed by the left in our province, thought to be unnecessary, unfeasible and a boondoggle.

“Nobody will ride the damn thing,” said those who decried the project.

At the time, Vision Vancouver Councillor Raymond Louie — who sat on Translink’s Board of Directors — opposed the construction of what came to be known as The Canada Line. Over weeks, which turned into months, Kevin Falcon met with an intransigent Raymond Louie, in an attempt to change his mind on the efficacy of a rapid transit line along the Cambie corridor, out to Richmond.

On Wednesday, June 30, 2004 — with boos and jeers from enraged citizens who had gathered in large numbers in the gallery to attend the public meeting — the TransLink Board of Directors — including the once recalcitrant Raymond Louie — voted 8 to 4 in favour to resurrect the controversial RAV rapid transit project, from Richmond-Airport to Vancouver, to the “best and final offer” stage.

On August 17, 2009 — three-and-a-half months ahead of schedule, and under budget — the Canada Line became a reality, ferrying passengers from downtown Vancouver to Richmond / the Vancouver Airport, from Day One far exceeding the projected ridership projection of ten years hence, the project a wild success, much appreciated by those citizens who rely on public transportation.

Long story short, upon re-election in the 2009 British Columbia provincial election, Kevin Falcon was appointed as Minister of Health Services in British Columbia, succeeding George Abbott in that post, on Wednesday, June 10, 2009.

Subsequently, on March 14, 2011, Kevin Falcon was assigned the post of Minister of Finance / Deputy Premier for the province, by Premier Christy Clark.

As we wrote yesterday, married for three years now to Jessica, the love of his life, and set to raise together their two young daughters, in 2012 Kevin Falcon made the decision to withdraw from public life, and focus on the needs of his family.

VanRamblings is attempting to write “short” these days.

Although we’d love to publish a 2500-word barn burner, in the interest of preserving our readers’ sanity, we’ll wait until tomorrow to explore the topic of The Decline of BC United Leader Kevin Falcon, and what may very well turn out to be, a four-part series on the esteemed — if beleaguered — Kevin Falcon.

See you back here on Wednesday.

#BCPoli | BC United Leader | The Personal, Joyful Tragedy of Kevin Falcon

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Bliss, happiness, joy, a life fulfilled, family as all important, and a driving political force: BC United leader Kevin Falcon sitting on the porch of their home with wife Jessica and their two daughters

Kevin Falcon is one of the most driven, successful and accomplished tranformational figures to grace the British Columbia political landscape this century.

The former Deputy Premier of British Columbia, Kevin Falcon is generally regarded as one of our province’s most successful ever Finance Ministers — during his tenure in that portfolio, providing necessary services and economic growth to serve the interests of all British Columbians — an outstanding Minister of Health — yet another portfolio in which he far exceeded expectation, emerging as a groundbreaking defender of our health care system —  and a builder in the mould of former Socred Premier, W.A.C. Bennett, Kevin Falcon in his lengthy, storied tenure as British Columbia’s Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure — without Kevin Falcon, those of us living across Metro Vancouver would have no Canada Line today, with ridership levels of more than 170,000 commuters each day, were it not for the across the aisle, non-partisan, visionary leadership of Kevin Falcon.

The current leader of B.C. United — the official opposition in the British Columbia Legislature, to Premier David Eby’s British Columbia New Democratic Party — Kevin Falcon is a generational British Columbia political leader who has long served the best interests of the citizens of our province well, with dedication and distinction.


Jessica Elliott and Kevin Falcon were wed on Saturday, July 25, 2009, in a low-key, back yard ceremony

For all his success as a Minister of the Crown, Kevin Falcon — for almost a half century — was a confirmed bachelor, leading a lonely — if directed — life of service, unloved, unseen, unappreciated and little known — feeling deep within himself that he was, perhaps, undeserving of love. Upon meeting Jessica Elliott, a substitute teacher working on her Master’s degree, he fell head over heels in love, and much to his utter surprise and delight,  the object of his deep affection and love, fell just as deeply in love with him as he was with her, as remains the case to this very day.

Life changed forever — Mr. Falcon would contend, if you were to ask him, for the much much better — upon his marriage to Ms. Elliott, now Ms. Falcon, the personal, joyful “tragedy” of Mr. Falcon’s marriage to Ms. Elliott compounded only months later by the birth of his daughter, Josephine, now 14 years of age, and in 2012 with the birth of his second child, daughter Rose, all of 11 years young.

With the birth of newborn Rose, Kevin Falcon — now and forever, a changed man, a family man whose primary priority was now the happiness and welfare of his wife Jessica, and their beloved young daughters — told the members of his B.C. Liberal caucus that he would not run for re-election in his long-held Surrey-Cloverdale riding, in the then upcoming 2013 British Columbia provincial general election.

As a dedicated family man — his life revolving almost totally around his wife, and two daughters —  Kevin Falcon did not forego contribution, as he took on a number of volunteer roles with non-profit organizations, including the Canuck Place Foundation, Lions Gate Hospital Foundation and the Streetohome Foundation.

From that date in 2013 through until February 5, 2022, upon crossing the 50% threshold required to win the leadership of the B.C. Liberal party — which he did on the fifth ballot —  Kevin Falcon had remained out of politics, when in 2013, he joined Vancouver-based Anthem Capital as their Executive Vice President.

Following Mr. Falcon’s win, Andrew Wilkinson — who had led the B.C. Liberals to ignominous defeat in the 2020 British Columbia election, his campaign for office dogged by allegations of lack of leadership, and anti-LGBTQ / anti-vax / anti-woman / eugenics sentiment of then Chilliwack-Kent B.C. Liberal candidate Laurie Throness — formally resigned as an MLA to free up his Vancouver-Quilchena seat  for Mr. Falcon. A by-election for the riding was called on April 2, 2022. Mr. Falcon won the by-election, and was elected riding MLA, taking his seat in the Legislature.

Perhaps the most transformative change western culture has experienced in the past two decades has arisen as a consequence of the critically important, the vital, the fundamental, the pivotal and the joyous, indispensable role men have now come to play as involved, utterly essential fathers in the lives of their children.


Clockwise from the top left: Scott Andrews, senior consultant at Earnscliffe Strategies; Derrick O’Keefe, journalist with Richochet Media; Gavin Dew, BC Conservative candidate for Kelowna-Mission, with his lovely wife, Erin, and their beautiful daughter and young son;  and Stephen von Zychowski, President of the Vancouver District & Labour Council, with daughter, Coraline (who he loves with all his heart).

The Kevin Falcon of 2024 is very much not the Kevin Falcon of 2001 thru 2013.

The Kevin Falcon of today is more forward and ‘future thinking’ than the Kevin Falcon of old — the pre-having-a-family Kevin Falcon — the Kevin Falcon we thought we all knew, but apparently did not, and the Kevin Falcon the B.C. Liberal party elected as the redemptive leader of the aimless, perhaps too regressive, ‘out of touch with the times’ B.C. Liberal party of 2022, the centre-right B.C. political party that had been so unceremoniously defeated in the 2020 B.C. election.


BC United leader Kevin Falcon, walking his beloved, cherished daughters, Rose & Josephine, to school

Today’s VanRamblings constitutes the first of a two-part series on the B.C. United leader, the second part of the series expressing why Kevin Falcon and B.C. United find themselves in the doldrums politically, seemingly on the verge of political oblivion come the evening of Saturday, October 19th, why the newly progressive, forward-and-future-thinking, newly-minted B.C. United leader believed it was of critical importance to excise a backward thinking, neanderthal member of the B.C. Liberal caucus — which is to say, current B.C. Conservative party leader, John Rustad, who Mr. Falcon could just not stomach — and the impact that decision has had on Mr. Falcon’s personal and political fortunes, and on the fortunes of the British Columbia political party he heads …  but for how much longer?

#BCPoli | Whither Now BC United Chief Kevin Falcon?

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Kevin Falcon currently sits in the British Columbia Legislature as BC United party Leader of the Loyal Opposition, to Premier David Eby’s BC NDP government.

As we wrote yesterday, Kevin Falcon’s BC United campaign for re-election is currently in the doldrums, with the very real prospect — if polls are to be believed — that BC United might very well be wiped off the political map this fall. In fact, VanRamblings has been told that Mr. Falcon is currently running (a distant) second to the BC Conservative’s Dallas Brodie in his home riding of Vancouver Quilchena.

This past Thursday, August 15th, federal Conservative / political observer / past Managing Editor at the Vancouver Sun / 2014 Vancouver NPA candidate for Mayor / former publisher-editor of Business in Vancouver, Kirk LaPointe, wrote a withering column titled,  Time for Kevin Falcon to Bid Adieu and Become B.C.’s Biden.

“Kevin Falcon is banking on having his Gordon Wilson moment — to ignite BC United as Wilson’s Leaders’ Debate performance did for the 1991 BC Liberals, rising above the onstage bickering of the NDP’s Mike Harcourt and the Social Credit’s Rita Johnson to deliver the famous line: ‘This reminds me of a couple of kids in a sandbox. I’m not interested in what happened 10 years ago; I’m interested in what happens tomorrow.’ Falcon should worry less about an upcoming debate and more about standing in the way of change.

Falcon’s party’s understandable bitterness about snatching defeat from the jaws of victory ought to be set aside if the BC United team is serious about ending the NDP reign. If it wants to oust government, it ought to lend its experienced election machinery to the party in the best position to properly optimize it in the approaching campaign.

But it depends on the guy at the top, the guy who must regret dispatching Rustad from BC United on his birthday two years ago — to do what in his heart he must know by now is best for B.C.

If he is interested in change, Kevin Falcon needs a Biden moment.”

In point of fact, not only have several sitting members of BC United deserted the party (Lorne Doerkson, Elenore Sturko, Teresa Wat), the staff responsible for running BC United’s election campaign have also been leaving the party in droves.

Again, as we wrote yesterday, word from BC Conservative sources is that Kevin Falcon will, indeed, experience his Joe Biden moment, and resign as leader of BC United before month’s end, caving into pressure from all quarters, not to mention the pragmatism of acknowledging polling over the months that has BC United being obliterated at the polls this upcoming October.

As we wrote yesterday, we don’t believe this “speculation” / wishful thinking.

Why not?


BC United caucus members, l-r: Trevor Halford, Todd Stone, Shirley Bond, Mike Bernier, Coralee Oakes

For a start, the remaining MLAs in the BC United caucus running for re-election under the party’s banner — Todd Stone and Peter Milobar in Kamloops, Shirley Bond in Prince George, Coralee Oakes in Prince George Cariboo-North, Mike Bernier in Peace River South, Dan Davies in Peace River North, Tom Shypitka in Kootenay-Rockies, Jackie Tegart in Fraser-Nicola, Ian Paton in Delta South, and Trevor Halford in Surrey-White Rock — would be left high and dry if BC United were to fold their tent (given that the BC Conservatives have already nominated candidates in each of those ridings), a Kevin Falcon decision to step down as leader would serve to create chaos in the lives of the loyal BC United caucus members who are running for re-election, effectively snuffing out their chance at another term in the BC Legislature, not to mention their political careers and aspirations.

In addition, let us not forget the remaining 87 members of the BC United team running for election under the BC United banner in ridings across our province.

BC United enters the campaign as the second most well-funded campaign, just behind the BC NDP, and miles ahead of the BC Conservatives. Anything can happen during the course of the upcoming 28-day British Columbia election campaign. Kevin Falcon and BC United could very well experience a Lazurus or Phoenix-like re-birth, arising from the dead to fight another day for their principles, as duly elected members in good standing, in the British Columbia Legislature.

VanRamblings will have more to say about Kevin Falcon — of a kindly and generous nature — in the days to come. To be quite honest, we are flummoxed that Kevin Falcon, once a celebrated member of Gordon Campbell’s B.C. Liberal caucus, a builder of the first order, a relatively non-partisan happy warrior in Campbell’s government, who was always prepared to work across the aisle, has fallen on such hard times politically. We’ll write about that grievous circumstance another day.


Bill Tieleman, a VanRamblings neighbour and friend, great chef and oenophile, and all around good guy

Note: VanRamblings’ friend, Bill Tieleman, an all around good guy, one of the most authentic and humane men, not to mention a well-informed and principled politico, and just darn good human being, which is to say, one of the best humans of our acquaintance, now or ever — informs us that in point of fact, the Writ will be dropped on September 21st, not September 14th, as we wrote earlier (we thought there’d be a 35-day election period … apparently not … woe is us … alas).