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VERNON - The B.C. Conservatives are plotting a comeback, and the tight results of the recent election have fast-tracked those plans.

While the party only ran 10 candidates this past election, B.C. Conservative director Scott Anderson says they intend to run a full slate in the next election.

If the results of the recent election hold and there is a minority government, it’s possible there will be another election in two years.

“It’s good for us, because we are already in the process of rebuilding. Now we step it up and make our presence known,” Anderson says.

Anderson says the party will be holding meetings in May and June in the North Okanagan to prepare.

In the 2013 election, the Conservatives ran 56 candidates across the province, and earned around 10 to 12 per cent of the vote in the Okanagan and Shuswap specifically.

With Conservative candidates absent from most ridings in the recent election, Anderson says many voters cast their votes elsewhere. Anecdotally, he says some members voted strategically for the NDP, some aligned themselves with the Liberals, and many went with the Green Party.

“A lot of B.C. Conservatives are parking their votes with the Greens because they’re not a threat, and it’s not the NDP or the Liberals,” he says.

Anderson believes there is appetite among B.C. voters for a party like the Conservatives.

“I think the Liberals have outlived their welcome and the NDP has not changed for decades,” Anderson says.

While support for the Conservative Party has been dominated by an older demographic in the past, Anderson says younger people are finding the party appealing.

“What we’re finding nowadays is, especially with millennials, there seems to be a great deal of interest in small-c conservatism, as there also is in the Greens,” Anderson says.

While some people think of the Liberals as a fairly conservative leaning party, Anderson says they are very different from each other. One main difference is the Conservatives would get rid of the B.C. carbon tax.

“B.C. Liberals are not at all small-c conservative. They pretend to be when it comes to election time but the ministries are top heavy, they are ineffective particularly in medicine and health care,” Anderson says. “We are for a streamlining of the bureaucracy and regulations where appropriate and certainly more for resource development.”

Anyone interested in getting involved with the Conservative Party — in any riding — can get in touch with Anderson directly at 250-540-2333.

— Scott Anderson is a Vernon city councillor and writes a column for iNFOnews.ca. 

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