B.C. Conservative Leader John Rustad, back right, and B.C. NDP Leader David Eby, front left, sit at the same table before speaking during a Greater Vancouver Board of Trade event, in Vancouver, on Wednesday, October 2, 2024. Leaders of the B.C. NDP and the B.C. Conservatives will be on Vancouver Island today for campaign events on the last day of advanced voting before British Columbia's provincial election on Saturday. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

NDP Leader David Eby is accusing B.C. Conservative Leader John Rustad of planning an "American-style" user-pays health care system for British Columbia as the provincial election campaign enters its latest stages.

All three leaders of the province's main political parties have converged on Vancouver Island in the final stage of campaigning before election day on Saturday, with record numbers of voters already casting their ballots in advance polling.

Eby told a campaign event in Nanaimo that Rustad presents a "risk" to the health care system and he would let people "buy their way to the front of the line."

Rustad released his party's platform on Tuesday, which makes no mention of a user-pays health care model and instead promises a single-payer system delivering care through public and non-governmental facilities.

But the NDP has released an audio recording of Rustad at an event they say happened in August where he can be heard calling the Canadian Health Act "silly" for not allowing for user-pays health care, and that "hopefully, one day we'll get some changes there."

Elections BC says more than 181,000 people voted on Tuesday, breaking a record set on the first day of voting last week.

The election office says 778,000 people had already voted ahead of today's final day of advance voting.

Rustad also had campaign events scheduled in Nanaimo for Wednesday, while Green Party Leader Sonia Furstenau was in Victoria.

The NDP has long regarded the island as a stronghold, but Rustad has said he regards it as winnable territory, while both of the Greens' two current seats are on the island.

Eby will also be travelling the island for campaign events in Ladysmith, Duncan and Victoria, while Rustad will be spending much of the day in Nanaimo where he also has an evening campaign rally at a hotel.

British Columbians finally saw the B.C. Conservatives' platform costings on Tuesday, which Rustad said would result in a deficit nearing $11 billion in the first year of government.

That is more than either the NDP or Greens forecast under their costings, and Rustad said he would balance the books some time in his second term with help from a predicted 5.4 per cent annual economic growth.

Rustad said his platform would get the provincial economy growing with strategic new spending, the reallocation of wasteful NDP funding to priority areas, a core review and audit of NDP spending, including a revision of current and planned government capital projects.

He called the NDP's spending "reckless" and said the government had "spent a lot on ideology."

The NDP said Rustad's costings, released four days before election day, meant he would have to "cut supports for people" and he was "making it up as he goes along."

Furstenau said Rustad was relying on "magical thinking" by predicting 5.4 per cent growth, "without any plan on how to achieve this."

The NDP and Green platforms would both boost the deficit by about $2.9 billion in the first year, resulting in a $9.6 billion budget shortfall.

The BC Teachers’ Federation and the Canadian Union of Public Employees British Columbia released a joint letter to members on Wednesday, encouraging them to vote NDP.

In the letter, BCTF President Clint Johnston and CUPE BC President Karen Ranalletta say that Rustad has "demonstrated a lack of respect" for the public school system.

“When we look at the platforms of the parties seeking to govern our province, we are encouraged to see three significant commitments in the BC NDP platform that we think are game changers," it said.

This, the letter said, includes Eby's promises of having a full-time counsellor in every school, an education assistant in every K-3 classroom and public delivery of affordable before and after-school care in every district.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 16, 2024.

News from © The Canadian Press, 2024