BC United Leader, Kevin Falcon speaks during a news conference in Surrey, B.C., on June 26. British Columbia's Opposition BC United says it wants to include the party's previous Liberal name on the fall election ballot after internal polling shows up to 30 per cent of people didn't know the party changed its name more than a year ago. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ethan Cairns

VICTORIA - British Columbia's Opposition BC United is looking to put its previous Liberal name on the upcoming fall provincial election ballot after internal polling shows 30 per cent of people didn't know the party was renamed, says a party director.

The party is preparing to formally apply to Elections BC to have a phrase acknowledging that it was formally known as the B.C. Liberals included on the BC United ballot for the Oct. 19 election, Adam Wilson, the party's communications director, said Wednesday in an interview.

BC United changed its name in April 2023 in a membership vote after Leader Kevin Falcon said a change would fuel party renewal and end long-standing concerns about links to the federal Liberals by its Conservative supporters.

The former B.C. Liberal Party was not affiliated with the federal Liberals or Conservatives.

"We conducted a poll of British Columbians over the last week and we found that 30 per cent of the respondents did not know that the B.C. Liberal Party had become BC United," said Wilson. "So, that's where the change is stemming from."

Wilson said he would not release the complete polling data.

Falcon said the party hasn't officially applied to make the ballot name change, but is looking to move that way to ease voter confusion about political parties in B.C.

The confusion also involves voters who mistakenly believe the B.C. Conservatives led by John Rustad are representatives of the federal Conservatives led by Pierre Poilievre, he said in an interview from Kelowna.

"It's a move driven by data because we've been surveying and when we're out there surveying the public, one of the things we're finding is half the public think John Rustad's party is Pierre Poilievre's party and then we've got 30 per cent of the public that are B.C. Liberal supporters who don't realize we're called BC United."

Falcon said he still believes that changing the name from B.C. Liberals to BC United was the right thing to do, but the party has to make sure voters know "BC United is the provincial Liberal government that governed the province very successfully for 16 years."

Wilson said BC United, which has yet to formally apply to Elections BC to include the Liberal name on the ballot, also believes voters may need a reminder of the party's recent past.

"We still have almost one-third of British Columbians unaware that the party that was the B.C. Liberal Party, the party that built the Sea-to-Sky Highway, built the William R. Bennett Bridge, built the Port Mann Bridge, that they've changed their name to become BC United," said Wilson.

Elections BC said in a statement it has yet to receive a formal request from BC United to change how its name is listed on the ballot.

The statement said Elections BC, the independent, non-partisan office of the legislature responsible for administering electoral processes in B.C., will review formal applications to change ballot names under Election Act requirements.

The Election Act does not specifically prohibit a party from listing its former name on a ballot, said the statement.

But Wesley MacInnis, an Elections BC communications adviser, said in a statement the office recently rejected an application by an individual wanting to register a party with the name BC Liberals.

"We informed them that this application would be rejected because the Election Act prohibits the registration of a party name that is likely to be confused with another party currently registered or that was registered at any time during the previous 10 years," said MacInnis. "The BC United Party currently has the name BC Liberal Party registered as one of its other names."

Surrey resident Vikram Bajwa, who launched a failed B.C. Supreme Court challenge in February 2022 to delay announcing the winner of the former B.C. Liberal Party leadership vote by 15 days over party audit result concerns, said in an email he applied to register the BC Liberals name with Elections BC but was rejected.

Wilson said including the former Liberal name on the fall ballot may help voters make their choice and could increase current polling numbers, which show BC United well behind the New Democrats and B.C. Conservatives.

Former Liberal cabinet minister Mary Polak said the party's name-change considerations indicates deep concerns about the coming election.

"Clearly, they're worried about it," she said. "Their latest thinking about asking Elections BC is, I guess, what we would call a kind of a Prince move isn't it?"

Prince, the late world-renowned musician, changed his name to a symbol in the 1990s during a dispute with his record company and became known as "the artist formerly known as Prince."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 31, 2024.

News from © The Canadian Press, 2024