Kevin Falcon speaks during a news conference in Vancouver, B.C., on Thursday April 14, 2011.

Image Credit: THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

We’re about a year away from some major changes to the political landscape in the Okanagan, Kelowna specifically.

Already we know MLAs Ben Stewart and Norm Letnick won’t be returning. Steve Thomson retired long ago, leaving Renee Merrifield as our most senior provincial representative, lord help us all, and there’s no guarantee she’ll get in again.

Bold words perhaps, considering the BC Liberals, now BC United, have dominated Thompson-Okanagan ridings since before Bill Clinton took office.

But we have arrived at a different time and place.

Marshall Jones, managing editor

The party has a new name and lost recognition. The NDP, particularly under Premier David Eby, has been shockingly competent. BC United can’t seem to make any gains and has the Conservative Party hot on its heels. The party has taken the Okanagan for granted and Merrifield’s performance so far as MLA won’t scare anyone away.

These factors put the Okanagan at risk, and if the Okanagan is at risk, the party is headed to oblivion.

It’s entirely understandable why they changed their name. BC Liberal Party carries the stink of Trudeau’s federal Liberals, always unpopular in the west, more so now, and Liberal was perhaps never a great name for the so-called “free enterprise coalition” in the first place.

BC United has been in opposition for two terms now and whether it’s Kevin Falcon as leader or Andrew Wilkinson, they’re getting nowhere. When the NDP got so old and jaded in the late ‘90s, Gordon Campbell's Liberal opposition was dunking on the scandal-plagued government daily for years before trouncing the NDP. The 2023 United team is more like the Nerdlucks to their old ‘90s Monstars (for all you Space Jam fans out there). 

To their credit, I suppose, the NDP hasn’t made it easy. The only real scandals are still cleaning up the messes left from the last BC Liberal government. Eby is on a fairy-tale run, the kind of premier I appreciate. He’s never had to campaign as leader to lower his credibility, I suspect he's not very good at it. He was a very capable minister who succeeded John Horgan and that meant he could just — and this is going to sound crazy — do what needs to be done. He inherited a stable popularity and has a mandate for action. As I have said before, he just has to get it done.

Yet there are flames to be fanned. Yes, Eby is finally doing something about the homeless crisis and the overdose crisis, but it’s been messy. BC Housing has been burning taxpayer money like it's a bonfire and we haven’t had much success stemming those overdose deaths. The BC United response has been uninspiring at best.

Meanwhile, the very notion on who is a conservative voter has changed. How many have moved further right since Covid? Is free enterprise even important conservative voters wearing freedom-coloured glasses anyway? The BC Conservatives have been courting those voters — heck, many horn-blowing, freedom-confused flag-wavers are expected on the ballot. It's basically the People's Party of BC. Merrifield’s basic batshittery on this subject was ridiculous, but she looks positively well-researched and knowledgeable compared to the Conservatives.

And the Conservatives have been polling neck-and-neck with BC United for months.

Meanwhile, the party dithers. Tomorrow’s candidate selection for Kelowna-Lake Country-Coldstream riding features… well, no offence, but a bunch of people you've never heard of before. Rookies. And why would rookies think they can step up and be an effective MLA with zero experience? I can only presume a bit of arrogance and entitlement to a seat once still thought to be a guaranteed win.

They’ve thus far spent the local campaign fighting not about affordability or homelessness or carbon taxes or opioid deaths. Nope, what they keep coming to me with is complaints that teams are stacking the internal party vote with young people and permanent residents who can’t even vote in the election.

This will be about rewarding party loyalists, not choosing a strong candidate who can and will win the seat and not just ride party coattails to victory.

The race once had several higher profile candidates. Why did they all pull out? Do they see this coming too?

The wildcard, in Kelowna at least, is the mopey NDP in the area. To the absolute, complete credit of BC United, it has been upfront about its candidates race. They don’t have to talk about this stuff at all. Riding associations tend to like it quiet and inside. If the NDP has a ground game at all, it’s invisible, as it has for years. There’s no excitement about their choice in candidate, they won’t even engage on the process. The NDP has never had a solid candidate here. Should they find their way to it, as well as some vitality in a campaign I have never seen here, they could be in the drivers seat.

Liberal/United has often won an actual majority — more than 50 per cent of votes. But calve off a healthy split for the Conservatives and there’s a clear lane to the net for the NDP.

That's sort of what happened in Vernon in the last election. Liberal Eric Foster was wholly unpopular and the Conservatives ran a strong campaign. Harwinder Sandhu profited from the split.

I mentioned this topic in our awesome newsletter and the response I got is no more encouraging for BC United. Of the dozen or so responses, not one backed the party. Including Steven Penner from Kamloops who closes this column with his reason.

"I’ve voted BC Liberal previously, but there is a problem now they are BC United. See, I’m a massive Liverpool FC supporter. Manchester United are the enemy! So this may sound trivial to non-football fans, but I’m in no way ever voting for a party called anything United. I’ll bet most other supporters feel the same. I could never wash my hands clean enough if I ever did that.

Political parties come and go, but with Liverpool FC, est 1892, You’ll Never Walk Alone! (Unless Marshall, you are a United supporter. In that case, good day, sir…)"

— Marshall Jones is the Managing Editor of iNFOnews.ca

We welcome your comments and opinions on our stories but play nice. We won't censor or delete comments unless they contain off-topic statements or links, unnecessary vulgarity, false facts, spam or obviously fake profiles. If you have any concerns about what you see in comments, email the editor.

News from © iNFOnews, 2023