The writ dropped earlier today, and, no surprise, there are already two candidates in Peace River South.
The first is incumbant Mike Bernier, running as an independant after BC United Leader Kevin Falcon pulled the party from this election without warning on August 28, throwing his support behind the BC Conservative Party.
Some members of BC United went over to the Conservatives, but in many ridings—including Peace River South—there was already a candidate running for the Conservatives.
And so Bernier and former North Peace BC United candidate Dan Davis decided to run as independants.
Adding to the confusion, after declaring that they would run candidates in this election to maintain party status, and fielding seven candidates who are currently registered with elections BC, the party has reversed course and on September 20, announced they’re not running any candidates, leaving it up in the air what will happen to folks like Jonathan Coleman, who is currently on the ballot for the party in the Cowichan Valley.
They have one week to figure it out, as the call for candidate closes on September 28 at 1 pm.
The other provincial parties have the same amount of time to field candidates in the historically conservative South Peace.
There are 93 seats up for grabs in the next election. So far, the NDP have candidates in 89 ridings,while the Conservatives have candidates in 79 ridings.
In addition to the BC NDP and BC Conservative parties, there are ten other officially registered political parties in BC, from the Green Party to the Christian Heritage Party, and from the Communist Party of BC to the “Party of Citizens Who Have Decided To Think For Ourselves And Be Our Own Politicians” Party, who have no declared candidates.
So far, only three parties other than the BC NDP, BC United and BC Conservatives have fielded candidates. The BC Greens currently have 20 candidates across the province, the BC Freedom Party has two, and the Christian Heritage Party, one.
Indeed, the largest selection of candidates in this election outside of the two frontrunners are the ones choosing to run as independant (22 candidates) or unaffiliated (nine candidates), many—though not all—former BC United members.
Trent is the publisher of Tumbler RidgeLines.
