The Provincial picture is less clear. Under current interim leader Trevor Halford, the BC Conservative trail the David Eby led NDP by almost 2 points. 38.6% to 36.8%. When testing potential BC Conservative leadership candidates, each of Elliott, Black, Findlay and Milobar lead the NDP but only Peter Milobar would result in a clear majority BC Conservative majority.
This doesn’t look like the voter motivator we’re hoping to get out of the leadership contest.
The BC Conservatives under Rustad basically rode in under novelty in 2024. There’s a sense of weariness of the Eby government and a mix of credible and meritless reasons to not like him.
We’ll see if it’s possible for the BC Con caucus to elect a remotely “normal” person and not a fanatic, then the NDP will be under a big threat in the next election, despite Conservatives’ internal divisions and fringe elements.
For the BC-NDP, they are doing some things right, but I think I’m not the only supporter that wants to see more and bolder action in the face of adverse times, instead of holding onto the status quo. For example the time change is a small cost, mostly political, but was a big step towards making BC better for its own sake regardless of the lethargy of outside governments. Just because we’re years from an election and dealing with the sensitive Cowichan issue, doesn’t mean Eby should stop our big talk and big walk on doing big things for British Columbia.