Todd Stone (image credit - BC Legislature/Hansard)

By Michael Reeve

BC POLITICS

Legislature returns Tuesday with BC United eyeing cost of living challenges

Sep 29, 2023 | 4:05 PM

KAMLOOPS — Next week, the B.C. legislature will return for the first sitting of the fall session. Since the legislature was last underway, the province has suffered the worst wildfire season in history and seen the provincial deficit grown by $2.5 billion.

The months-long break has also seen the BC United party begin to slip in the polls, now running nearly neck-and-neck with the BC Conservatives, and trailing the governing New Democrats. Despite the figures, Kamloops-South Thompson MLA and Opposition House Leader Todd Stone is not overly concerned.

“The only party that is positioned to be the next government, the only other coalition party that can win in the Lower Mainland, win the Interior, is BC United. After the next election, there are only two people, one of whom will be the next premier of British Columbia. It’s either David Eby or BC United Leader Kevin Falcon. Our job is to do all that heavy lifting between now and then to make sure British Columbians know what we stand for. I’m very, very confident in our chances. I don’t put much faith in any of the polls as of today,” said Stone.

The cost of living will be the theme of the fall sitting for Stone and his party as they focus on the rising cost of inflation across the province. The local MLA states the rising costs are another failure of David Eby’s government.

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“We are going to be asking a lot of really focused questions of David Eby and the NDP and make them explain to British Columbians how they could have so utterly failed over the last six years on their signature commitment to British Columbians in two successive provincial elections, and that was to make life more affordable. The complete opposite has happened in our province,” added Stone.