File photo (image credit - CFJC Today)

By Michael Reeve

BC ELECTION 2024

B.C’s centre-right party leaders jostle for votes on key policy differences

May 30, 2024 | 5:30 PM

KAMLOOPS — When British Columbians head to the polls in October, there will be two right-of-centre political parties vying for their vote. They will choose between current official opposition and former BC Liberals — now rebranded as BC United under leader Kevin Falcon — and the upstart BC Conservative party led by former United MLA John Rustad. It will likely come down to policy differences to decide which party secures the right-leaning vote this fall.

One of the reasons Rustad is currently leading the BC Conservatives is because he was removed from the BC United caucus by Falcon for his views on climate change.

“Climate change is real. Climate change is happening but we have a premier today that believes that taxing people into poverty will change the weather and that is a completely false narrative,” Rustad told CFJC Today earlier this week.. “It is ludicrous to think you can tax people to change the weather. That is why we want to get rid of (the carbon tax). But as the Conservative Party, what we want to focus on, quite frankly, is how we adapt to our changing climate.”

Falcon highlighted the need for LNG production and how provincially, the government’s hands are tied with the carbon tax. If it was to eliminate it, the federal government would step in with its own.

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“We would eliminate (the carbon tax) from the fuel sector for the ranchers and farmers. We would stop any further increases — and if the federal government changes and Pierre Poilievre gets elected and gets rid of the federal carbon tax, the provincial one goes, too. But in the meantime, what we are saying is we would eliminate provincial fuel taxes all together,” said Falcon.

It’s possible the October election will be won on the backs of a plan to deal with street issues currently plaguing every corner of B.C. With David Eby recently relenting on the NDP’s decriminalization policy, there is an opportunity for opposition parties to present their solutions to voters.

“We need to be able to have safe places for people to be but what we should be doing with places, for example safe injection sites, is turn them into recovery intake sites,” stated Rustad. “We have to have a much heavier focus on recovery. Everything from doctor-prescribed treatment, to short-term recovery, to long-term recovery, to mandatory recovery and even to long-term care.”

“We are going to change the way we deal with addictions,” offered Falcon. “This government’s approach is to provide publicly supplied addictive drugs — whether it is cocaine, fentanyl, whatever the case may be, hydromorphone. That is unacceptable. What we say is we are going to focus on free treatment, not free drugs. We are going to help people get better. That is going to be the primary focus of government.”

Both leaders stated they would hire back unvaccinated health care workers if elected, however Rustad went further, relating the current policies in B.C. to North Korea.

“That, by itself, is not going to completely stabilize the system but it will help. Particularly in small communities, it will help very significantly. But there is a lot more that needs to happen in terms of health care and changes in health care. There is only one jurisdiction in the world that even comes close to following the model that we use and that’s North Korea. And I’m sorry, that’s not a very good example that we should be thinking about,” Rustad told CFJC News.

“We are in the midst of a healthcare crisis and it is atrocious that we remain the only jurisdiction in all of North America that hasn’t returned healthcare workers back into our system,” said Falcon. “And I think that the NDP’s and (Provincial Health Officer) Dr. Bonnie Henry’s position on this is just appalling because it is not backed up by any credible science that they can point to and that undermines public trust.”

British Columbians are scheduled to head to the polls on October 19.