File Photo (Image Credit: CFJC Today)

By Jill Sperling

Election Talk

Political parties ready themselves should a snap election be called

Sep 11, 2020 | 4:29 PM

KAMLOOPS — The rumblings that Premier John Horgan is planning to call an election this fall isn’t sitting well with some.

Currently, the next election is scheduled to take place in October of 2021. Should a snap election be called, political parties will have a limited amount of time to select and ready their candidates.

“Nobody in British Columbia wants an election, apparently except for John Horgan and his back room cronies,” said Kamloops-South Thompson Liberal MLA Todd Stone.

Stone says he wants to see the government focus on economic recovery, safety and health as both the global pandemic and opioid crisis continue.

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“It would be highly regrettable and frankly irresponsible, I think, of the premier to call an early election in the context of COVID still hanging over everyone’s heads and all of the concerns and the circumstances that British Columbians are grappling with right now that require government’s attention and frankly all of us in elected office,” Stone said.

In 2017, the Green Party supported the NDP to form a minority government. Former Green Party candidate Dan Hines says there was always a sense that a snap election could happen.

“We were sort of at a place where we thought that this government’s serving us well,” he said, “so why wouldn’t we just continue on? But, if an election does get called, of course we’re going to have to ramp up and get ready for it.”

Hines, who ran in the Kamloops-North Thompson riding during the last provincial election, says he would be open to the opportunity to run again.

“The best we can really do is say we’re willing to serve and then it’s really up to the local association to decide who’s the best candidate to come forward,” Hines said.

The NDP’s Kamloops-North Thompson constituency president Rick Turner is hopeful the government’s reaction to COVID-19 will see an NDP MLA elected in Kamloops.

“People are really impressed with the job Premier Horgan, Dr. Bonnie Henry and Adrian Dix have done,” Turner said. “So, we think that’s going to give us a lot of momentum in running against the Liberal candidate in Kamloops-North Thompson.”

Should an election be called, campaigning would take a different shape as the COVID-19 pandemic would prevent many in-person interactions.