The long-ago promised BC United candidate for West Vancouver-Sea to Sky will not be eventuating, after party leader Kevin Falcon announced the withdrawal of the party from the coming election and his retirement from politics in what landed as a bombshell development on August 28.
The agreement, between Falcon’s BC United and John Rustad’s BC Conservatives ensures that the next MLA for West Vancouver-Sea to Sky will hail from a new party, after decades of representation by BC United under its previous name, the BC Liberal Party all the way back to 1991 by five MLAs.
Despite incumbent MLA, Jordan Sturdy revealing he would be retiring at the next election at the beginning of 2024, the party’s search for a replacement candidate did not appear to gain any traction in the months afterwards, before Falcon’s deal signalled the end of the party entirely.
Falcon told Pique the party would nominate a candidate within 45 days of a March 7 interview, while Sturdy said there was a candidate going through the process as recently as August 13.
Of the three candidates currently vying to replace Sturdy, reactions that a BC United challenger would not eventuate were mixed, with NDP candidate Jen Ford telling Pique it was “hard to say” whether she was surprised at all — a reaction that lines up with previous comments on the party’s poor polling.
Regardless of her thoughts on BC United, she was swift in turning all her attention on the BC Conservatives, who have now been officially endorsed by Kevin Falcon as the party to take on the NDP.
“Voters I talk to want a government focused on their priorities—housing, affordability and healthcare,” she said.
“Not the weird conspiracy theories of John Rustad’s team. Still less do they want to go back to the kind of back room deals that Rustad was part of in Christy Clark’s cabinet.”
Green candidate Jeremy Valeriote almost took West Vancouver-Sea to Sky from BC United in 2020, coming within 60 votes of earning the party a riding on the mainland.
He came into the campaign touting that close victory and pushing to get across the line in a second campaign, and with BC United gone, he reacted by saying the party had done voters “a favour.”
“By standing aside Kevin Falcon has demonstrated that there was no real difference between his party and the BC Conservatives,” he said in an email to Pique.
“The choice for people here is between the progressive BC Greens, and John Rustad's disaffected former BC Liberals who tried to distinguish themselves by adopting climate change-denial, homophobia and transphobia.”
Given that at the last election, the combined Green and NDP vote on the centre-left was significantly larger than the sole party on the centre-right, the BC Liberals, it comes as no surprise that Valeriote saved some shade for the NDP.
“On the other hand David Eby’s NDP, which may still win the provincial race, has never been competitive in this riding, usually placing third,” he said.
“The BC NDP are unwilling to act on the values they claim to uphold, failing to address climate change, and instead pushing Woodfibre LNG and other fossil fuel projects. And they’ve spent more money than any other BC government while basic services have deteriorated and inequality has worsened.”
The new party on the block, the BC Conservatives, most recently nominated Yuri Fulmer to contest the seat on their behalf. With BC United gone, he has the potential to stand as the sole centre-right candidate in the riding, as appears to be the intention of the deal between Falcon and Rustad.
With that in mind his comments to Pique were focused on thanking Falcon for taking BC United off the field.
"I would like to thank both Kevin Falcon, and MLA Jordan Sturdy for their service to the Province and I ask everyone to join me in wishing them well in this next stage in their life journey,” he said in a statement to Pique.
“For me, nothing has changed. I will continue to work each day to listen to your concerns and to earn your vote. The team and I welcome all former BC United members to join our coalition to fight the NDP and bring common sense back to government."
Sturdy, who remains the MLA for West Vancouver-Sea to Sky, has not responded to queries as of writing.
