Advance polls in B.C. began Friday through to Wednesday, ahead of election day on Oct. 24, without a released costed platform from the B.C. Conservatives.
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British Columbians have started voting in the provincial election through advance polls, running from Friday to Wednesday, Oct. 24.
The B.C. Conservatives have not yet released a costed platform, and interim leader Lorne Doerkson said he has seen it and expects it to be announced “imminently.”
Doerkson, speaking at a Metro Vancouver campaign stop in Port Moody on Friday, said he wants to ensure the party will not promise anything it “can’t make happen.”
He said he is working on the platform “but I want it to be right,” adding that he wants the numbers to be accurate and that the commitments in the platform can be achieved.
Doerkson previously said British Columbians would see a “fulsome plan” before voters go to the polls. He also argued his party is avoiding the type of broken promises he attributed to the New Democrats in the last election, when, he said, plans such as a doctor for every resident who wants one and a $1,000 rebate did not happen and the deficit is now $14 billion.
During the same Friday campaign period, Doerkson said the Conservatives would double down on building a women’s and children’s hospital in Surrey and scrapping the Massey Tunnel replacement between Delta and Richmond in favour of a bridge.
He also said the Conservatives would cut income taxes by up to $1,000 a year “for nearly every working British Columbian,” criticizing the former NDP government on emergency department wait times, affordability, and issues facing small businesses.
In response, New Democrat leader David Eby, speaking at a campaign stop nearby in Coquitlam, said the Conservatives are unwilling to share their plans for cuts by not releasing a costed platform.
Eby said the Conservatives’ promises would cost $5 billion and that they have not explained how they would pay for it.
Eby also criticized a Conservative candidate in Juan de Fuca-Malahat after footage appeared to show Mike Hicks discussing the need “to conquer or sign a treaty” with First Nations. Hicks said his comments were being taken “out of context.”
The Conservatives also removed candidate Jordan McIntosh from Vancouver-Strathcona a day earlier for alleged online comments about Hitler and the Holocaust.
Later in the day, Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, president of the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs, endorsed Green Party leader Emily Lowan in the Saanich North and the Islands riding. Phillip later said he is endorsing Eby as “the best choice as leader of this province.”
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