B.C. United leader Kevin Falcon's announcement that the party would be suspending its campaign for the Oct. 19 provincial election has sent shock waves through the ranks of United candidates across Greater Victoria.
Falcon made the announcement Wednesday, Aug. 28, unveiling his plan to merge B.C. United with the B.C. Conservatives less than two months from the provincial election, a move that came as news to the party's Greater Victoria candidates.
Meagan Brame, former Esquimalt councillor and B.C. United candidate for Esquimalt-Colwood, said she was disappointed and felt disrespected that she heard the news from a friend, rather than the party itself.
"I'm really bummed now that I'm not going to find out whether or not we could have done it," she told Black Press Media, expressing her graditude for her campaign team and volunteers. "Now I'm trying to figure out what I'm going to do with 100 signs, like what the hell do I do with all this stuff now."
The longtime childcare advocate said she closed her business, Saxe Point Day Care, to run, and she has been "unemployed for the first time in 36 years." She plans to take some time off before reassessing her future.
Like Brame, B.C. United’s Langford-Highlands candidate Sean Flynn was “taken aback” when he heard about Falcon’s arrangement with Conservative leader John Rustad.
“Nobody knew about this; nobody knew it was coming. This was a deal done at the stroke of midnight,” he said. “A lot of us were surprised because we were hoping we would be a little more involved in the conversation.”
Flynn, a Royal Canadian Navy veteran who lives in Langford with his wife and three sons, was frustrated by the news.
“A lot of us have worked hard, a lot of us have good support, and we were working our best to spread B.C. United’s message," he said.
Despite these feelings, he backs Falcon’s move.
“I’ve already come out publicly in support of Kevin Falcon and his decision because I think, overall, the right choice for B.C. is to get rid of a government that has devastated B.C. and the economy here for far too long,” he said.
Open to running in Langford-Highlands as a Conservative candidate, Flynn said he would also consider doing so in another south Island district, despite acknowledging his values don’t fully align with those the Conservatives have espoused.
“I believe in a lot of things that I don’t think resonate with some of their current membership, but that’s OK,” he said. “True diversity is a difference of ideology and opinion amongst people, and having that inside the party is really healthy.”
Flynn is an independent defence contractor, and works at CFB Esquimalt to organize war games that help sailors prepare for conflicts. He also runs a cryptocurrency startup company called RWD Capital, which he founded in 2022.
That means he has plenty to keep him busy while he waits for a call from Falcon, which Flynn expects will detail whether he will be able to run in the upcoming election.
Herb Haldane, B.C. United’s pick for Juan-de Fuca-Malahat, first heard about the arrangement from the NDP’s Ravi Parmar, the MLA for Langford-Juan de Fuca.
“I don’t agree Rustad is the guy, he’s not my guy, but I’m willing to do what it takes to switch up the government,” Haldane said in an interview, noting he’s willing to step back if someone is better positioned to beat the NDP.
He hasn’t yet been approached to officially take over as the sole candidate. But as someone who has lived in the riding most of his life, who has lots of family and friends there and who has been an active volunteer with a number of community groups, he made his position clear.
“I think by far I’m the best candidate for my riding,” Haldane said, calling his Conservative opponent in Juan-de Fuca-Malahat an anti-vaxxer.
Haldane said he’s a bipartisan guy and he tries to stay in the political centre so he can understand where people come from.
“I don’t want to be somebody who pushes hard right or hard left, I just don’t think it works.”
At this point though, he doesn’t know if he’d entertain running for the Conservatives if the parties did ask him to take over the spot. With an unfilled federal Conservative candidacy in his riding and the possibility of running for Sooke council again, Haldane said he’s still weighing his options.
But he added people are going to get dismayed at the political system if grassroots supporters and their opinions are thrown out when “the party elite” decide to go another way.
“Most people, especially the ones who have been helping me out, think I’m the best candidate and the one who has the best chance of getting elected.”
Justin Leifso, a political science professor at the University of Victoria, says though the timing and circumstances of the announcement came as a surprise, it may not have a large impact on the election.
"It's not very common that political parties just decide to shut it all down, but not completely uncommon" he said.
He compared the situation to Alberta where in 2017, the Wildrose Party merged with the Progressive Conservatives to become the United Conservative Party after the NDP won the 2015 election. However, the merger was after the election, rather than just weeks before.
"A party deciding to cease operations like six or seven weeks before an election, that's pretty wild," he said.
B.C. United voters probably won't flock to vote for the Conservatives, he said, but it could help solidify the popular vote in already Conservative ridings, and it could help in some swing ridings as well.
"[I don't think this is] a game changer in terms of 'is Eby in trouble here,'" he said. "I think the effect on the election is unlikely to be significant, but I also don't think this is great news for the NDP."
The party is not completely dissolved though, he said, and the party will still be a legal entity until they go through the dissolution process.
"What the leader, Kevin Falcon, seems to have done is come up with a way of effectively doing it without having to go through those formal processes," he said. "So effectively ending the purpose of the party without [dissolving it]. I assume at some point they'll go through the sort of legal formal processes of folding the party."
