The Oct. 19 B.C. provincial election proved that the province is still divided relatively evenly between left and right.
This is nothing new, even though much of the debate these days is about the meteoric rise of the B.C. Conservative Party. And while the rise of the B.C. Conservative Party – specifically – is meteoric, it would be a mistake to equate it to a meteoric rise in small-c conservative support.
That hasn't changed much in many years – with fluctuations, of course.
That's because a conservative party has always been a big player in B.C. politics. It's just been known by different names. For the longest time it was Social Credit, more recently, it's been the B.C. Liberal Party, which, you have to understand, was not a liberal party at all, it was politically conservative. That's why the B.C. Liberals changed their name to B.C. United. "Rebranded" as they say but far too late. They should have re-branded years ago. I always considered the B.C. Liberals operating under that name as fraudulent. They were not liberals.
The political right in B.C. has always been a big player in the province. The right has held power in the B.C. Legislature for the majority of the last three-quarters of a century, while the NDP and the left have spent most of that time in opposition.
The right in this province has always coalesced under a banner of convenience to keep the socialist hordes at bay. As I mentioned, for decades in the latter half of the last century, it was the B.C. Social Credit Party that manned the barricades for the longest time under the leadership of W.A.C. "Whacky" Bennett and then later under his son Bill Bennett. Social Credit ruled this province for all but three years between 1952 and 1991. The three-year break was the single-term NDP government of Dave Barrett between 1972 and 1975.
Originally, "social credit" was a movement that promoted social credit policies of monetary reform (a concept of evening out individual purchasing power during economic downturns) but the B.C. Social Credit Party soon punted those ideas out of their platform and adopted fiscally- and socially-conservative ideologies. And ruled this province for years with a firm grasp on government.
The NDP grasped hold of power in the B.C. Legislature for 10 years in the 1990s under the leadership of Mike Harcourt and then Glen Clark and then, briefly, Ujjal Dosanjh. Meanwhile, Social Credit collapsed and, in fact, dissolved, leaving the right with no banner under which to operate. Enter the B.C. Liberals who were starting to gain a foothold under the scandalous but opportunistic leadership of Gordon Wilson who became the opposition after Social Credit's decimation.
But right-wing politicians said, "Hey there's a political party not doing much" and joined it. And then took over, booting Wilson out eventually and handing the reins to Gordon Campbell who led the now right-of-centre (and growing ever more right) coalition into power in the 2001 election, securing a majority. And since then, that has been the flag under which the politically conservative in the province has coalesced.
This coalition of convenience held power between 2001 and 2017 with Christy Clark as its leader most recently before losing government to the John Horgan-led NDP. Horgan stepped down, David Eby became leader and premier. Eby lost several seats on Oct. 19 and now hangs on to power by the slimmest of margins and could actually lose government, depending on how recounts go.
Meanwhile, John Rustad, a disgruntled B.C. Liberal, took over the reins of the politically-nowhere B.C. Conservative Party and a shift in the national political culture – namely a distaste for federal Liberal prime minister Justin Trudeau – tainted the name "liberal" and conservative voters in the province started liking the look of and what they were hearing from Rustad's party.
The shift of support to the B.C. Conservatives is a curious phenomenon. It seems to be mostly driven by the optics of the liberal name and, of course, the conservative ideology. B.C. United offered that as well but conservatives in the province hate the federal liberals – that's nothing new – but the BC Liberals, even recast as B.C. United, were just too distasteful for them. B.C. United leader Kevin Falcon even recognized the shift in fortunes and suspended his party's contention of the Oct. 19 election. Astounding.
There is no doubt that small-c conservative voters are now happily residing under a political banner reflective of their actual social and political views, the B.C. Conservative Party, for the first time since the 1950s.
