A snap election isn’t something most British Columbians want, but party leaders might not mind another campaign, a pollster told Island business leaders this week.<\/p>\n
Shachi Kurl, president of the Angus Reid Institute, discussed the possibility of a snap election in B.C. when she gave a keynote talk Thursday, Oct. 30, at the State of the Island Economic Summit in Nanaimo.<\/p>\n
B.C. Premier David Eby has threatened to call an election if necessary to pass an energy statutes amendment act to be able to build a transmission line in Northern B.C. to power natural resource development projects.<\/p>\n
Angus Reid Institute’s latest polling showed that 53 per cent of British Columbians feel the province is on the wrong track under the B.C. NDP, and 56 per cent are dissatisfied with the provincial government’s performance. At the same time, polling shows that 59 per cent of British Columbians think B.C. Conservative leader John Rustad should step down and even among those who would vote for the Conservatives, 41 per cent think Rustad should step down while 25 per cent want him to stay on.<\/p>\n
“So when David Eby threatens to call a snap election, does he want to face off against an embattled and weakened John Rustad whose caucus management has been the equivalent of a dumpster fire? Yes, yes, he wants to do that, that’s good for David Eby. Does John Rustad … want to at least temporarily halt calls for him to resign so that he can go fight an election? Yeah, that works for him,” Kurl said. “Do British Columbians want a second election in 13 months? No, they do not.”<\/p>\n
She said the two parties are locked in a statistical tie for support. She noted that the Conservatives have bled some support both to the new One B.C. and Centre B.C. parties, but suggested that if push were to come to shove, Centre B.C. supporters might reluctantly vote NDP.<\/p>\n
“But let’s see – or hopefully not see – what happens,” Kurl said.<\/p>\n
She said B.C. has some wicked problems like housing affordability and homelessness, and the province’s job numbers and economic outlook aren’t great. Whatever party is in power can do some things policy-wise “at the edges,” but a government of any stripe will get smacked with the same wicked problems.<\/p>\n
“People just want to see their governments of the day get on with it. It’s one thing to talk about doing it, but it’s another thing to actually start to see some progress,” she said.<\/p>\n
The Vancouver Island Economic Alliance hosted the State of the Island Economic Conference this past Tuesday through Thursday, Oct. 28-30.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
President of the Angus Reid Institute spoke at this week\u2019s Vancouver Island economic summit<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":130,"featured_media":159180,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-159174","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-regional-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n