In one of the most unprecedented acts in Canadian political history, a political party has decided to call it quits during an election year.
The BC United Party, which was last seen asking Elections BC if they could add the word "Liberals" into their ballot because apparently people did not even know they rebranded, has decided to pull the plug on their entire campaign. Not oust Kevin Falcon, or review everything that has gone wrong but literally stop their entire political campaign.
It seems Falcon has cut a deal with the Conservative Party of BC where United will simply merge with them and some of their current candidates will now run as Conservatives. Based on reports from United party members and MLAs, this news came as much of a surprise to them as it did to the general public.
Regardless, it is remarkable to see a political party give up weeks before an election due to bad opinion polling. The NDP in 2001 certainly didn't: they knew they were going to lose and instead focused on keeping whatever seats they had.
Was it the fact that several MLAs have defected? Was it Falcon's leadership? Or is it a desire to avoid splitting the right-wing vote and give the NDP an easy victory? The press conference seemed to say that it was the third answer.
Whatever the reason this announcement will fundamentally change this upcoming election. It will now truly be a race between the Conservatives and the NDP, with the Green Party seeking to scoop up any seats they can.
One has to feel sympathy for the candidates who believed in BC United and message. They printed out material filled with hours of work with slogans such as "United we will fix this" as well as slogans calling to fix David Eby's crime epidemic. And now, all of that has been proven to be a waste of time, effort and business cards.
Perhaps the funniest and most ironic thing is that John Rustad, a man kicked out of the then-named BC Liberals for questioning the scientific consensus of climate change has gotten his revenge and now has an entire political party absorbed into the Conservative Party of BC.
Now maybe it will only be a matter of time before Rustad ends up doing his next stunt: potentially unseating the BC NDP.
