BC Liberals promise to ban snap elections during provincial emergencies

With BC currently under a provincial state of emergency and in an election season at the same time, the BC Liberals have promised that if elected, they will ban the possibility of a situation like this from happening again.

In their platform, released Tuesday, the Liberals state that within the first 60 days of being elected, they would prepare legislation to strengthen BC’s fixed election date legislation, and “limit the Premier’s ability to manipulate election dates for partisan benefit” by banning early elections during provincial emergencies.

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BC NDP Leader John Horgan called this fall’s snap election last month, stating that the COVID-19 pandemic “has changed everything” and British Columbians “deserve a say in the direction of our recovery and the future of our province.”

BC Liberal Party Leader Andrew Wilkinson immediately slammed the decision.

“John Horgan chose politics over people,” Wilkinson said at the time. “For no good reason whatsoever, we’re now being forced into a general election that nobody in BC wants, except the NDP.”

However, now that the election has been called, Wilkinson said his party intends to “bring to this election an exciting vision for British Columbia.”

British Columbians head to the polls on Saturday, October 24.

A provincial state of emergency has been in place since March of this year.