Kevin Falcon's BC United suspends campaign ahead of fall election

Kevin Falcon (BC United)

With just under two months to go until British Columbians vote in the 2024 provincial election, the BC United party, formerly known as the BC Liberals, have dropped out of the race in a move that capitulates to the rising Conservative Party of BC.

The long-term existence of the party, currently led by Kevin Falcon, is unclear.

The party, formerly known as the BC Liberals and a stalwart part of the province for decades, will not be on the election ballot. Falcon, who is currently the MLA of Vancouver-Quilchena, will also not be running.

“I got back into politics because I wanted to build a bright future for my two daughters and for the next generation of British Columbians,” said Falcon in a statement just before 2 pm today.

“Today, I’m stepping back for the same reason. I know that the best thing for the future of our province is to defeat the NDP, but we cannot do that when the centre-right vote is split.”

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This follows successive public opinion surveys that have shown BC United trailing far behind the BC Conservatives, with the gap widening steadily over the past year.

One of the most recent surveys, conducted in mid-August 2024 by Mainstreet Research, showed just 12% of decided voters would vote for BC United — considerably behind the BC Conservatives with 39%, which put them ahead of David Eby’s BC NDP for the first time ever in any survey, with the governing party at 36%. BC United’s popularity appears to be comparable to Sonia Furstenau’s BC Greens at 11%.

With BC United dropping out and some of its existing MLAs running as candidates for the BC Conservatives, the latter is expected to significantly increase its lead over the BC NDP.

In recent months, there have been growing calls for Kevin Falcon and BC United to withdraw from the race, with concerns that BC United might split the centre-right and right-wing vote.

Some of the party’s longtime key members and MLAs have already defected to the BC Conservatives in recent months.

As of the time of writing, the BC Conservatives have listed 83 candidates on their website for the October 2024 election, whereas BC United, currently the official opposition party, has just 23 candidates. The BC NDP currently has 64 candidates. Following a recent redrawing of electoral boundaries, there are 93 ridings in the upcoming election, an increase from 87 in 2020.

As part of today’s announcement that the BC United will suspend their campaigning, all BC United candidates will formally withdraw from the race, and the BC Conservatives will review and consider these former BC United candidates to “ensure the strongest team possible going into the election.”

“I’ve known Kevin Falcon for 20 years, and while we haven’t always seen eye to eye, we both know there is too much at stake to let past disagreements get in the way of defeating David Eby and the radical NDP,” said Rustad in a statement this afternoon.

“I’ve never doubted Kevin Falcon’s commitment to our province, and today, I applaud his decision to put BC first, as he’s done throughout his career.”

The decision led by Falcon to change the long-established BC Liberals name has been criticized for being one of the key factors that led to the party’s demise.

Falcon was chosen as the new leader by party membership in February 2022, and he subsequently took the MLA seat of Vancouver-Quilchena in a May 2022 by-election. In November 2022, after gauging input from party membership, the BC Liberals announced they would change their name to the BC United, with the name change officially taking effect in April 2023.

According to surveys conducted since spring 2023, BC United’s popularity among voters began a consistent, steep decline immediately after the name change. This suggests that many voters may not be aware of the name change.

In more recent weeks, there were reports that BC United were formally seeking a bracketed “BC Liberals” mention next to the BC United name on the ballot, such as “BC United (formerly BC Liberals)”.

Another possible factor in BC United’s decline is the BC Conservatives capitalizing on the rising “blue wave” popularity of the federal Conservative Party of Canada under Pierre Poilievre. Recent surveys indicate that the federal Conservatives could defeat Justin Trudeau’s Liberals by a landslide and form a majority government. Both the federal and BC provincial parties are directly affiliated under the Conservative banner.

The BC Conservatives earned just 1.9% of the vote in the 2020 provincial election, coming in at a distant fourth place behind the BC Greens. While they did not win any seats in the 2020 election, the BC Conservatives now have five seats from MLAs who were previously under the BC United banner, including Rustad, who was kicked out by Falcon in early 2022 over a disagreement with Rustad’s remarks over climate change.

“John Rustad and I haven’t always agreed on everything, but one thing is clear: our province cannot take another four years of the NDP,” continued Falcon’s statement this afternoon.

“When common sense, free-enterprise British Columbians are united, we get great things done. I’m encouraging all free-enterprise voters to come together and join me in helping elect John Rustad and the Conservative Party of BC in October.”

The current iteration of the party, previously known as the BC Liberals, began in the early 1990s when Gordon Campbell became the party’s leader, eventually ousting the BC NDP in 2001, a landslide election victory that took 77 of the 79 MLA seats. Under the premiership of Campbell and then Christy Clark, they were the governing party up until 2017.

Falcon held various key roles during the Campbell era and the initial period of Clark’s tenure, including Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure, Minister of Health, Minister of Finance, and Deputy Premier.

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