Almost half of B.C. voters want an alternative to the main political parties
A new poll suggests that British Columbians are split down the middle when it comes to who they would support in a provincial election — and many want an alternative option to the leading parties.
A survey from Research Co. gathered responses from 803 British Columbians between June 3 and 5, finding that 42 per cent of decided voters said they would support the opposition BC Conservatives in a provincial election, and 42 per cent said they would support the governing BC NDP. Nine per cent said they would vote for the BC Greens.
But when Research Co. asked if B.C. needs a centre-right party “to serve as an alternative to the BC New Democrats and the BC Conservatives,” 47 per cent said it does. Further, 41 per cent said they think “it’s time to bring back the BC Liberals as a provincial political party.”
Another survey from Leger that polled 1,002 residents between June 1 and 2, suggested that, among decided voters, support for the BC Conservatives outpaced that for the BC NDP. Forty-five per cent said they would vote for the Conservative Party and 41 per cent would vote for the New Democratic Party. Eight per cent said they would vote for the BC Greens.
The BC Liberal party officially rebranded to BC United in 2022, after losing two consecutive elections in 2017 and 2020 and wanting to make a clear distinction between them and the federal Liberal Party.
Although BC United was the governing party for 16 years, leader Kevin Falcon (leader of BC United), suspended the party’s campaign as popularity surged for the BC Conservatives under the leadership of John Rustad.
While the BC Conservatives lost the 2024 election, they garnered 43 per cent of the vote — a massive jump from the two per cent vote share they had in the 2020 election and officially placing them in the role of official opposition.
What are British Columbians’ main concerns?
While the Conservative party voted in Kerry-Lynne Findlay as leader at the end of May, an Angus Reid Institute poll showed that even when the party was leaderless, they were leading the BC NDP by 10 points in vote intention.
“The flight of support from the BC NDP comes as the future of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (DRIPA) remains ambiguous after Eby and the BC NDP decided not to pursue suspending the legislation this spring after the suggestion was met with anger from the province’s First Nations,” the Angus Reid Institute said in a release.
However, both the Leger and Research Co. polls pointed towards housing and affordability as the top concerns for British Columbians.
Research Co. found that 31 per cent of respondents said housing, poverty, and homelessness was their top concern. This was followed by health care (29 per cent) and the economy (24 per cent).
Leger similarly found that housing prices and affordability were the important issues facing B.C., with health care in second place.
With files from Daily Hive staff