Okanagan BC Liberals determined to punish NDP for election call
Kelowna-area Liberals are determined to win a provincial election they say is unnecessary.
Incumbents Norm Letnick and Ben Stewart criticized Premier John Horgan’s decision Monday to call a snap vote with the NDP enjoying strong voter support.
“It’s political opportunism at its worst,” said Stewart, MLA for Kelowna West. “I don’t know many people who think we should be going to the polls when we’re in the middle of a pandemic and we’ve just recorded the highest one-day number of COVID-19 infections.”
“It’s irresponsible and unnecessary to call an election now,” said Letnick, KelownaLake Country MLA. “Horgan’s just reading the polls and thinking he has a better chance of winning right now than he would next fall, which is when the election is supposed to be held.”
If the NDP believes voters will reward the party for its handling of the pandemic, it’s a cynical and shortsighted reason to call a snap election, Letnick said.
“The pandemic is no reason to reward the NDP,” he said. “Our party has been focused on collaborating with the government to ensure the health of British Columbians, to fight the virus, and now the NDP wants to fight us, instead, just because they’re ahead in the polls.
Aside from assailing what they see as the NDP’s opportunism in calling the election a year ahead of schedule, Letnick and Stewart said the Liberals will criticize the governing party’s handling of the economy.
“The provincial deficit is going north of $13 billion and there’s no plan for recovery beyond just spending more and more money,” Stewart said. “We’ll explain how we’re the better party to manage and rebuild the economy.”
In 2017, Letnick won re-election in Kelowna-Lake Country with 60 percent of the popular vote, three times more than the NDP candidate.
Stewart stepped away from provincial politics in 2013 to allow thenLiberal leader Christy Clark to win a seat in the legislature.
After the Liberals were defeated in 2017 and Clark quit politics, Stewart returned in a 2018 byelection to win back his old seat with 56 per cent of the vote.
Renee Merrifield’s entry into provincial politics involved a phone call, a question and a Zoom press conference. And the whole process took about an hour Monday morning.
The Kelowna developer was named by BC Liberal Leader Andrew Wilkinson as the party’s candidate in Kelowna-Mission for the Oct. 24 election (no NDP candidates have yet been announced in the three local ridings).
“It’s been an absolute whirlwind, but I feel incredibly honoured and humbled to be asked to represent the party,” Merrifield said later.
Although incumbent MLA Steve Thomson announced last December he would not run again, the party had not yet chosen his successor through a traditional nomination process. There was little urgency to do as the next election was not scheduled until October 2021.
But NDP Premier John Horgan’s decision Monday to call a snap vote meant there would be no time to stage a nomination process. Merrifield, a 15-year-member of the BC Liberal party, had let it be known months ago she would seek the Liberal nomination for KelownaMission.
“I’m a huge believer in open and competitive nominations,” said Merrifield, who lost the federal Conservative nomination in Kelowna-Lake Country to Tracy Gray through just such a process. “If Horgan hadn’t called this election, we’d be chugging right on toward a 2021 provincial election that would have given lots of time for members to choose the Liberal candidate.
“But he’s chosen the middle of a pandemic to call an election, so we had to get ready quickly. Nominations are always better than acclamations. But this was a last resort.”
Early Monday, Merrifield said she got a “cryptic text” from B.C. Liberal party officials to be ready to answer her phone. When she answered, the question was simple: Would she run for the Liberals in Kelowna-Mission?
After answering yes, Merrifield was quickly presented along with Wilkinson and other Liberals during a virtual press conference that followed Horgan’s election announcement.
The rapid sequence of events left on the outside would-be contenders such as three-term Kelowna city councillor Mohini Singh, who had twice in recent months spoken to Wilkinson about her running in Kelowna-Mission.
Merrifield said one of focuses will be on what she claims is the NDP’s inadequate COVID-19 economic recovery plan.