LIBERAL LEADER?
MLA Lee claims most sign-ups
Rookie Liberal MLA Michael Lee says he’s signed up the most new members in his party’s leadership contest, and is warning competitors not to underestimate his ability to win the race.
Lee, a 53-year-old business lawyer, may have one of the lower public profiles in the Liberal race because he was only elected to his first term in the legislature in May. But he said in an interview that hasn’t stopped him from signing up thousands of new memberships and appealing to the party’s base with his message of “doing things differently and politics differently.”
“The party overall has signed up collectively about 31,000 members, and I understand from my team we were able to sign up the most number of those members,” Lee said. “These members come from across the province.”
Lee declined to disclose his total or how that compares to other contenders. “I don’t want to get into the specific numbers of who has got what.”
Membership sign-up numbers aren’t public. B.C. Liberal spokesperson Emile Scheffel would only say the party’s total membership has doubled to roughly 60,000. Six candidates are vying for leader, including MLAs Todd Stone, Andrew Wilkinson, Mike de Jong and Sam Sullivan, plus former Surrey mayor and MP Dianne Watts. The vote result is Feb. 3.
Other campaigns don’t dispute that Lee has signed up the most members — potentially as many as 10,000. But whether bulk signups are the key to winning the race is unclear. The party has created additional security steps designed to curtail the mass collection of personal identification numbers and bulk voting. That may make it more important to have a smaller amount of motivated members who follow through and vote.
The geographic location of members will also be crucial to candidates, given the Liberal party’s weighted vote system in which each riding has 100 points up for grabs. The system rewards candidates who gather support across the province, particularly in rural ridings. A candidate who secures just a few dozen members to win a less-populated riding like North Island, could get the same 100 points as a candidate who signs up thousands of new members to win a heavily populated riding in Surrey.
“If it was a pure one-member, one vote, then signing up a whole mess of people would be really important,” said former cabinet minister Peter Fassbender, who is co-chair of Stone’s campaign. “With the proportional ballot it is less critical, because you can sign up thousands in ridings but that riding ’s weight is the same as a riding that signs up nobody.”
Fassbender said he believes Stone has captured the most diverse cross-section of Liberal members, and that will help him sway the existing 30,000 members.
Lee said his supporters aren’t just congregated in Richmond and Surrey, and that his appeal extends across the party’s liberal and conservative wings. Lee worked as an assistant to then-Progressive Conservative MP Kim Campbell in the early 1990s, served on B.C. Liberal riding association executives in the 2000s and as party membership chair in 2015. His staff is a mixture of federal Liberals and Conservatives.
“I have established the strongest coalition team, of young and old. I have a very young presence in terms of youth in this party supporting me. And I have a very strong engagement in communities, including Metro Vancouver and areas we need to win back to form government again.”
Another complicating factor in the race will be the party’s use of preferential ballots, in which members can vote their first to sixth preferences.
That’s already led to backroom negotiations between campaigns on whose supporters could line up as second and third votes for other candidates during multiple rounds of voting.
“There’s no question that ultimately this contest will be decided on the basis of second choices, and maybe even in a couple of instances third choices,” said de Jong. “So they take on a heightened level of importance and one of the reasons quite frankly I am feeling cautiously optimistic about my chances.”
De Jong also recently picked up the endorsement of interim Liberal leader Rich Coleman, a party heavyweight with 22 years of experience and most recently the person in charge of Liberal fundraising and election readiness.
“Mike’s track record makes him the best choice to continue to make sure we can grow our free-enterprise coalition — and to harness the benefits that flow from a strong economy to making life better for all British Columbians,” Coleman said in a statement.
Lee and Watts together are responsible for more than two-thirds of the 30,000 new Liberal memberships, said Watts spokesperson Laura Ballance. The party wants change, and Watts had picked up diverse support, she said. “We’re very proud of the regional diversity of our membership sales in every riding and every corner of the province,” said Ballance.
You can sign up thousands in ridings but that riding’s weight is the same as a riding that signs up nobody.