LIBERAL WHEELING AND DEALING
De Jong, Wilkinson strike support deal
VICTORIA B.C. Liberal leadership candidates Andrew Wilkinson and Mike de Jong have reached a deal to encourage their supporters to make each other their second ballot choices in the party’s leadership race.
The agreement is the first in what’s expected to be a flurry of negotiations among contenders to try to lock up second, third and even fourth choices on the preferential ballots, in the likely event none of the six candidates wins a majority of first-choice votes on the initial count on Feb. 3. When that happens, the ballots are recounted, dropping the first choice ballots cast for the person getting the least number of votes and adding the second-choice votes for those ballots.
“Our two camps have come to a mutual recognition that, for the best interest of the party, we’re encouraging Mike’s supporters to put Andrew as their second ballot option and vice versa,” said Katy Merrifield, Wilkinson’s campaign director.
“The data we’ve collected to date shows either Andrew or Mike, one of them is in second place and one of them is in third. We don’t know conclusively who holds what spot, but we do know Andrew and Mike are the two candidates who have consistently defended and promoted B.C. Liberal values instead of watering them down and apologizing for them.”
Candidates can’t force their supporters to select another contender as their second choice. But Wilkinson and de Jong will both send out electronic notices this weekend outlining their shared beliefs and strongly encouraging anyone who is voting for them to choose the other candidate as a second choice, so that at least one of them has the best chance of winning.
“It’s a very close race between the top three candidates,” said Stephen Carter, de Jong’s campaign manager. “This is what makes sense. When you look at the numbers you don’t want a minority of the party to choose the outcome. And I think the majority of the party would be choosing Andrew or Mike as their first choices if they were combined. This way we can make sure the second choices follow the first, and we get the outcome that the vast majority of members want at this time.”
The Wilkinson-de Jong deal is likely a blow to the campaign of Todd Stone, who has the closest alignment with the other two and now finds himself excluded from their second-ballot cooperation. He could enter into some sort of partnership with MLAs Michael Lee and Sam Sullivan, who are also running.
Most camps admit former Surrey mayor and MP Dianne Watts is likely polling in first place, though the Wilkinson and de Jong campaigns argue Watts’s support is declining. Watts said this week she believes there’s a movement among some candidates to align in cooperative deals against her because she is the only non-MLA running.
“We’re not doing this against Dianne, we’re doing this against the process,” Carter said, referring to the Liberal party’s use of preferential ballots. “The process is a designed in a certain fashion. It demands campaigns and groups come together, and I think that’s why you choose this process, you want to see the party come together.”
The Liberal party has doubled its membership to roughly 60,000 during the race, as candidates sold new memberships to supporters in an attempt to bring in masses of votes in their favour in the race. However, the party is using a weighted system which gives all ridings 100 points in an attempt to give rural and less-populated ridings the same voice as large urban centres in selecting the party’s next leader.