Falcon officially announces he is seeking B.C. Liberal leadership again
Former cabinet minister notes focus on renewal: `Our party needs help'
Kevin Falcon announced his bid to lead the B.C. Liberals on Monday evening, acknowledging his biggest challenge will be shaking off the baggage of his cabinet roles in the Gordon Campbell and Christy Clark governments. But he insisted he can lead a party in desperate need of renewal.
Falcon's Facebook Live announcement Monday night was pre-empted by a Twitter post Monday morning by B.C. Liberal MLA Michael Lee that said: “Ready to run.”
The post was accompanied by a teaser video of him running through the forest and tying up his laces. However, Lee's campaign said Monday no date has been set for his formal announcement.
After winning the riding of Vancouver-Langara in 2017, Lee ran for the B.C. Liberal leadership race in 2018, finishing third behind Andrew Wilkinson and Dianne Watts.
Falcon's previous attempt to clinch the Liberal leadership was in 2011 when he narrowly lost to Clark. Despite years away from the political stage, Falcon had been declared a front-runner months before his official announcement.
As a result, he's well prepared for attacks from his opponents, chief among them the New Democrats, that he was part of a Liberal government that cut social programs, brought in the hated and now-repealed harmonized sales tax, implemented tolls on the Port Mann Bridge and turned a blind eye to runaway housing prices and money laundering in casinos.
Falcon spent 12 years in the Liberal government, which included roles as finance minister, transportation minister, health minister and minister of state for deregulation.
Falcon said he left the political stage in 2012 to focus on his family. Now he said he's jumping back into politics for his family.
“Over the last several years I have watched this NDP government blow through a multi-billion dollar surplus. And that was during good times … that was before the global pandemic hit,” Falcon said.
He said new taxes by the NDP government have made life more unaffordable for families and difficult for small businesses.
Falcon said it's “fair criticism” that the B.C. Liberals failed to prevent the runaway real estate boom in 2016, but noted that he was out of office for years by that point. “I missed a lot of that run-up in pricing but, regardless of that, I do think that the province could have done more.”
However, he said the NDP government's speculation tax has had a disastrous impact on the housing sector.
“All they did was add more costs to housing and instead of prices going down, actually prices have continued to go up,” said Falcon, insisting that the only homes that got cheaper were properties over $4 million.
The solution is to increase housing supply by removing bureaucratic red tape, said Falcon, an executive with Vancouver-based real estate development and private equity firm, Anthem Capital.
Falcon also vows to improve the government's response to homelessness, mental health and addiction, which he said has suffered through successive failures by New Democrats, B.C. Liberals and the Social Credit party.
Given the disastrous October election in which the B.C. Liberals lost former strongholds across the Lower Mainland, reducing the party to 28 seats mostly in the Interior and Northern B.C., Falcon admitted: “Our party needs help.”
“We used to stand for important ideas and principles. And I think the last two election losses demonstrate that we've lost our way,” he said.
Former Liberal leader Andrew Wilkinson faced criticism for being elitist, out of touch with regular voters and lacking a strong stand on social issues. Many have asked if Falcon, a 58-year-old real estate executive, will be able to connect with people struggling to afford rent or reeling from the economic fallout of the pandemic.
In a subtle acknowledgment of this hurdle, Falcon's official bio involves an origin story that touts his humble upbringing as one of six children in a West Vancouver home that his parents — his mom a nurse and his dad an appliance salesman — bought in 1963 for $23,000. Through a program to help low-income families, Falcon and his brothers received free tuition to attend Vancouver College, a Catholic all-boys private school in Shaughnessy.
Falcon is quick to correct the record that he drives a Porsche. He drives a Mazda 6, although he said he did own a Porsche in the past when he collected cars to refurbish.
He also pointed out that he spent 12 years representing the riding of Surrey-Cloverdale, which allowed him to connect with farmers, working-class voters and diverse communities.
On bringing diversity into the B.C. Liberals, Falcon said he doesn't believe in the quota system devised by the NDP, but vows to attract competent men and women, LGBTQ+ people, and people of colour. “I want to be very clear about this,” he said. “This party under Kevin Falcon's leadership will reflect our communities.”
As speculation ramped up that Falcon was getting ready to announce his bid, the New Democrats released an attack campaign on Friday, citing Falcon's endorsement of Maxime Bernier for Conservative leader in 2017 as proof Falcon's loyalties lie with a politician who peddles identity politics and anti-immigrant rhetoric. Bernier quit the Conservative party to form the far-right People's Party of Canada.
“Maxime Bernier is known for his dangerous anti-immigrant views, and Kevin Falcon tried to help him become the prime minister,” said Aman Singh, NDP MLA for Richmond-Queensborough. “How can Falcon lead a province as diverse as B.C.?”
The B.C. Liberal leadership convention takes place on Feb. 5. Skeena MLA Ellis Ross, a former chief of the Haisla Nation, and Gavin Dew, founder of the Forum for Millennial Leadership, have also announced they are running.
Liberal MLAs Lee, Renee Merrifield, Tom Shypitka, and conservative social media influencer Aaron Gunn have said they're considering a bid for the leadership, but none are ready to officially declare.