Party leaders target battleground ridings in early going
Statistics from campaign's first weeks track public appearances by party heads
There is little surprise that the NDP, Liberal and Green party leaders are hitting key battleground ridings during the first two weeks of the campaign in this snap election.
Data compiled by Postmedia that tracks where the leaders have made public appearances shows exactly that.
The NDP need to keep seats they won from the Liberals and find places they can gain, while the Liberals hope to regain lost seats.
The Greens are trying to hold the three seats they won in the 2017 election — and are looking for hopeful spots to build on their breakthrough.
As of Oct. 3, the three leaders had made a total of 42 stops in ridings where they held public campaign events.
NDP Leader John Horgan had made 14 public stops, Liberal leader Andrew Wilkinson 16, and Green leader Sonia Furstenau 12. But only 26 of the province's 87 electoral districts have seen public campaign events.
Here are all the ridings visited by the party leaders so far before the Oct. 24 election.
Only two ridings had been visited both by Wilkinson and Horgan by Oct. 3: Surrey-Panorama and Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows. Both are considered key battleground ridings and represent important vote-rich regions. For example, there are nine ridings up for grabs in Surrey.
Surrey-Panorama and Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows were won by the NDP from the Liberals in the 2017 election, both in close races with a less than 10 per cent margin of victory.
In both ridings, the NDP candidates are running for re-election, Jinny Sims in Surrey-Panorama and Lisa Beare in Maple RidgePitt Meadows.
The Liberal are running Gulzar Cheema in Surrey-Panorama, a former MLA in B.C. and Manitoba, and former city councillor Cheryl Ashlie in Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows.
University of B.C. political scientist Max Cameron said at the party level, the leaders are explicitly focused on key battleground seats.
“They focused on the swing ridings. They are less concerned about the overall share of the popular vote,” he said. “It drives us into intense contests around these places like Surrey.”
Three ridings have been visited both by Horgan and Furstenau: Cowichan Valley and Oak Bay- Gordon Head on Vancouver Island and Vancouver- Sea to Sky.
Oak Bay- Gordon Head is former Green leader Andrew Weaver's riding, which he won twice handily. Before Weaver, that riding was a tightly contested seat between the Liberals and NDP.
The NDP are running Murray Rankin, a former NDP Victoria MP, while the Liberals are running lawyer Roxanne Helme. Nicole Duncan, a Victoria school district trustee, is running for the Greens.
The Cowichan Valley is Furstenau's riding, where she has had public appearances four times. Furstenau won the riding for the Greens for the first time in a close contest in 2017.
The NDP, who won the seat in the previous two elections, is running North Cowichan city councillor Rob Douglas, while the Liberals are running former Liberal caucus staffer Tanya Kaul.
Furstenau and Horgan have also both made a public appearance in the West Vancouver- Sea to Sky riding, a seat the Greens have long eyed.
The Greens have finished second in the riding four of the past five elections. Liberal candidate Jordan Sturdy, a former Pemberton mayor, is running again. The Greens are running Jeremy Valeriote, a geological and environmental engineer.
Both Wilkinson and Furstenau have visited Victoria-Beacon Hill, an NDP stronghold being vacated by former finance minister Carole James where the Greens have finished second the past two elections.
Running for the Greens is Jenn Neilson, a local organizer and artist/activist. The NDP are running University of Victoria professor Grace Lore, while the Liberals are running public policy specialist Karen Bill.
Horgan hosted a live town hall meeting on Facebook on Monday at 5 p.m., but had no planned campaign stops. Wilkinson spent Monday morning in downtown Vancouver for a policy announcement, while Furstenau was set to host a news conference in Victoria at midday.