Leaders push promises on last weekend before the vote
Jabs directed at other parties as they vow to fix forestry, salmon, tourism and more
On the final weekend before election day, the leaders of B.C.'s three main political parties chipped away at their opponents and delivered promises in ridings from across the province.
Early in the weekend, Andrew Wilkinson, the leader of the B.C. Liberals, blamed the NDP for doing little to help people impacted by an eight-month forestry strike in 2019.
“The NDP simply threw in the towel and let forestry workers and forestry-dependent communities suffer on their own,” he said Saturday in Campbell River.
Wilkinson then stopped in an orchard in Osoyoos on Sunday to talk about tourism and spotty rural internet. On the latter subject, Wilkinson said his party would invest $100 million in improved connectivity for communities across the province.
On tourism, Wilkinson painted a
picture of empty hotels and failing restaurants devoid of customers due to the pandemic.
“This is their winter of discontent,” Wilkinson said. “This is their winter where they're worried sick if they're going to be able to meet their bills.”
He said his party would bring in bridge financing for companies in the tourism industry to ensure they could survive.
Sonia Furstenau, leader of the B.C. Greens, also took on forestry on Saturday in Metchosin, where she pledged to make major changes to the industry, including tenure reform, putting an end to logging of old-growth trees in high-risk ecosystems, and generating more jobs and revenue from the harvest.
“We are overdue for a fundamental shift in how we manage our forests,” she said. “The NDP tinkered around the edges, but refused again and again to make the much-needed changes to forestry in B.C., instead continuing with status quo policies that are disastrous for communities and the environment.”
Later in the weekend, from her own Cowichan Valley riding, Furstenau touted her party's slate of proposed housing affordability measures. She said the Greens would introduce a rental housing grant that would apply to low- and moderate income earners who spend more than 30 per cent of those incomes on housing.
NDP Leader John Horgan was in the B.C. Interior Saturday, where he announced a cancer treatment centre in Kamloops to eliminate the need for some patients to travel to Kelowna for treatment. Horgan said the new centre, which would receive $450 million in funding in the first three years, would “save countless hours and a countless amount of stress” for patients.
In Campbell River on Sunday, Horgan vowed to protect wild salmon. He said his party would work to double the $143-million B.C. Salmon Restoration and Innovation Fund and create a watershed security strategy, including a fund to support local and Indigenous initiatives.
“Wild salmon are crucial to the success of our economy, the prosperity of coastal communities, and the lives of Indigenous peoples,” Horgan said. “The challenges affecting wild salmon stocks in B.C. are complex. It's important that we work with people and communities to find solutions.”
The NDP took heat Saturday after insensitive comments made by the party's candidate in the Stikine region were posted online. During an all-candidates meeting earlier in the week, Nathan Cullen was caught by a microphone saying North Coast B.C. Liberals candidate Roy Jones Jr. Cheexial, who is Haida, was not well-liked in his own community. Cullen then went on to laugh about the Liberal's nickname.
Cullen apologized at the beginning of a Zoom conference Saturday, saying his comments were “inappropriate,” before going on to attack Wilkinson's past involvement in a lawsuit against the City of Prince Rupert. As a lawyer, Wilkinson represented Sun Wave Forest Products when the company sued the city in a dispute about its mill site.
Saturday is election day.