NDP courts progressives in bid to unseat Greens
Furstenau rejects argument that votes for her party only serve to split the left
VICTORIA The B.C. NDP is dedicating key time near the end of the election campaign to a major push to eliminate the Greens, the party whose co-operation and support gave NDP Leader John Horgan the votes needed to govern the past 3½ years.
The NDP recently sent two of its most popular candidates to stump for votes in the two Greenheld ridings: Horgan campaigned against Green incumbent Adam Olsen in Saanich North and the Islands on Monday, and Adrian Dix campaigned against Green Leader Sonia Furstenau in Cowichan Valley on Tuesday.
That follows visits to Cowichan from federal NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh on Friday and Horgan over the weekend.
Meanwhile, NDP surrogates have been using social media to argue so-called progressive voters should unite behind the NDP out of fear the B.C. Liberals could return to power on Oct. 24. Numerous opinion polls, however, continue to suggest the NDP has a sizable lead over the Liberals.
“It's nothing personal at all,” said Horgan. “It's about the people of B.C. having a choice to make, who do they want to lead them and where do they want to go?”
The NDP was able to form government in 2017 only because it signed an agreement with the Greens. Together, the two parties had 44 seats, compared with 43 Liberals. The agreement contained a promise not to call an early election, which Horgan broke with his election call on Sept. 21.
Furstenau has said she finds the NDP campaign against her personal, because she honoured the agreement to support the NDP on every confidence vote, and in return has become a target of the NDP campaign machine to wipe her out as it pursues a majority government.
“It's disappointing,” she said Tuesday.
New Democrats have returned to an argument the party has been using since the 2013 election, which is that a vote for the Greens splits the left side of the political spectrum and gives the Liberals an advantage to win ridings. That's a supposition the Greens have long disputed, noting it was primarily Liberal voters in Oak Bay- Gordon Head who converted to Green in 2013 and helped Andrew Weaver win the party's first seat.
Weaver, who after winning on election night 2013 declared “we did not split the vote, we are the vote,” is now supporting the NDP, and New Democrats have featured his endorsement prominently in local advertisements.
“What I grow so weary of is a political party telling you to be afraid — be afraid of other parties, be afraid of other people, vote for us because you're afraid,” Furstenau said. “I think people should reject that. I think people should vote for exactly what they want.”
The Greens are hoping New Democrats angry at the snap election and Liberals upset at the performance of leader Andrew Wilkinson will view their party as a viable and safe alternative to support. The NDP, meanwhile, has pivoted its campaign messaging to health care, attempting to contrast its spending during the pandemic with lesser amounts offered by the Liberals and Greens.
Furstenau appealed to the “progressive voters” the NDP is attempting to rally Tuesday, arguing the NDP's continued subsidies to the oil and gas industry are anything but progressive. The Greens have also appealed to environmentally conscious voters to judge the NDP for its construction of the Site C dam and its support for liquefied natural gas and fracking.
“The best thing that progressives can do in this election is to ensure that we don't have a majority government and that we have Green voices at the table in the legislature,” she said.