Former Shuswap MLA George Abbott/via Government of BC
Despite a resignation speech from Andrew Wilkinson lasting a mere 92 seconds, the work of figuring out what went wrong and rebuilding the BC Liberal Party will take significantly longer.
And according to political scientist and former Shuswap MLA George Abbott, the work of building a big centre-right coalition is a little more difficult in the age of social media.
“Social media in particular has made it more difficult to hide those tensions that invariably exist within every political party. So yes, I think it does make it more difficult to hold the coalition together.”
Political pundits and members of the BC Liberal caucus itself have addressed the need for the party to reconcile differences between urban and rural ridings.
In the riding of Kamloops-North Thompson, the BC Conservative Party captured just over 10-per cent of the vote. And while it’s too soon to say how much of that vote was peeled away from the Liberals, Abbott says the election was lost for the Libs in the Lower Mainland.
“Where the BC Liberal Party has enjoyed success is when it is effectively a combination of federal Liberals and federal Conservatives. Sometimes things get awkward in that tent and I think we saw some of that in the current campaign.”
Pending any changes in tight races from mail-in ballots, the Liberals are about to lose 12 seats in the Lower Mainland after the final votes are counted, as well as one riding in the southern Interior (Boundary-Similkameen) and its only seat on Vancouver Island (Parksville-Qualicum).
Yesterday, Wilkinson announced he will be stepping aside as party leader “when a new leader is chosen.” He did not make clear whether he will plan to also resign as MLA for his riding of Vancouver-Quilchena.
In the waning days of the campaign, the BC Liberals’ candidate in Chilliwack-Kent, Laurie Throness, was dropped from the ticket after comments comparing birth control to eugenics.
Credit where due however, Abbott says BC New Democrats were coming from a strong position to start with due to their handling of the pandemic.
