Kamloops Centre MLA and BC Conservative leadership candidate Peter Milobar (L) and BC Conservative leadership candidate Caroline Elliott/via Conservative Party of BC
New polling suggests the race to take over the main opposition BC Conservatives is coming down to a battle between veteran Kamloops MLA Peter Milobar and an upstart competitor from the Conservative backrooms.
Polling by Mainstreet Research — commissioned by the Milobar campaign — shows that among those polled who would be likely to vote in a BC Conservative leadership contest, Caroline Elliott would take first place support in the forthcoming leadership vote, garnering just over 21% of the support.
However, Milobar — the MLA for Kamloops Centre — would check in just behind at just under 21%, but would emerge the winner of the overall leadership race based on 2nd place votes.
The Conservative Party of BC has adopted a preferential balloting system for the leadership election, where candidates are ranked by the voter in order of their preference for leadership.
The same analysis by Mainstreet Research says cost-of-living and affordability are the key priority for BC Conservative voters, followed by land rights and title.
It also finds that others in the race who come with political experience, including former MLA Iain Black and former Conservative MP Kerry-Lynne Findlay, trail Milobar by a substantial margin.
Both of them, according to Mainstreet’s preference analysis, shows them both garnering around 8% support at the moment.
While the outcome of the self-commissioned poll does bode well for Milobar’s chances heading into the end of the voting, the same analysis also finds that close to 32% of those asked still aren’t sure who they will vote for in the forthcoming vote.
That vote itself is based on a scoring system which uses the province’s electoral ridings as the base, meaning that a vote in Kamloops Centre would not influence the outcome of the election results in Kamloops-North Thompson.
Those who want to participate will have until 5pm on April 18th to sign up as a “member of good standing,” then will be asked to make their choices for leader based on a system of order among the seven approved candidates who are contesting the leadership.
The results will be announced May 30th.
