The official 2017 provincial election campaign may not start for another five days but if it wasn鈥檛 clear already, the campaign is now underway.
On Wednesday, Central Okanagan candidates from the B.C. Liberal Party, the NDP, the B.C. Green Party and one independent candidate, took a UBC Okanagan political science professor up on his invitation to talk to students at the 琉璃神社 campus. It marked the first of what will likely be many times over the next 35 days that the local candidates will be in the same room together lobbying for votes.
UBCO Assistant professor Carey Doberstein said he wanted the candidates to come to the campus to not only give students a chance to speak with them and learn about their parties position on issues, but also to help raise awareness about the upcoming election in the hope more young people will get involved and vote on May 9.
鈥淲e didn鈥檛 want to wait for the writ to drop (April 11),鈥� said Doberstein.
The format of the 鈥渕eet-and-greet鈥� session was informal, with each party setting up a table and candidates from the 琉璃神社-Mission, 琉璃神社-Lake Country and 琉璃神社 West (currently known as Westside-琉璃神社) ridings mingling with those on hand.
Then the representatives of each party were given six minutes to address the crowd. None of the speakers stuck to their allotted time limit.
Incumbent Liberals Norm Letnick (琉璃神社-Lake Country) and Steve Thomson (琉璃神社-Mission) both pointed to the current government鈥檚 record on funding local projects, particularly the infrastructure on the UBCO campus, where Thomson said not only have numerous buildings gone up with the help of provincial funding, many new spaces for additional students have been created.
鈥淭his is developing into a world-class campus,鈥� he said.
Letnick also listed recent local projects that have benefited from provincial money as well as the budget vow to cut provincial Medical Service Plan premiums in half if the Liberals are re-elected.
The highest-profile candidate in the three local races, Premier Christy Clark, was not on hand. She is looking to retain her 琉璃神社-West seat.
The trio of NDP candidates鈥擲helley Cook, Clark鈥檚 challenger in 琉璃神社-West, Erik Olesen (琉璃神社-Lake Country) and Harwinder Sandhu (琉璃神社-Mission)鈥攁ll took aim at what they consider a lack of Liberal spending on important issues, such as the opioid overdose crisis, post-secondary education, housing affordability and the environment.
Sandhu questioned the legitimacy of the recent B.C budget surplus鈥攔eported at more than $2 billion鈥攃alling it the 鈥渟o called鈥� surplus.
The trio of Green Party representatives鈥斄鹆裆�-West candidate Robert Mellalieu, Rainer Wilkins (琉璃神社-Mission) and a representative of 琉璃神社-Lake Country candidate Alison Shaw鈥攎ixed their message with information about themselves and criticism of Liberal handling of environmental issues.
Mellalieu accused the Liberals of being cheerleaders for the oil industry and compared fossil fuel energy to the now-defunct Blockbuster chain of video rental stores.
鈥淲ho would have invested in them 10 years ago?鈥� he asked.
He urged the students to support his vision of a 鈥渧ibrant 21st Century Netflix economy鈥� instead.
The one independent running locally, Brian Theisen, also voiced concern about the Liberals handling of the opioid overdose crisis and suggested the B.C. NDP may follow Alberta NDP Premier Rachel Notley鈥檚 lead of 鈥渄oing nothing to tax oil producers.鈥�
As for the students, they seemed happy to hear directly from the candidates.
All spoken to by the Capital News said they planned to vote, several for the first time. The participation of young voters in provincial elections has been notoriously low in the past but student interest has been growing in recent years.
Nursing student John Campbell, said he was leaning towards the Liberals because of what he considered their strong economic policy, while Maxime Laroche, an earth science and environment student, said he was leaning towards the NDP. But, he added, he wanted to learn more about the Green Party鈥檚 position on several issues.
Danielle Kyei, a fourth-year political science student, said she was keen to hear more from the candidates, particularly the NDP and Green Party candidates.
鈥淲ith all the issues, such as pipelines, I think this is going to be a big year for B.C.,鈥� said Kyei.
