SQUAMISH, B.C. — Green voters in British Columbia's tight election race are being asked to support the New Democrats to keep John Rustad's B.C. Conservatives from forming government, NDP Leader David Eby said Sunday.
Green and NDP voters must stick together this election to defeat the B.C. Conservatives, who are running a campaign of division, denial and plans to dismantle climate initiatives and cut health care and housing affordability plans, said Eby.
The NDP leader, at a campaign event in Squamish, asked Green voters to consider their thoughts the day after the Oct. 19 election if Rustad's B.C. Conservatives were going to form government.
"I want you to just take a moment and think about how it would feel if on Sunday morning, the morning after the election, you wake up and the premier of B.C. is John Rustad and he begins his work to cut the services we all depend on?" said Eby. "It's incredibly tight and I'm asking people to think very carefully about how they would feel if they woke up on Sunday morning to premier John Rustad."
Green Leader Sonia Furstenau, who has said she doesn't expect her party to garner enough votes to form government, expressed throughout the campaign that electing Greens would ensure B.C. politics is not dominated in the legislature by the NDP or Conservatives.
At last week's televised leader's debate, Furstenau said both Eby and Rustad will need to be held in check by Green voices in the legislature.
She said the two leaders are aligned on continuing to subsidize the fossil fuel industry, and both are proposing a program on involuntary care to fight the province's drug overdose crisis instead of increasing voluntary treatment.
Furstenau, whose Greens won three seats in the 2017 election and helped the NDP form a minority government, has also often said her party was blindsided by the NDP when former premier John Horgan called a snap election in 2020.
Furstenau was one of two Greens elected to the legislature in 2020.
"The stakes are higher in this election than they've ever been before," Eby said. "This time let's stick together. Your vote matters in this election in a way that hasn't been the case before. We can ensure we're delivering a high quality health care system and we can make sure we're continuing to take climate action."
Rustad said at a campaign event Saturday, if elected, he would make cuts to the province's Clean BC program that aims to reduce harmful climate emissions by 40 per cent by 2030.
Former B.C. Green leader Andrew Weaver, a climate scientist whose research earned a Nobel prize, said he's backing Rustad's Conservatives even though he doesn't agree with the leader's skeptical views on climate change.
But B.C. Indigenous leaders called for voters to support the NDP "to ensure that Indigenous rights are not rolled back and that we can work together to address the climate emergency."
"We all need to realize what is at stake and what the consequences will be if your vote leads to John Rustad and the Conservatives getting elected," said a statement Sunday from Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs vice-president Don Tom and Chief Marilyn Slett of the Heiltsuk Nation.
"We urge you to vote for David Eby and the B.C. NDP in this election," said the chiefs. "Voting for anyone else risks a win for John Rustad and the B.C. Conservatives."
Rustad has previously said if his party wins the Oct. 19 election, B.C. would partner with First Nations and "unleash the potential" for prosperity through mining, forestry and other resource projects.
He said earlier the B.C. Conservatives would repeal legislation adopting the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, but the party has since said in a release it would honour the declaration "as it was intended," with laws advancing economic reconciliation and Indigenous autonomy.
-- By Dirk Meissner in Victoria
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 13, 2024.
The Canadian Press
