BC Liberals to vote on new leader amid membership concerns

Online and telephone voting begins Thursday for members of the BC Liberal Party to select a new leader.

The party has been without a permanent leader since Andrew Wilkinson announced he was stepping down following a disappointing result in the 2020 provincial election. MLA Shirly Bond has been serving as interim leader.

There are seven candidate vying for the position:

• Gavin Dew, an entrepreneur and business leader
• Kevin Falcon, former B.C. cabinet minister
• Michael Lee, current MLA for Vancouver-Langara
• Val Litwin, an advocate and business leader
• Renee Merrifield, current MLA for Kelowna-Mission
• Ellis Ross, current MLA for Skeena
• Stan Sipos, a real estate developer

 

The vote comes amid concerns from some about false memberships, after 20,000 people suddenly signed up during the leadership process, according to a petition filed in BC Supreme Court by party member Vikram Bajwa.

Bajwa is seeking to delay release of the vote results Saturday, pending the outcome of a membership audit.

Party spokesperson David Wasyluk says 1,140 memberships were found not to be in compliance, while another 1,423 were still being confirmed.

Wasyluk believes the party has taken reasonable steps to determine that new members are eligible to vote.

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Each member can cast one vote in the preferential ballot system. Each electoral district will be assigned 100 points to ensure the province’s electoral districts will be given equal weight in balloting. The first candidate to achieve more than 50 per cent of available points will be declared the winner.

Voting will end Saturday at 5 p.m.

With files from The Canadian Press