Former premier John Horgan’s 2020 snap election decision goes to court

A legal challenge to then-premier John Horgan’s decision to call a snap provincial election in the fall of 2020 is set to appear before the B.C. Court of Appeal on Thursday.

A non-partisan group called Democracy Watch is behind the suit. Spokesperson Duff Conacher says B.C.’s fixed election date laws have been around since 2001.

Conacher wants a ruling to prohibit future snap election calls because they are illegal under B.C.’s existing fixed election date legislation.

“Even though there was a pandemic on, premier Horgan acted like an old-school power-crazed politician, not a new democrat, and called a snap election to benefit his party,” he said.

“Premier Horgan not only violated the law, he violated the agreement that the NDP had made with the Green Party.”

By law, British Columbians shouldn’t have gone to the polls in 2020, instead, the election should have taken place on its fixed date in 2021.

“B.C. parties all agreed to fix election dates because it’s more fair to fix election dates and snap elections are unfair,” Conacher explained.

“John Horgan was the first premier to violate those provisions and did it for no reason other than to benefit the NDP as the ruling party.”

This isn’t the first time Democracy Watch has taken action against snap elections either, the group filed and won a similar suit in New Brunswick in December 2022.