New B.C. political party could attract votes: expert

An attempt to launch a new political party just ahead of the B.C. election could attract voters, according to one political watcher.

Hamish Telford is a political science professor at the University of the Fraser Valley.

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He says the collapse of the BC United Party — the rebranded Liberals — has left their moderate or centrist voters with few choices.

“I certainly think a lot of former BC Liberal voters feel that [another] option is necessary, and it’s no longer there. Of course, many former BC Liberal voters have been happy to go over to the Conservatives,” he explained.

“But the old party always styled itself as a coalition of liberals and conservatives, so not surprisingly, the more conservative-minded members of that coalition were happy to go to the conservatives, but the more liberal-minded members [feel they have been] abandoned, stranded.”

He says those voters left homeless by the collapse of BC United don’t feel comfortable with either major party.

“They probably view the Greens as a long shot, even if they were inclined to vote for them” Telford added.

“I think those people are looking for a new political home, and if the other parties can’t respond to their interests, then creating a party to fill that space is the obvious next step.”

Telford’s assessment comes after former federal MP Herb Dhaliwal tried to revive the BC Liberal name as the New Liberal Party. However, Elections BC rejected that name.

“Evidently, Elections BC has rules about the adoption of new names, and once a name has been used and retired, it’s out of service for a while, because they don’t want to create confusion in the minds of voters,” he explained.

“They would have to come back with a new title, maybe the ‘centrist party,’ or something like that, but then of course, if they’re going to run in this election, they would have a lot of work to do.”

Telford says the election is set to be called within the next coming days.

“Would the former United Liberal candidates running as independents come over to this entity? Would they have fundraising? Would they have organizational staff to launch?”

“It would be very difficult to do in short order,” he stressed.

Telford believes that a whole new name would be best for any political party trying to fill the gap, as BC United still exists as a political entity.

“It’s still a legal, political party, and they’re going to decide their future after the election. … They could actually get people elected to the Legislature — they only need two to get official party status in the Legislature, so that entity is not dead,” he explained.

“And certainly, once Kevin Flacon steps down, that entity would be free to go in another direction, possibly reclaiming its own old name.”