‘Seismic shift’: A look at the fall of BC United

It was billed as a “seismic shift” in the landscape of B.C. politics.

The party that had once led this province for 16 years was essentially obliterated in a blithe news conference, led by an unpopular leader who unilaterally suspended the campaigns of all his candidates.

That leader also endorsed a rival he’d once booted out of his own caucus, described as an extremist, and pledged never to join forces with.

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But what led to the fall of BC United?

Arguably, it all started with the disastrous rebrand from the familiar but unpopular BC Liberal banner to BC United last spring, flawed from the start.

It left people asking: what ideology were BC United supporters actually united by?

The party saw an immediate dip in the polls; analysts pondered that it was partially driven by a loss in name recognition and partially by the popularity of the federal Conservatives.

There was an evident failure in marketing as well, acknowledged by the party itself.

In July, internal BC United research showed about 30 per cent of voters had no idea who they were.

The party wanted to add the Liberal name they’d abandoned back to the ballot to remind voters it was the party they knew, and had booted out of government.

The NDP’s David Eby wasted no opportunity to take potshots at both United and the Conservatives over that.

“They’re so embarrassed with how they ran the province that they’ve both changed their party name and want to avoid any association with the sixteen years they were in government. And I understand why that is,” Eby said.

“I would want to change my name too. And whatever they change their name to before the election, they’re still the same guys that did the same things as BC Liberals, that they want to do again.”

In the meantime, BC United was polling at a dismal nine per cent, in fourth place behind the BC Greens.

United MLAs and candidates were jumping ship and heading over to the BC Conservatives at an alarming pace.

Embattled leader Kevin Falcon promised he would never consider merging with the fast-rising Conservatives, given their extremist views.

“There won’t be a merger,” Falcon said. “There’s practical reasons why, but many of their candidates are frankly too extreme. I can’t merge with a party that has candidates that equate vaccinations with Nazism or apartheid,” he added.

John Rustad of the Conservatives said in a now-deleted social media post that he’d approached Falcon about a possible agreement but was told to, “[expletive] off.”

Just 10 days later, in late May, Falcon asked Rustad to consider a non-compete agreement in certain ridings to protect incumbent BC United MLAs and give both parties the best chance of defeating the NDP.

The proposed agreement would have seen the two parties agree not to run candidates against each other, not to attack each other, and not to merge with each other.

But it was Rustad’s turn to send Falcon packing.

In late August, a matter of weeks before the start of the election campaign, the shoe dropped.

Kevin Falcon shook hands with the man he’d kicked out of his caucus barely two years prior, on his birthday, and endorsed him to be the next premier.

BC United was suspending its campaign and dropping all of its candidates, leaving some veteran MLAs feeling politically homeless.

A number of them are now running independently, giving this election campaign the largest proportion of independent candidates in B.C. history.

While BC United hasn’t ceased to exist, the party of Gordon Campbell and Christy Clark is no longer recognizable.

Not with a bang, but with a whimper.