What British Columbians care about as federal election campaign gets underway
Posted March 24, 2025 7:25 am.
Last Updated March 24, 2025 7:26 am.
He’s only been in office for a couple of months, but the effect U.S. President Donald Trump is having on Canada’s federal election is being described as “astonishing.”
Research Co. president Mario Canseco says the number one deciding factor for voters in British Columbia is which party leader can handle Trump as Canada deals with ongoing threats of annexation in the midst of a trade war.
“One of the things we’ve seen over the past couple of weeks is the way in which Canadians are following the story related to Trump and the tariffs is higher than anything we’ve seen. There are a lot of people who are concerned about the way things are going,” Canseco told 1130 NewsRadio.
CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO 1130 NEWSRADIO VANCOUVER LIVE!Aside from Trump, he says people in B.C. want someone who will fix the housing crisis, including the lack of availability and the affordability crisis.
“It’s supplanting, in a way, what used to be health care as an issue. Health care is usually the number one issue for people aged 55 and older. The sarcastic person might say, ‘Well, they already have a house, so they’re going to be more worried about getting medical services,'” he explained.
“I think part of the complexity from a federal standpoint is you get all those questions in the debate about health care, and you always get the same answer from the federal politicians. ‘We gave your provinces the money and it’s your government’s fault you’re not getting the services you deserve.'”
Other topics that are seemingly falling by the wayside are childcare and the environment; the latter will likely hurt the Greens, Canseco adds.
“Even though we continue to be concerned about climate change, if you’re a young voter who is looking to get into the housing market, if you’re an over 55 voter who’s worried about health care, if you have all this spectre of Donald Trump over Canada, the environment is going to take a backseat,” Canseco explained, while adding that at this point, the NDP are an afterthought.
Canseco is also making a connection between what happened in October’s provincial election and the BC Conservatives.
“It’s also, more than anything, about whether the Conservatives can hold on to the youth vote. We saw that a little bit in the B.C. campaign where the BC Conservatives were able to connect with the 18-34-year-old demographic and the BC NDP had the 55 and over solidly behind them. So, let’s see if that happens with Pierre Poilievre,” he explained.
Canseco says growing patriotism could also swing the vote.
“There’s always been an ideological connection to the way Canadians relate to Trump. If you vote for the Liberals, NDP, or the Greens, you are more likely to dislike him,” he said.
“And with so many Conservative voters who really liked what he was doing prior to his taking office for the second time. The thing that has changed is back in 2016, he never talked about making Canada the 51st state and this is making a lot of Canadians uneasy.”
The silver lining, Canseco adds, is this year’s election could bring more people out to the polls.
“We haven’t had a voter turnout reaching 75 per cent since the two elections we had in the 1980s — in ’84 and ’88. It’s been lower than that. Sometimes closer to 70 [per cent], sometimes closer to 60 [per cent], but when you have this many Canadians essentially following a story, it suggests we may have people in their 30s, 40s, or 50s who haven’t voted in a while, who might actually cast a ballot,” he said.
Canseco says that as it stands, the Liberals have some momentum, pointing to the work former prime minister Justin Trudeau did handling the U.S. prior to leaving office and how it’s translating to current Prime Minister Mark Carney.
The party that is quickly losing any support, he stresses, is the Conservatives.
“You’re not going to see Pierre Poilievre suddenly defend multiculturalism. Also, very complicated to do when some of your campaign managers and people close to your party, and some of your MPs were congratulating Donald Trump on his victory and wearing MAGA hats,” he said.
“This is one of the most complex issues of this election because you are going to be seeing the Conservatives trying to distance themselves from Donald Trump when a lot of their supporters were flying the flag upside down just three or four months ago and insulting the sitting prime minister and now they’re trying to drape themselves in the Canadian flag … which is a bit strange to me.”
As the Liberals garner big names like former Vancouver mayor Gregor Robertson, Canseco hints it might be too little, too late for the Conservatives to do the same.
Election day is April 28.
