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BC Conservative Platform | Political Capital Daily · Political Capital with Rob Shaw

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  Speaker 1: or chartered flights. For more, visit Helijet.com. It's Monday, October 19th, 2026,
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  Speaker 1: and this is Political Capital Daily. Good morning, happy Monday
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  Speaker 1: to you. Six days left in the British Columbia provincial
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  Speaker 1: election on Saturday, October 24th, down to the homestretch. The
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  Speaker 1: final week every day counts in a flurry of activity
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  Speaker 1: to discuss on the show. This morning, bring in Aileen Mitchell,
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  Speaker 1: former Deputy Chief of Staff to Premier David Eby. Hello, Aileen.
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  Speaker 2: Good morning, Robb.
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  Speaker 1: We have a different schedule for you this week. You're
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  Speaker 1: going to be up on Thursday's show, I believe. So
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  Speaker 1: we're shuffling people around here in the final days, but
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  Speaker 1: we'll still hear your thoughts on the week later in
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  Speaker 1: the week. But we've just come out of a weekend
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  Speaker 1: where there was a bunch of stuff, and I think
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  Speaker 1: we'll start... Well, actually, it's interesting because on a Monday,
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  Speaker 1: we're not entirely totally clear quite yet what all the
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  Speaker 1: campaigns are up to. The advisories are not quite as
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  Speaker 1: robust or... clear, but I'm sure they're going to be very,
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  Speaker 1: very busy. If you were to predict anything on what
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  Speaker 1: they're doing, what would you think?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, a couple predictions.
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  Speaker 3: First, this is the only week of the campaign that's
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  Speaker 3: focused entirely on the provincial election. I know you and
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  Speaker 3: I have been focused on the provincial election because we've
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  Speaker 3: been doing the podcast and other commentary. But for voters,
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  Speaker 3: they've had two elections that they were paying attention to.
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  Speaker 3: And so now we've got municipal results. So that municipal
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  Speaker 3: election is in the rearview mirror and now it'll be
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  Speaker 3: entirely focused on the provincial campaign. In the last week,
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  Speaker 3: it's usually the time when campaigns are out in full force.
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  Speaker 3: People who may have been working centrally on the campaign
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  Speaker 3: may be out in ridings trying to bolster the door
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  Speaker 3: knocking efforts and trying to really reach voters and make
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  Speaker 3: sure They know the choice that's in front of them
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  Speaker 3: and that they are prepared to go and cast their
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  Speaker 3: ballot on election day, which is Saturday, October 24th. And
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  Speaker 3: I've been doing some door knocking in different communities. I
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  Speaker 3: think we'll talk a little bit about that. But the
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  Speaker 3: other bold prediction I'm going to make for today is
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  Speaker 3: that I think Lauren Dirksen won't take questions on his platform.
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  Speaker 3: And the reason for that is he took a long
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  Speaker 3: time to get a costed platform out. And of course,
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  Speaker 3: they put it out after he was already up in
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  Speaker 3: the afternoon yesterday, which is a very odd and interesting
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  Speaker 3: choice to put out the platform and then not have
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  Speaker 3: the leader take any.
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  Speaker 2: Questions about it.
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  Speaker 3: And so I, judging based on how they've operated to date,
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  Speaker 3: sort of hiding him from tough questions when they needed to,
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  Speaker 3: I think that there's a strong likelihood that he won't
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  Speaker 3: be taking questions on the platform today.
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  Speaker 1: Interesting. I think that would... it's possible, as you mentioned, there's, uh,
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  Speaker 1: there's been an odd, somewhat odd strategy on the platform
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  Speaker 1: to release it after his media availability on, uh, on yesterday.
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  Speaker 1: And then it wasn't really even a media release so
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  Speaker 1: much as it was just kind of this thing that
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  Speaker 1: the party put out. And it was like, it's all online.
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  Speaker 1: If you want to look at it, here's the link. And, uh,
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  Speaker 1: that was interesting too, but, um, we, we have looked
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  Speaker 1: at it. So we'll, we'll talk about it now. Uh,
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  Speaker 1: a few things, uh, that stand out here. The document
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  Speaker 1: talks about growing the economy, which is similar to the
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  Speaker 1: NDP's platform, collecting billions more in spending from the economic growth,
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  Speaker 1: doing a core review to find savings inside government, freezing
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  Speaker 1: some staff and attrition of staff outside of what it
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  Speaker 1: calls the front lines, and basically trying to generate enough revenue,
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  Speaker 1: it says, around two and a half billion-ish over three
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  Speaker 1: years to shrink the deficit down. to 10.8 billion by 2030.
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  Speaker 1: It's currently at 14 billion-ish. So that's, you know, not
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  Speaker 1: a balanced budget, but no one is promising a balanced
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  Speaker 1: budget except the Greens. And it is less of a
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  Speaker 1: deficit than the NDP, although the NDP dispute that with
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  Speaker 1: some of the math that I'm sure we'll talk about here.
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  Speaker 1: And only the other things, well, let's just start with that.
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  Speaker 1: Let's start with the numbers in it. The NDP saying
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  Speaker 1: that there's things that aren't in here, The Canadian alcohol
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  Speaker 1: PST removal wasn't calculated. That's 280 million. They undercounted, overestimated
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  Speaker 1: at different things. They think the conservative deficit is going
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  Speaker 1: to be 13 and a half billion in the following year,
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  Speaker 1: which is slightly more than the NDP one. And anyways,
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  Speaker 1: we're arguing about the difference between like a billion dollars
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  Speaker 1: in the hole when the hole is super deep at
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  Speaker 1: this point. But the two going back and forth on math. Aileen,
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  Speaker 1: how do you think the math lined up?
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  Speaker 3: Well, Yeah, it was interesting to see the NDP come
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  Speaker 3: out with their analysis of the conservative platform quite quickly.
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  Speaker 2: And they essentially called it a shell.
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  Speaker 3: Game that the BC conservatives are playing. And they noted
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  Speaker 3: in particular that the conservative claim of cutting contingencies would
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  Speaker 3: actually mean less money for health care because contingencies have
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  Speaker 3: been used in large part to fund caseload growth in
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  Speaker 3: health care. And contingencies are also used for wildfire response,
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  Speaker 3: So you want to have that money there to help
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  Speaker 3: with the wildfire response that we know comes every single year.
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  Speaker 1: They are abnormally large contingencies though. Like they're the largest
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  Speaker 1: I've ever seen outside of COVID and they are used
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  Speaker 1: to fund programs. So there is probably some cutting they could,
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  Speaker 1: but yes, it is used for wildfires and case management,
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  Speaker 1: disability and income assistance as well. You're right on all that.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: But as a point of contention, I guess, between the
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  Speaker 1: two on how they should be used maybe.
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  Speaker 3: Well, and I think the Conservatives should explain how they're
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  Speaker 3: going to fund the caseload growth in healthcare if they're
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  Speaker 3: at the same time cutting these contingency budgets. The other
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  Speaker 3: piece that I thought was interesting in the NDP response
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  Speaker 3: is that they say the Conservatives also increased the BCNDP's
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  Speaker 3: deficit estimate and then reduced the BCNDP's economic growth forecast
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  Speaker 3: in order to be able to claim their own deficits
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  Speaker 3: would be slightly smaller. So I think it's those sorts
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  Speaker 3: of holes that are going to be poked in this
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  Speaker 3: plan in the remaining days of the campaign. But there's
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  Speaker 3: only a few more days left for that work to
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  Speaker 3: happen because the BC Conservatives waited so long to get
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  Speaker 3: out their costed platform. And in fact, it actually meant
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  Speaker 3: that hundreds of thousands of people have already voted without
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  Speaker 3: even seeing the platform.
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  Speaker 1: Some of the items that are in here we did
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  Speaker 1: know about. There was kind of the existing sort of
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  Speaker 1: look at.
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  Speaker 1: The $ 1, 000 tax credit change, the canceling the PST expansion,
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  Speaker 1: the PST exemption for capital costs, those things we knew about.
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  Speaker 1: Some other items that kind of came out here, an
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  Speaker 1: expert task force that it says would figure out the
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  Speaker 1: true state of the budget. I thought that was supposed
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  Speaker 1: to be the finance ministry, but I guess there's some
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  Speaker 1: distrust of that. An audit on the capital plan. gutting
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  Speaker 1: Metro Vancouver, which we've heard about and talked about in
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  Speaker 1: the past, anything that can be done by other municipalities,
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  Speaker 1: get rid of it, repeal Clean BC, do a 100-day
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  Speaker 1: review of the health system, repeal DRIPA. I thought the
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  Speaker 1: Indigenous part, repeal DRIPA, protect fee-simple property rights, and then
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  Speaker 1: publish maps and info on all active claims and land
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  Speaker 1: claims before they become binding, and stop Indigenous-only park use
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  Speaker 1: provincial parks, which exists in some provincial parks right now
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  Speaker 1: for cultural and spiritual reasons at certain times of the year.
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  Speaker 1: So some of the stuff we knew, some of it's
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  Speaker 1: a little new. There's nothing massive in there. There's no like,
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  Speaker 1: I don't know if anything else stood out for you
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  Speaker 1: that we didn't know, but it seems like most of
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  Speaker 1: it had already kind of been out there.
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  Speaker 2: Well, yeah.
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  Speaker 3: And on this, you know, this expert panel that they
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  Speaker 3: want to hire to review the budget, I'd be interested
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  Speaker 3: to hear takes on this from former Canadian Taxpayer Federation
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  Speaker 3: spokesperson Carson Binda and how he feels about the Conservatives
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  Speaker 3: wanting to pay more people to review the budget on
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  Speaker 3: top of.
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  Speaker 2: The Finance Ministry.
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  Speaker 3: The other thing that stood out to me in the platform,
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  Speaker 3: there's a section under energy and electricity where they talk
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  Speaker 3: about building the grid transmission into the Northwest. And so
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  Speaker 3: I'm not sure if that is related to the North
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  Speaker 3: Coast transmission line, but the Conservatives had been opposed to
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  Speaker 3: it previously. And it's a really important project. So yeah,
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  Speaker 3: I think there's lots of questions for the BC Conservatives
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  Speaker 3: on the whole platform, the holes, the shell games. And
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  Speaker 3: it'll be interesting to see if Lauren Dirksen gets those
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  Speaker 3: questions today.
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  Speaker 1: The one other thing that interested me, I saw the
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  Speaker 1: NDP release on childcare just the other day, expanding before
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  Speaker 1: and after school childcare. I think that was on Saturday
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  Speaker 1: during the weekend. Time is blurred like apologize for that.
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  Speaker 1: But there was no mention in the NDP plan of
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  Speaker 1: $ 10 a day, which I know the DVDs kind of
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  Speaker 1: been under a bit of attack for because it was
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  Speaker 1: revealed he has kids in $ 10 a day spaces. But
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  Speaker 1: the conservative plan did say that they would change the
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  Speaker 1: $ 10 a day space program to allocate those for the
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  Speaker 1: people who need them the most, presumably on some type
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  Speaker 1: of income test. And then as they expand more, allocate
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  Speaker 1: them to people who, so there was a slight difference, uh,
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  Speaker 1: on that. And there was a multi-generational home renovation tax
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  Speaker 1: credit and some, a restoration of autism, a reversal of
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  Speaker 1: autism funding changes, which was actually a big one that, um,
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  Speaker 1: David Eby himself had reversed after the 2020, uh, 2020
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  Speaker 1: becoming premier and then double reversed prior to this election
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  Speaker 1: to bring back the thing that wasn't as popular. And
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  Speaker 1: now the Conservatives are going to triple reverse it. So
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  Speaker 1: we're down to the triple reverse of autism funding changes,
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  Speaker 1: which is very complicated. Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: So I did watch Dirksen's press conference yesterday, the one
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  Speaker 3: that happened before they released the platform. And the autism
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  Speaker 3: funding piece was actually included in that announcement. And it
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  Speaker 3: was focused on what they were calling a thriving BC
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  Speaker 3: kids plan.
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  Speaker 2: It included some.
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  Speaker 3: Things in there that the NDP has already done, and
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  Speaker 3: it's already in place, for example, a cell phone ban.
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  Speaker 3: And I think protecting kids is the right thing to do.
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  Speaker 3: And BC really led the charge on a lot of
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  Speaker 3: this work in terms of protecting kids and raising concerns around,
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  Speaker 3: you know, the impact of cell phones in schools. I
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  Speaker 3: was in the premier's office when we had our safe,
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  Speaker 3: healthy kids plan, and it had a whole bunch of
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  Speaker 3: different pieces in it. But there was a cell phone ban,
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  Speaker 3: highly popular, of course, there was services being launched to
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  Speaker 3: remove images from the internet and pursue predators. And then
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  Speaker 3: there was the work around establishing protection for kids on
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  Speaker 3: social media. And that was done through working at a
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  Speaker 3: table with the major social media companies. And then they
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  Speaker 3: got an agreement to improve safety protocols. A lot of
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  Speaker 3: this work was led by Nikki Sharma. And it sort
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  Speaker 3: of raised the profile of this issue that impacts everybody.
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  Speaker 3: And it was also sort of lumped in with other
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  Speaker 3: actions like how the BCNDP expanded Foundry Youth Mental Health
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  Speaker 3: Centre's and launched an anti-vaping strategy and then also expanded
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  Speaker 3: school food programs through Feeding Futures.
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  Speaker 2: And so that.
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  Speaker 3: School meal program was also mentioned in Dirksen's announcement yesterday.
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  Speaker 3: So it's interesting to see the Conservatives sort of pursue
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  Speaker 3: a similar theme.
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  Speaker 1: I thought we had banned. I remember the NDP banning
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  Speaker 1: bell-to-bell phone use across the province before the 2024 election.
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  Speaker 1: provincial election because it was very popular and i don't
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  Speaker 1: know what happened since then that we're rebanting it but
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  Speaker 1: it certainly is not banned like it there are still
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  Speaker 1: cell phones in classrooms in some classrooms but there was
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: that pushback from the school districts that were kind of
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: like let us do our own thing we don't need
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: to be told what to do thank you very much
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: provincial government uh and so i guess i've lost track
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: of where we're at on cell phones in schools but
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: feel free to contact me online, those in the system.
• 13:06
  Speaker 2: You're going to get lots.
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: Oh, boy.
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: You'll get lots of emails.
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  Speaker 1: Yes, you can just email me at vaughn.palmer at vancouversun.com. Okay,
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: all right. Let's take a quick break, and we'll come
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: back with some other topics for the show. Well, Political
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• 14:07
  Speaker 1: We should touch on the other consequential event of the weekend,
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: the municipal elections, which occurred on Saturday the 17th. It was,
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: I think if we were to describe it here, a
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: very difficult night for incumbent mayors and some incumbent councillors.
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: We have new mayors in Vancouver. Ken Sim fell. Suri's
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: Brenda Locke fell. Kamloops' Reedhammer Jackson fell. Prince George's Simon
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: Yu fell. New mayors moved in there. We also had
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: the mayor defeated in New Westminster. West Vancouver, White Rock, Langford, Delta.
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: What else did we have? Port Alberni, Langley, City of Langley,
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  Speaker 1: I think, Maple Ridge. I mean, it just went on
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: and on. It was a difficult night for incumbents overall, Aileen.
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: That seems to be the takeaway because putting it into
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: a kind of partisan left and right, as Justin McElroy
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: of the CBC wrote in his kind of coverage, that
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: Vancouver shifted to the left- under Pete Fry, the Green Mayor,
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: but New Westminster shifted to the right. And Suri did
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: this kind of like 360 back to Doug McCallum for
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: a third time, which is wild at the age of 82.
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: So it's harder to find maybe the ideological line, but
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: it feels like the through line was change and incumbency
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: and willing to try something new. But I don't know
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: what stood out for you from the municipal elections.
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  Speaker 3: Well, it is hard to draw any single conclusion because
• 15:34
  Speaker 3: incumbents won in some communities and then they lost in others.
• 15:37
  Speaker 3: If there's a takeaway, I think it's that voters went
• 15:39
  Speaker 3: with the people they already knew, people who had name recognition.
• 15:42
  Speaker 3: So when you look at who won, for example, in Surrey, McCallum,
• 15:46
  Speaker 3: former mayor, name recognition there. Pete Fry also has name recognition.
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  Speaker 1: And then- Stu Young in Langford?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, Stu Young, exactly.
• 15:56
  Speaker 3: And then When it comes to sort of the, you know,
• 16:00
  Speaker 3: political ideology, you know, where they might sit on the
• 16:02
  Speaker 3: political spectrum, you had progressives win in some communities and
• 16:07
  Speaker 3: then maybe further right wing politicians in other communities like,
• 16:11
  Speaker 3: you know, Victoria and Vancouver are good examples where the
• 16:14
  Speaker 3: progressives won. And so I'm not sure you can draw
• 16:17
  Speaker 3: any single conclusion from it, although everyone will be trying
• 16:21
  Speaker 3: to do that this week. Because everyone is trying to
• 16:24
  Speaker 3: figure out what is going to happen on Saturday. Everyone's
• 16:27
  Speaker 3: keeping their ears to the ground. They're talking to people,
• 16:29
  Speaker 3: trying to look at polls, trying to figure out from
• 16:33
  Speaker 3: the campaigns how they're actually feeling about the race. And
• 16:36
  Speaker 3: I think that we won't know. It's impossible to know
• 16:39
  Speaker 3: until Saturday. But all signs point to a very close
• 16:43
  Speaker 3: election provincially that's coming on Saturday.
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: So close that the other item that came up on
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: Sunday was David Eby at a stop in Campbell River
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: saying this is so close right now. Voters need to
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: think carefully about voting green, that while he respects Green
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: Leader Emily Lohan, she will not become premier and any
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: vote for her just ends up electing the conservatives who
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: are going to cut the bejesus out of everything. That's
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: not a literal quote. I'm paraphrasing what he was saying.
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: also said that the Greens were part of vote splitting
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: in the last election that cost the NDP 11 ridings,
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: including on the North Island, and that the differences between
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: the two parties are very small and that Greens should
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: come home essentially to the NDP, which prompted a fiery
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: response from Emily Lowen saying EB's trying to scare people
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: into voting for him because he's failed to put a
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: reasonable case before them for a snap election. That's a
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: big gap. Tell that to the families waiting for $ 10
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: a day spaces or renters for their rebates, and that
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: voters aren't looking for a perfect government, which is a
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: line EB is increasingly using now, that it hasn't been perfect.
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: But they are, in her words, asking for a government
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: that keeps its word, makes life affordable, and makes sure
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: care is there when they need it. So a back
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: and forth here. The NDP do do this almost every election. 2024,
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: near the end, they say, hey, listen, you know, I mean,
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: it'd be nice to vote Greens, but this is the
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: most consequential election of our time, insert year here. They
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: can't go to the Greens because it's just going to,
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: it's too tight. It's too tight to do that. I
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: remember that all the way back to 2013. So I
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: don't know if this is new news or we expected it, Aileen,
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: or if it's going to make a difference or what
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: you thought of it.
• 18:29
  Speaker 3: I think it is an effective message when we have
• 18:32
  Speaker 3: a race that is this tight. And I would point
• 18:35
  Speaker 3: out that it's not just the BC NDP using this message.
• 18:39
  Speaker 3: It is being validated by former BC Green candidates in
• 18:42
  Speaker 3: Kelowna Centre. Kelowna Centre being one of those ridings where
• 18:46
  Speaker 3: the Green votes absolutely made a difference because the NDP
• 18:50
  Speaker 3: candidate lost by under 40 votes. And there were far
• 18:54
  Speaker 3: more Green votes than that. And so there are a
• 18:57
  Speaker 3: number of ridings where those green votes do make a
• 18:59
  Speaker 3: huge difference. The thing that stood out to me in
• 19:04
  Speaker 3: the news release that came out from the BC NDP
• 19:06
  Speaker 3: was they pointed to a whole bunch of candidates on
• 19:09
  Speaker 3: the conservative side that obviously would turn off green voters
• 19:13
  Speaker 3: because some of them are climate change deniers or questioners.
• 19:16
  Speaker 3: So the news release mentioned this guy, Dave Johnston, who
• 19:20
  Speaker 3: has posted or amplified climate change conspiracies at least a
• 19:23
  Speaker 3: dozen times online. And then they also pointed to other
• 19:27
  Speaker 3: climate change skeptics on the Conservative team, like Sheldon Clare,
• 19:30
  Speaker 3: who said, I'm just not seeing it.
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: I'm seeing cold weather.
• 19:33
  Speaker 3: And then Bruce Bandman, who said he needs more information
• 19:37
  Speaker 3: on the climate change.
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: Put down your bagpipes, Sheldon. Put your bagpipes down and
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: take a look around at the world.
• 19:42
  Speaker 2: It does. I mean, it does get cold in Prince George.
• 19:45
  Speaker 3: But I think like the reason why this is also
• 19:49
  Speaker 3: such an effective message right now is that the election
• 19:52
  Speaker 3: of Pete Fry in Vancouver shows what can be achieved
• 19:55
  Speaker 3: when progressive voters vote together as one block, because that's
• 19:59
  Speaker 3: what we saw in Vancouver. And it prevented the more
• 20:02
  Speaker 3: right wing mayor from getting in and put and put
• 20:07
  Speaker 3: Pete Fry in the mayoral seat.
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: But in that case, the sort of traditional NDP movement
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: had to take a knee to back Pete Fry, sort of.
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: Like you have to coalesce around one or the other.
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: And I guess the argument the NDP is using is
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: you can't coalesce around the Greens because they can't win.
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: So you've only got one option left. But as Jillian Oliver,
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: you know, excellent member of Political Capital Prime, longest serving
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: panelist on the show, former BC Green campaign manager and strategist,
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: put it on X slash Twitter. She tweeted that it's
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: always shameless when the BC NDP does this, but especially
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: galling when you are the ones who rolled the dice
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: with the snap election, voters should be earned through trust,
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: not blackmail, which I thought was a good way to
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: summarize the sort of green position on it. Always, the
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: greens are always very outraged when the NDP does this.
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: I remember in 2020, after the confidence and supply agreement,
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: when the NDP called the early election and then deployed
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: all the heavyweights out to wipe the Greens off the
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: face of the map in the remaining ridings, and the
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: Greens survived. And they were, but they were so shocked.
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: They were like, you want to defeat us? I can't,
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: and I think they've got over that now. But they
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: are always very offended when the NDP does this, this appeal,
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: and it occurs on almost every election, like clockwork.
• 21:24
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and I think that the question is, you know,
• 21:28
  Speaker 3: do these Green voters want to see a Conservative government, right?
• 21:32
  Speaker 3: And that's the question that has been put forward by
• 21:34
  Speaker 3: the BC NDP campaign. And I think that it's one
• 21:38
  Speaker 3: that Green supporters, who might be willing to switch their vote,
• 21:43
  Speaker 3: are going to think about quite seriously ahead of Saturday
• 21:45
  Speaker 3: when they go to mark their ballot.
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: I want to mention the advanced voting numbers that have
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: been reported by Elections BC, and there'll be more this
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: morning from the third day. There's kind of a day
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: lag here, but the first two days of advanced voting
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: saw almost 338,000 ballots cast. That's more than the first
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: two days of the last election in 2024. And the
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: trajectory would indicate that it would be even better than
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: the 2024 advanced voting turnout if it continues this way,
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: which is, I think, part of a trend, Aileen, we
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: do see and that folks are leaning towards advanced voting.
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: They're taking advantage of those days. Elections BC puts more
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: days out. They make it easier. You can advance vote
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: anywhere now at different polling stations. So like, it's a
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: chicken and egg or build it and they will come,
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: but advanced voting seems to be taken off.
• 22:36
  Speaker 2: Yes.
• 22:36
  Speaker 3: Well, and I think it's great because it means more
• 22:38
  Speaker 3: people are engaged in our democracy and they're getting out
• 22:40
  Speaker 3: to vote earlier. I think that the higher numbers in
• 22:44
  Speaker 3: both of the elections also shows that voters are smart.
• 22:47
  Speaker 3: They understand the differences municipally and provincially and the overlapping
• 22:51
  Speaker 3: campaigns hasn't had the impact that some had predicted.
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: Sure.
• 22:55
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: And just finally, you've been out door knocking recently. in
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: the campaign for new Democrats in different areas. What have
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: you been hearing? What's that been like? Yes.
• 23:06
  Speaker 3: So in Courtney Comox, I've heard a lot about healthcare.
• 23:10
  Speaker 3: And I also had heard a bit about this idea
• 23:14
  Speaker 3: that there is a risk of sending a conservative MLA
• 23:18
  Speaker 3: back to the legislature when it is such a close riding,
• 23:21
  Speaker 3: or at least it has been in past years.
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: And so that green vote does matter.
• 23:25
  Speaker 3: And then on the Sunshine Coast, That was sort of
• 23:28
  Speaker 3: interesting because we had the municipal election going on at
• 23:32
  Speaker 3: the same time as provincial. So when I was on
• 23:35
  Speaker 3: the Sunshine Coast, I actually had the opportunity to knock
• 23:38
  Speaker 3: doors for both provincial and municipal candidates because I am
• 23:41
  Speaker 3: an exceptional political nerd. And so I got to hear
• 23:45
  Speaker 3: issues on both the provincial and the municipal front that
• 23:50
  Speaker 3: people cared about at the doorstep. I heard a lot
• 23:52
  Speaker 3: about BC ferries. and how important that is for people
• 23:56
  Speaker 3: on the Sunshine Coast because they have to use it
• 23:58
  Speaker 3: to get where they need to go. Heard a little
• 24:01
  Speaker 3: bit about health care there as well. But municipally, so
• 24:04
  Speaker 3: for the Sunshine Coast Regional District, there was one super
• 24:08
  Speaker 3: spicy issue that came up, and it's one that can
• 24:11
  Speaker 3: be highly divisive in other communities in BC as well.
• 24:14
  Speaker 3: It has the potential to tear apart communities. And guess
• 24:19
  Speaker 3: which one that is.
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: ICBC no-fault insurance? Deferred capital maintenance and long-term debt growth?
• 24:25
  Speaker 2: No, it is pickleball.
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: Ah, the pickleball.
• 24:29
  Speaker 3: Yes.
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: Civil war in the making right there on pickleball. Yeah.
• 24:32
  Speaker 3: Cause you know, some people, they either really love it.
• 24:35
  Speaker 3: They really love it. Like my dad is super into pickleball. Um,
• 24:39
  Speaker 3: but then some people really, really despise it, I guess.
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: Because it's loud, right?
• 24:43
  Speaker 2: Well, it's loud.
• 24:44
  Speaker 3: There's, there's something to do with like, yeah, lines and, uh,
• 24:48
  Speaker 3: and yes, the, the noise is, I think the big
• 24:50
  Speaker 3: complaint that, that we often hear about in different communities.
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: And they take over the tennis courts. So then the
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: tennis people are upset. And then the pickleball people are like,
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: we demand equal treatment and reparations. These balls don't pickle themselves.
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: We need a place to play. And the tennis people
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: are like, over my dead body since 1902, we've been
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: playing on this court. This is a fine, refined game.
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: The pickleball people are like, get out of the way,
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: you old hosers. We're going to play hover pickleball.
• 25:19
  Speaker 2: It's a whole thing. Was it a ballot box question?
• 25:22
  Speaker 2: Was it?
• 25:23
  Speaker 3: I'm not sure if I would go that far, but
• 25:25
  Speaker 3: certainly it's something people care about.
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: We'll have to wait and see if Brad West gets
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: behind it as the real litmus test for what's resonating
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: on the streets. If he starts coming out pro pickleball.
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: We know, we know that that's it.
• 25:36
  Speaker 3: You may not want to weigh in one way or
• 25:38
  Speaker 3: the other, right?
• 25:40
  Speaker 2: Like that's how divisive it is.
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: Too hot to handle. Well, you know, if we see
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: David Eby in the final days here coming out pro pickleball,
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: all tennis courts will be converted to pickleball courts. We know,
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: we know that some polling has been done behind the
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: rooms on the pickle and the balling and off he goes.
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: So you never know. You never know.
• 25:57
  Speaker 2: Okay, great.
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: Thanks, Aileen. I appreciate you doing the show this morning.
• 26:01
  Speaker 2: Great to be here.
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: For everybody listening, we got a diverse cast of folks
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: coming up this week. Nicole Broussard and Todd Stone are back.
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: We have Jillian Oliver. We have Ali Blades. We have
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: Jeff Ferrier. We also have Political Capital Prime on Friday,
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: which will be airing Friday afternoon. And on Saturday, which
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: is Election Day, right before the live coverage that we
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: have on Election Day, night. Aileen, you're going to be
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: part of that as well for CHECK on election night.
• 26:31
  Speaker 2: I'll be there in studio.
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: Going to be a lot going on and a lot
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: of coverage for you. Make sure you stay tuned, stay engaged,
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: and above all, get out and vote. No matter how
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: you vote, get out there and do it. We'll see
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: you tomorrow on Political Capital Daily. Take care.