Front Burner - B.C.'s pandemic election

Episode Date: October 22, 2020

This Saturday, British Columbians head to the polls in a snap provincial election. According to NDP Leader John Horgan, the intent is to maintain political stability in the next year as the province continues to deal with the threat of COVID-19. Today on Front Burner, CBC provincial affairs reporter Tanya Fletcher, who covers the B.C. Legislature, walks us through the issues and controversies that are capturing attention during the short but eventful campaign.

In the Dragon's Den, a simple pitch can lead to a life-changing connection. Watch new episodes of Dragon's Den free on CBC Gem. Brought to you in part by National Angel Capital Organization, empowering Canada's entrepreneurs through angel investment and industry connections. This is a CBC Podcast. This pandemic will be with us for a year or more, and that's why I believe we need to have an election now. We can either delay that decision and create uncertainty and instability over the next 12 months, more speculation, more talk about what might be, or we can do what I believe is always the right thing and ask British Columbians what they think.

So one month ago, BC NDP Premier John Horgan called a snap election. And this Saturday, British Columbians will head to the polls. This is only the second election in Canada to take place during the pandemic. So on top of keeping up with the candidates and their platforms, there's also a lot of attention being paid to the actual logistics of the voting process. The campaign has been a short one, but also managed to become pretty ugly very quickly. Despite the controversies, it's become clear that this election's messaging is all about trying to meet British Columbians where

they are during the pandemic. Today, my colleague, BC Provincial Affairs reporter Tanya Fletcher on what's at stake in this election. I'm Jamie Poisson, and this is FrontBurner. Hi, Tanya. Hi, Jamie. Thanks so much for being with me today. I hear you were actually on holiday when this election was called last month. Yeah, it's true. Murphy's Law, have the political reporter away when a snap election is called.

There were rumblings that this could be a possibility, so I wanted to get some of my vacation days out of the way before it happened. But alas, I drove back very quickly, nine hours, did some live hits off the side of the highway at a few points along the way. But here we are. Okay, okay. So let's get into this because lots to cover today. I know that the fixed election date in BC was actually supposed to be next year, October 2021. But John Horgan's argument for the election was that it would otherwise create, quote, uncertainty and instability over the next year. We are far from out of the woods. We are not at the end of COVID-19. We're at the beginning. This pandemic will be with us for a year or more. And that's why I believe we need to have an election now.

And so what grounds does he have to make that argument? The central question this whole time has been, why are we having an election at all right now? You know, you hear from people on the street and you try and talk to them about policies and platforms. And it seems many people circle back to there was no need at a time like this during a global pandemic to be calling an election. to there was no need at a time like this during a global pandemic to be calling an election. There's way more important things I should be focusing on than trying to gain power at this time in my opinion. And that would be my question to our premier. Why now? Is this opportunistic? So John Horgan has had a tough time trying to defend that. The main reason behind that is that the NDP wanted to take advantage of John Horgan's sky-high popularity.

You know, he was among the opinion polls. He was the most popular premier out of all his counterparts across the country. He was largely praised for handling the pandemic so far. And so the NDP saw a window of opportunity. They wanted to do this now, pull the trigger while they're still very popular and do it before the COVID bills start to pile up, right? But there is kind of a great irony in all of this here. Horgan's popularity rose because he largely didn't politicize the pandemic. You know, he took a backseat to health officials and Dr. Bonnie Henry. Right, just sort of handed over the reins to her, right?

Exactly. Yeah, he let her kind of take control of the situation here. So he was praised for not politicizing the pandemic. And yet his popularity grew so much by doing that, that he pulled the ultimate, I guess, politicizing of a pandemic by sending people to the polls in the middle of it all. And so it was a really high risk, high reward gamble to pull the trigger now and try to secure a majority government. That's why he's doing it, right? We're in a minority situation. And the NDP needs that support from the Green Party. And so Horgan was banking on low voter backlash, hoping that people if there was anger at the beginning for calling this election, that they wouldn't translate that on the ballot when it came time. As you mentioned, Horgan has led an NDP minority since 2017. And then

they've done so with the support of the Green Party. It's like a formal agreement. So the Greens have two, and they've been able to govern because of this relationship. And so how might the election change the power sharing agreement between the NDP and the Greens? Well, if the NDP has it their way, this election will wipe out that power-sharing agreement entirely. Basically, you know, Horgan only became premier after signing that deal with the Greens and penned right into that power-sharing agreement was a promise not to call an early election. And now he's trying to pin the blame on that party that's propped him up, which adds a whole other... Oh, interesting. Why?

Yeah. It's a whole other layer of backstabbing, you might want to say. But, you know, Horgan claims he called the snap election because B.C. had a fragile, unstable government. You know, he said, I think his quote was, I have it here. He says, I cannot imagine 12 more months of bickering, 12 more months of not knowing whether a bill would pass the legislature because of uncertainty in numbers. We have had, as you know, through the summer, some challenges with passing legislation. The stability that I believe we had over the course of our minority government is not as strong as it was when we began. Sonia Firstenau, who leads the Green Party right now, she categorically denies that. She said, look, there is no way that you're calling this election because we have an unstable minority government.

She said, I'll prove it. She made public a letter that she wrote to him just a week before the election was called, right after she became leader of the Greens. She's a new Green leader. And in it, she wrote in there that she would support John Horgan, that the Greens would support the NDP on all matters of confidence and that there would be no question about whether they would continue to support the NDP moving forward. This has not been a time of instability in government.

This has been a time of unbelievable cooperation and collaboration for the people of British Columbia. This is exactly what John Horgan should have continued doing. He has chosen not to. So that was a little dubious in John Horgan trying to use that as the reasoning for calling this election because the Greens haven't let him forget it. Right. I can't imagine she's very pleased with what's happening right now. No, and she's made that the entire spearhead of her strategy through this campaign is, you know, for the first week or two, at least every day she stood up there, no matter which campaign stop she was at and said, you know, John Horgan is selfish. He broke his own legislation in calling an election early because we have fixed election dates here. They're really trying to paint him as untrustworthy.

This is an irresponsible and unnecessary election that he's posing. And whatever excuses he's making up for it, let's be clear. This is about him and his party putting their fortunes ahead of British Columbians at a time when people are worried about their jobs, their financial security, their children and their health. And he has to realize that he is out of touch with reality for most British Columbians right now. And the BC Liberals, the other, you know the pandemic is playing in this election? You mentioned earlier that there's been a lot of support for John Horgan's government,

how he's dealt with it in sort of this unpoliticized nature. But how is the pandemic playing into what the parties are saying that they're going to do in this election to help people where they are. Yeah, it's interesting to watch because normally through any, you know, campaign provincially, we hear about hot button issues like, you know, housing and affordability and those types of things. Those are still being talked about to some degree, but certainly not on the scale we normally see. And it's all being put through the lens of the pandemic. So, you know, you talk about the economy and how that's being pitched in the platforms. The NDP, for example, has a $1.5 billion economic recovery plan.

But the NDP's kind of big populist promise is a $1,000 cash back, essentially, for families. And so some are saying that's just, you know, trying to bribe votes or vote buying. But the NDP is saying, well, look, we're in a pandemic. Families are struggling. And so there are some parameters to it. But basically, it's $1,000 in your pocket for families. Well, the package will cost about $1.4 billion. And that's putting dollars right into the pockets

of those families that need it the most. I think this is a good investment in people. They'll not put this in tax havens in the Grand Caymans, like those that are looking at B.C. Liberal tax cut proposals. And then conversely, you look at the B.C. Liberals. They're the right of centre party here. And so they have vowed to eliminate the PST altogether for an entire year. Because this will give people spring in their step.

This will give people a chance to get ahead. This will build British Columbia by bringing in investment and giving people the confidence to get back involved in our economy. And that is a big, bold promise. That's their kind of the biggest one of the campaign. And they've been desperately trying to change the conversation because they have been, they've taken such a backseat during the pandemic, right? They dialed down the rhetoric, they toned down the partisanship, and now they're trying to come forward and become relevant again to the point of winning back government. And so they put out this kind of Hail Mary promise in their platform to eliminate the PST for an entire year, that 7% provincial sales tax. And then after that, they would bring it back kind of on a graduated scale at 3%. Just to give people a bit of a break this year because this year is so difficult.

And their reasoning, yeah, exactly. Their reasoning using that through the lens of the pandemic is that that will encourage consumer spending, right? It will get people, the economy going again because people might go out and buy goods. And all of the promises we're seeing are being looked at because of the pandemic. And that's largely what this election comes down to. I have not heard from a single voter and have not heard from a single party member who thinks this is a time for austerity. We have got to support each other in this time of COVID and we'll make our way through it together. What about the Greens and their new party leader, Sonia Firstenau?

What are they promising to do in this election? How are they standing? Well, it's really interesting to see the Greens trying to shed the Green Party of the past. I sat down with leader Sonia Firstenau last week. Keep in mind, she only became leader about a week before this election was called. And I don't think that's a coincidence either from the NDP standpoint. That was, I mean, a great bonus for them to catch the Green Party flat footed and not have a chance for British Columbians to get to know their new leader. The predecessor, Andrew Weaver, he's really the one who brought the Green Party to where it was with prominence in this province. And he stepped down. There were some internal cracks within the Green Party and some fractures that began to surface.

So he stepped down as party leader. I think it's important to pass the torch at a time after there's been a lot of success. And I will say that the next leader will inherit a party that has never been in better shape. Not only that, he then went on to leave the Green Party entirely. He sat as an independent when the legislature dissolved, but he's not running again. He's retiring. And he's since put his public support with the NDP, with John Horgan.

And so that's a really, that's a big struggle for the Greens and a new leader to overcome that, to see your predecessor really not support you in that sense. And so Sonia Firstenau is trying to broaden the Green Party and put her own brand, her own identity, her own stamp on this party. And so what I'm focusing on is demonstrating that we can be addressing today's problems, but we also can be solving and preventing tomorrow's crises. And part of that, you look at their platform and you can tell with their policy,

they're trying to broaden their tent to really health and wellness, you know, mental health, young supports, education. So they're trying to get out beyond the kind of just the environment and the climate tent to diversify their voter base. I'm putting this vision in front of British Columbia and helping to help people see that the BC Green Party is here as a very viable alternative, as somewhere that they can vote for with hope, with a vision of the future that is positive and exciting.

I'm going to go. empowering Canada's entrepreneurs through angel investment and industry connections. No, their own household income. That's not a typo. 50%. That's because money is confusing. In my new book and podcast, Money for Couples, I help you and your partner create a financial vision together. To listen to this podcast, just search for Money for Couples. I do want to spend a little bit of time talking with you today about some of the controversies that have come up in this campaign, which has only been a couple of weeks long. And yet it feels like a lot of stuff has happened. One moment that stuck out to me was during the leaders debate. The candidates were responding to questions about race and unconscious bias.

And John Horgan, he later had to apologize for his remarks. I profoundly regret that I alienated and hurt people last night. That was certainly not my intention. And can you walk me through what happened there? Yeah, I've called this the campaign of I'm sorry. We've seen so many apologies. Every three days, it feels like someone's apologizing for something. Yeah, and if nothing else, I would say this past week, that's all been condensed into the past week. So referencing what you talked about there, it was during the televised leaders debate that all three were asked about.

I can't remember the wording of the question, but it was about race and diversity. And basically, how do you reconcile or a reckoning of being a white leader? How do you reconcile that? Because all three party leaders are white. And so in his answer, John Horgan said, all that because all three party leaders are white. And so in his answer, John Horgan said, I was a lacrosse player. I played with Indigenous friends. I played with South Asian friends. For me, I did not see colour. Immediately after the televised debate, you know, social media kind of lit up with criticisms about how tone deaf that was and just how that answer really missed the mark in so many ways. And so in his post-debate scrum,

immediately just watching his body language and his demeanor, he walked up to the mic, he looked pale, he looked here in the headlights, and right away before I think he was even asked about it, he addressed it voluntarily and said, look, basically I wish I could take back that answer. I mischaracterized the question in a sense. I was reflecting on my childhood, which is how I interpreted the question, and I was inappropriate to say I don't see color.

I don't have a clue as a white person the challenges that people of color face every day. And so I think that really was an indication that there are some very critical key issues that the leaders haven't had the strongest answers to. And that's just on the NDP side. Yeah, and one of them as well with the NDP was not they're being criticized for not upholding their equity mandate. So when a retiring MLA isn't running again, the person they put up to replace them, the party has to be, you know, someone from a minority category. In this case, it was Nathan Cullen. You remember his name. He was a former federal MP and he's running in one of the ridings here. But an Indigenous woman says she was elbowed

out of the way and that the NDP broke its own policy on that. And so they have been criticized for that. And that same candidate for the NDP, Nathan Cullen, was just caught on a hot mic this week making disparaging comments. I was going to bring that up. Yeah. A Zoom meeting, right before the Zoom meeting started, it got caught on video. He was making fun of a Haida candidate. He's not well liked in his, he's Haida in his own community.

The guy's going to get bedrock 20%. Like his name is Kinkles. Essentially had to apologize for that. Let's also talk about some of the controversies that came up on the BC liberal side. Andrew Wilkinson, the leader, has had to apologize too because he was present during another Zoom call that went public. Lots of lessons here about Zoom calls where a liberal candidate made sexist comments about an NDP candidate, like essentially saying she was using her looks to kind of get ahead or, you know, get things done as a politician. You know, very pretty lady. And she knows that she's got it. And she knows how to get Ralph going. Bowen would be right up right next to him, cuddling, cuddling, cuddling.

He's also had to respond to comments made by a two-time Liberal MLA, Laurie Thronis. Yeah, well, and Laurie Thronis, here's the thing with that situation. He's been an MLA for a long time. And so a lot of his views that he's very publicly voiced are not a surprise or not new. publicly voiced are not a surprise or not new. And that's part of the criticism is the BC liberals knew that there were some clashes, you might say, with the party's formal stance on some of these issues and what this candidate has long been saying. So Laurie Thronis, he's been accused of holding anti-LGBTQ viewpoints. He was publishing, there were ads in a magazine that promotes conversion therapy. And then just most recently, yeah, it was in a local candidates debate,

I believe he compared contraception to eugenics. It contains a whiff of the old eugenics thing where, you know, poor people shouldn't have babies, and so we can't force them to have contraception, so we'll give it to them for free. And maybe they'll have fewer babies. Mr. Laurie Thronis made statements that are not in keeping with the values of the BC Liberal Party or my own values. Those statements about contraception were completely wrong.

The BC Liberals booted him out, and so he's no longer with the BC Liberals. But on the ballot, because it was too late to remove him as the BC Liberal candidate, his name will still be next to the BC Liberals. And so he has announced that if he's elected still, he will sit as an independent. Okay, and then that's not even all of it. There were other candidates criticized for comments related to LGBTQ rights. And what do all of these controversies together say to you about what's going on with the Liberal Party? It begs a big question of what is happening. And they've been struggling to really gain traction in this campaign. And I think these various controversies,

socially driven controversies, right, really paint a picture of how they, as they've been in opposition over the past three and a half years, they've really struggled to turn the tide, turn the conversation and really set a clear path forward for voters. And it brings up questions about, you know, where does this party stand? Who is Andrew Wilkinson as the leader and why can't they just gain traction and really kind of set the momentum on their own terms. And so last topic that I want to talk to you about today is the logistics of this all, because this is an election that's happening in the middle of a pandemic. And so how is it all going to work? I understand that mail-in ballots, which there are a lot of, have to be counted by hand. Yes, this is going to be an unprecedented election on many levels, but especially on that one. So just to give some

context, so by law here, in any election and in previous elections as well, for mail-in ballots, they don't even begin counting them until 13 days after election night. That's to give the time to scrutinize the ballots, to vet them, to make sure there was no voter fraud. Elections BC says because of the sheer volume in this election, it could take longer than that. But just to give you a sense of how many people are voting ahead of time, and this largely is because we're in a pandemic election, right? A lot of people don't want to physically go to the polls come on General Voting Day. And so in the last provincial election here, it was something like 0.3%

of total votes were cast by mail. I think it was 6,500. Already in this election, that's increased a hundredfold. There have been almost 800,000 vote by mail packages requested. And so that will translate to almost a third of all votes, which is a huge number. And then you look at advance voting. BC added one more day of advance voting, which is a huge number. And then you look at advance voting. BC added one more day of advance voting because of the pandemic this year. So already we've seen that number around 600,000. So all in all, if you combine advance voting and mail-in ballots, we're seeing about 1.25 million British Columbians vote early.

That's nearly 60%. So that is a huge number. What that means for election night, it'll depend if there is, you know, kind of an orange wave and an orange sweep in the NDP does see that groundswell of support kind of translate come election night, because that is largely what we're seeing in the public opinion polls leading up to it. So if that is the case, a lot of the ridings or enough of the ridings will be, there'll be a large enough margin that they can safely be called. It may come down to, will we know if it's a minority or a majority? That could be up for debate, but the final results certainly will take a very long time to be counted. Okay. Tanya Fletcher, thank you so much for this

conversation. I really appreciate it. You bet. My pleasure. Thanks, Jamie. And I wish you much luck on election night or in the days to follow, because who knows what's going to happen with counting all these ballots and how close the vote will be. So we'll have to see, right? Yes, it might be a drawn out election night like no other. So while we're on the topic of elections, this country isn't going to be having one, at least not yet. That's because Prime Minister Trudeau and his liberal government survived a confidence vote on Wednesday. It was on a conservative motion to create a committee that would look into government ethics and COVID-19 spending. We talked about this on yesterday's pod. MPs voted 180 to 146 to defeat the opposition motion. That's all for today. I'm

Jamie Poisson. Thanks so much for listening and we'll talk to you tomorrow. We're going to have a very special American election debate episode for you.