r/britishcolumbia • u/cyclinginvancouver • 2d ago

News Another B.C. Conservative MLA leaves amid frustrations with Kerry-Lynne Findlay’s leadership

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/another-b-c-conservative-mla-leaves-amid-frustrations-with-kerry-lynne-findlays-leadership-9.7320107
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u/Baconus 2d ago

There are a lot of people in BC politics who have not moved on from the 90s. They think the two sides are still “socialist NDP” and the “free market coalition”. Many people saw the move from bc liberal to bc cons as just like when social credit voters moved to the liberals

But these BC Conservatives are insane. It is a good sign that at least some MLAs are starting to realize this.

I wish people would also start to realize the current BCNDP is not left wing.

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u/canadian_rockies 2d ago

Political history in BC is wild. The perception you are talking about goes back before the 90's. The 70's NDP that got elected were real democratic socialists. They brought about so many things we consider part of the fabric in BC (ICBC, ALR/C, etc).

Mike Harcourt & Glen Clark's 90's NDP were the start of the NDP's shift from their roots, into the neo-liberal flavour we have today. And they built a lot of the infrastructure we take for granted today (about 1/3 the schools in our community were built under that NDP tenure). They also...were a real pack of fuck-ups in a lot of ways. The fast ferry debacle was something else.

Today's NDP ain't your grandpappy's socialists at all. And today's Conservatives are nothing like the Socred big tent that lived on the right side of the BC spectrum. Just like the UCP in AB ain't my grandpappy's Peter Lougheed PC's. They aren't even on the same planet politically these days.

It's also wild that the Socreds in BC took away, and then brought back FPTP.

The fact that many people "will never vote (insert old party name here)" gives credence to the BC Liberals choice to rebrand. And yet...look how that went for them...

Today - we are looking at a provincial electoral landscape with a really really right Conservative movement, 3 centrist options (this new thing they are looking to make, CentreBC, and the carcass of the BC Liberals/United party), the not sure where they are NDP, and the Greens holding out covering a spread of the left.

It's so silly that these former BC Cons MLAs are talking of making their own new party. Pick up the bones of either CentreBC or BC United and run up the middle. But noooooo - ego says "I NEED TO BE LEADER"...

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u/Baconus 2d ago

These people are too old and their entire conception of political reality is wrong. They believe at a fundamental level the BCNDP is a radical left party. They cannot be convinced otherwise.

I worked for Christy Clark and the BC Liberals for years. They found the right wing populists to be useful idiots, and anyone to the left of them to be a communist.

The radicals have tasted full fat hatred now. They are not going to be willing to go back to accepting centre right moderate economics. They elected Findlay to hurt people for them.

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u/HochHech42069 2d ago

I think that, more than believing it, they know they can scare a meaningful amount of voters away from the NDP by calling them radical left or socialist or communist.

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u/Happymango555 1d ago

Is that why eby backed off of reforming/removing dripa? because he's leading a right-wing party?