Last week, five days after John Horgan called a snap election in B.C., Victoria Buzz launched an online poll to gauge what issues matter the most to our readers.
We asked readers to mark the issues they would like to hear stances, policies and platforms on from party leaders, before we head to the polls on October 24.
Over the course of four days, we received more than 700 responses from our audience, each of whom chose one or more topics that are most important for them to hear about from provincial politicians.
For most respondents, the province’s dual public health emergency took precedence, as over 65 per cent selected ‘Mental health, addiction, and overdose crisis’ and ‘COVID-19 recovery plan’ as their top priorities for parties to address.
The lack of affordable housing and growing homeless population in cities across B.C. was also top of mind for over 60 per cent of people who took the survey.
These are the full results:
In addition to these 10 categories, over 100 people offered their own ideas of issues and topics for political leaders to address.
The need to put an end to old growth forest logging, reform the police system, help the hospitality and tourism sector, and address income inequality were all relevant points brought up by survey participants.
Other, perhaps more light hearted suggestions, included abolishing Daylight Saving Time, stopping the construction of more bike lanes in Victoria, “getting rid of Lisa Helps”, and ending “mandatory exposure to microwave radiation in our schools”.
We’ll come back to those later (maybe).
Over the next few weeks, our reporters will focus on questioning the leaders of the three main parties, John Horgan, Andrew Wilkinson, and Sonia Furstenau, on their platforms and what they plan to do about each of the issues YOU deemed most important ahead of the snap election next month.
In doing so, we’ll be compiling their responses in our daily coverage to offer you a comprehensive understanding of each party’s platform, so you can make an informed decision come October 24.
Make sure to follow our coverage of the 2020 B.C. provincial election campaign, compiled in one neat spot, to hear more about what our future leaders plan to do about the issues at stake.
