The next provincial election will be taking place this October and it is the first in which Premier David Eby will be running to reclaim his position after he took over from John Horgan when the former premier stepped down.
Eby is up against Kevin Falcon, leader of the BC United Party; Sonia Furstenau, leader of the BC Green Party; and John Rustad, leader of the Conservative Party of BC.
2020 is the first time since 1996 that the BC NDPs won the most seats, not including the 2017 election in which the Liberals won 43 seats, the BC NDPs won 41 and the BC Greens won 3, allowing the two parties to team up against the Liberals.
In a recent survey done by BC-based Research Co., it appears that most British Columbians still have faith in the BC NDPs and intend on voting Premier David Eby and his government back into office.
Here is the survey’s results for how people would vote if the election were to happen right away and their approval rates for the parties leaders:
- BC NDP – 40%
- David Eby – 51% approval
- Conservative Party of BC – 24%
- Jon Rustad – 35% approval
- BC United Party – 13%
- Kevin Falcon – 36% approval
- BC Green Party – 10%
- Sonia Furstenau – 37% approval
Since the BC United changed their party’s name from BC Liberal, the number of people willing to vote for them has decreased markedly, according to this survey. Even since January, they have dropped by two points, meanwhile the BC Greens have risen by one.
When asked what the issues are that mean the most to British Columbians, the top five were: housing, poverty and homelessness at 37%, healthcare at 21%, the economy and jobs at 18%, the environment at 6% and public safety at 5%.
Interestingly, the Conservative Party of BC appears to be much better off than it has in the past according to the Research Co. survey. They have not won a seat in the BC legislature since 1975 but now show more promising approvals than even the BC United Party.
The Research Co. survey asked respondents if they would like to see BC United and the Conservative Party of BC merge before the next election.
The pollees responded by saying 10% would “definitely” like them to merge, 29% would “probably” like to merge, 20% would “probably not” like to see them merge, 22% would “definitely not” like them to merge and 20% weren’t sure.
This puts positive reactions toward the merger at 39% whereas negative reactions remain higher at 42%, but the results of this question were close.
What do you think will happen in the next election come October? Let us know in the comments.
