B.C. election 2024: A guide to the leaders and party platforms

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Voters in British Columbia head to the polls on Saturday in a hotly contested race between the province’s New Democratic Party, Conservative Party and Green Party. The stakes are especially high for New Democrat Party Leader David Eby and Conservative Leader John Rustad, who appear to be in a dead heat among decided voters.

Many believe the B.C. election could be a bellwether for the coming federal election, as it will test the Conservative brand’s strength in the polling booth. In fact, B.C. voters have not faced such stark political choices in at least a generation – especially after the province’s Official Opposition party, BC United, suspended its election campaign in August to endorse the BC Conservatives, a party that hasn’t formed government in the province since 1928.

Here’s what you need to know about the NDP, Conservative and Green Party leaders, and their parties’ platforms.

BC NDP

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Leader: David Eby

History: David Eby is the current premier of British Columbia. Mr. Eby carved out a name for himself as a fiery anti-poverty activist and civil libertarian on the Downtown Eastside before entering politics. He has served in opposition and as a cabinet minister, but he has not yet won a mandate from voters as premier. He was coronated by his party in October, 2022, in a leadership race where the only other contender was disqualified. The New Democratic government has spent seven years in power – since 2017.

Party platform: The BC NDP rolled out its complete election platform on Oct. 3, with commitments ranging from more before-and-after school care to an affordability rebate – and amounting to almost $3-billion in added spending to the province’s deficit.

• Housing: Mr. Eby has said he will help more middle-class, first-time buyers into the housing market with a plan for the province to finance 40 per cent of the price. The Homes for People plan will commit up to $1.29-billion per year in financing. He also said that more than 300,000 middle-class homes are expected to be built over the next ten years. as part of the party’s housing plan. The NDP platform also promises more infrastructure funds for local governments that meet or exceed the province’s housing targets, to increase the speculation and vacancy tax, to prioritize the use of public land for housing and to get rid of ‘no-pet’ clauses in purpose-built rental apartment buildings.
• Cost of living: The NDP platform expands on the party’s previous promises aimed at tackling unaffordability. The platform includes a plan to provide a $1,000 grocery rebate next year, which will morph into a middle-class tax reduction in later years. The measure is expected to cost taxpayers $1.8-billion in 2025. The NDP also promises to create tens of thousands of affordable child-care spaces, freeze premiums on car insurance and free off-peak transit for seniors.
• Health care: The party’s platform commitments in health care include finding a family doctor for everybody in B.C., building more hospitals and adding more medical school seats this year and adding 48 new residency positions.
• Education: Mr. Eby has promised to ensure every public school has a mental-health counsellor.
• Energy: The NDP said they will increase the number of renewable energy projects through BC Hydro, sparking additional private investment. The party’s platform also promises to double electricity generation by 2050 and upgrade B.C.’s power transmission grid.
• Miscellaneous: Other platform commitments include ensuring safer streets by giving police more powers to fight gangs and creating good jobs by expanding training programs.

Conservative Party of BC

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Leader: John Rustad

History: Booted from the BC Liberal Party two years ago over his views on climate change, Mr. Rustad, a rural conservative from Northern B.C., now holds the reins to a party that has experienced a meteoric rise in recent weeks. It all started with a historic shakeup in August when BC United Leader Kevin Falcon suspended his party’s campaign in the coming general election to throw his support to Mr. Rustad’s Conservatives. Both leaders said the elimination of BC United was necessary to form a centre-right coalition aimed at defeating the governing BC NDP in the Oct. 19 vote.

Party platform: The BC Conservatives released their policy platform on Oct. 15, putting a price tag on spending increases and tax cuts while banking on long-term economic growth. Mr. Rustad has made fiscal management a key issue in the campaign. Under the plan, the Conservatives would increase government spending by $1.1-billion while reducing revenues with $1.5-billion in tax cuts in the next fiscal year. The party also said it would return the province to a balanced budget within eight years.

• Housing: The BC Conservatives have promised what they call the “Rustad rebate,” which is set to deliver relief to renters and homeowners starting in 2026 in the form of an income-tax deduction.
• Education: The BC Conservatives said it would remove sexual orientation and gender identity teaching resources from the province’s schools, as well as any materials that could “instill guilt” based on ethnicity, nationality or religion. They said they would replace the teaching resources, called SOGI123, with anti-bullying programs. The party also said in its education plan that they would restore letter grades for students in grades 4 through 9, reinstate standardized provincial exams for grades 10 and 12, establish “funding equality” between public and independent schools, and phase out portables in favour of modular classrooms.
• Health care: The Conservatives promise to implement a new health care model in the province “for everyone under a single-payer system that increases spending each year.” They pledge to introduce “activity-based funding,” which involves allocating funding to hospitals based on the care and services they provide and is used in some European countries. The party’s platform commitments also includes expanding access to fertility treatments such as funding the second-round in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatments.
• Tax cuts: The main tax cuts include a plan to eliminate the province’s carbon price at a cost to the treasury of $3-billion once fully implemented. However, that tax cut wouldn’t be delivered until a federal election is called to prevent the federal Liberal government in Ottawa from imposing a national carbon tax in place of the provincial one. The party also said they would cut the small business tax to 1 per cent in that year, down from 2 per cent.
• Energy: The Conservatives say they would double production of liquefied natural gas and attract international investment to capital-intensive industries such as manufacturing: “B.C. has developed a reputation for hostility to investment, and it’s harming our future,” the platform states.
• Economy: Mr. Rustad has announced several economic initiatives in recent days, including a plan to end the provincial insurance corporation’s monopoly on basic vehicle insurance. He said that this would bring in competition, drive down costs and improve services.
• Miscellaneous: The Conservatives have also released a series of pledges related to infrastructure, transit and boosting the economy, including Mr. Rustad’s promise to reintroduce a minister responsible for “red tape reduction.”

BC Green Party

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Leader: Sonia Furstenau

History: BC Green Leader Sonia Furstenau, a former high school teacher, was elected to the B.C. legislature in 2017 and was re-elected in 2020 after winning the BC Green Party’s leadership contest that year. Despite the election’s neck-and-neck race between the two main rivals, Ms. Furstenau is hoping that the Green Party will return to their 2017 position of progressive kingmaker if voters opt for a minority assembly. After the 2017 election and months of intense negotiations, the B.C. legislature’s three elected Greens ended up handing the balance of power to the NDP in a deal that gave them official party status, campaign-finance reform and an agreement to work toward changing the electoral system.

Party promises: The Green Party was the first to release its platform ahead of the Oct. 19 provincial election. The platform has a heavy focus on taxing the wealthy in order to support the “well-being” of B.C. residents, ranging from mental health to environment and government accountability.

• Housing: The Green Party promises to provide $1.5-billion annually to construct 26,000 new units of housing each year, with 3,000 units dedicated specifically for Indigenous peoples. The party also said it would introduce measures to protect renters, including requiring cooling systems in existing rental buildings and allocating $100-million annually to a rental maintenance fund that would prevent non-profit and co-op housing units from falling into disrepair.
• Education: The party’s educational platform promises to simplify the certification process for teachers from other provinces or countries to attract more qualified educators in the province. The Green Party also said they want to improve access to affordable child care for children under 5, ensure all families have access to before- and after- school care and work with education partners to create inclusive policies for schools in the province.
• Health care: The Green Party promises to establish an integrated community health centre, called the “Dogwood Model”, in every riding in the province. It would focus on ensuring every B.C. resident has a primary care home and a family physician or nurse practitioner. The party also promises to increase funding for nurses in the public system and make all vaccines available, at no cost to the consumer.
• Well-being framework: Ms. Furstenau said there was only one campaign promise that she would insist on if the Greens ended up once again negotiating for the balance of power: Government spending and land-use decisions would need to be aligned within a well-being framework. Her party said a government’s performance should not be gauged by economic growth or spending plans, but whether child poverty is shrinking and housing is more affordable.
• Miscellaneous: Ms. Furstenau’s detailed platform promises to end private health care, provide free public transit, double social assistance rates and raise spending on education to historic levels. It would hike annual spending by $8-billion, offset in part by higher taxes on wealthy individuals and big corporations.

With reports from Justine Hunter, Andrea Woo and The Canadian Press.