Candidates in the Oct. 17 municipal election are angry that B.C. Premier David Eby ignored their advice to hold off on calling a provincial election until votes were cast in local communities. “This move is not being well received by local governments across British Columbia,” said Vancouver mayoral candidate Pete Fry. “It’s incredibly frustrating for all of us who have been actively pursuing our campaigns.” “We know that there are critical issues that are facing B.C. communities from corner to corner of this province, and we didn’t ask for very much,” said Union of B.C. Municipalities president Jenna Stoner. “We asked for four weeks, and here we are with a concurrent election cycle. And that is disappointing.” Municipal candidates are worried about voter fatigue. “It is hard enough to get people to pay attention to local government at the best of times,” said Port Coquitlam mayoral candidate Brad West. “People only have so much bandwidth, and now they’re going to be just bombarded by provincial advertising and provincial issues. And so it’s going to be very challenging to get local issues and local concerns centre stage in that environment.” “Getting our message out to the public is going to be a lot more difficult,” echoed Surrey mayoral candidate Brenda Locke. “We’re going to have to be very focused and very strategic on how we message what we’re doing.” There’s also concern the two concurrent campaigns will confuse voters. “Voter confusion is very real,” said Stoner. “We already feel that at the doorstep. People don’t know whose jurisdiction is what.” “I really think the challenge will be around those pre-voting dates,” said Locke. “They will overlap. It’s going to be difficult and also the polling stations, where will be the polling stations be? Am I at the right one? It’s going to be confusing.” The snap election call has left municipal candidates normally aligned with the NDP with a bad taste in their mouths. ”This could have waited. It certainly didn’t have to happen,” said Fry. “I don’t think the (B.C.) Conservatives are going to be able to markedly improve their party status in the matter of another month. I think this is just really sort of hitting them while their pants are down, which doesn’t seem like very sporting.” “I think that our politics is very much focused on what is in the best interests of political parties and how they can gain advantage over one another, versus, you know, doing right by the people, unfortunately,” said West. “B.C. politics is just reality TV. There’s nothing quite like it. It is a soap opera like no other. So I guess this is fitting in some way.”
