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| Steve Forseth, former BC Liberal Policy Chair / Riding Secretary for the Cariboo - Chilcotin |
My
nephew Steve, has been a blogger for several years now, and has been active in
support of the BC Liberal Party – it makes for some interesting discussion on
politics for sure.
The
other day I asked if he would be interested in providing a Guest Opinion for the
Conservative Thoughts blog, which after consideration, he agreed to do. Here then, is that guest editorial.
Over the
last year or so, much has been made about the so-called vote split for the
‘Conservative’ voter in BC.
In times
past, most conservative voters (small-c, ‘Blue’ and ‘Red’ Tories)
provincially have aligned themselves behind the ‘BC Liberal’ brand, Recently however, small-c conservatives have become rapidly disillusioned with the
Christy Clark BC Liberals’, and a fair number of them have decided to back the
John Cummins BC Conservatives’.
It should
be noted that the split of small ‘c’ conservatives in Alberta has led to the
formation of two conservative political parties in Alberta consisting of the
Wildrose Party and the Progressive Conservative Party of Alberta
Political
history in BC during the 1952, 1972, 1991, and 1996 BC General Elections shows
that a split on the centre-right in BC generally elects a NDP government
Much has
been made recently of the two by-elections in Port Moody and Chilliwack,
including what would have occurred if the centre-right vote had been behind one
party.
Let’s be
clear – one conservative party in the Port Moody – Coquitlam by-election would
have made no difference, given the strength of the NDP candidate, former Port
Moody Mayor Joe Trasolini ... but it could have prevented the election of an NDP
MLA in Chilliwack – Hope.
So what
does the future of conservatives in BC hold?
