Don’t know whether you had heard about this, but there’s an election coming up.
No, not the one south of the border that the major news networks seem to spend more time on than a Canadian election. This one is right here in B.C.
I know what you’re thinking, “Wait, didn’t Premier John Horgan agree as part of the Green Party propping up the NDP that there wouldn’t be another provincial election until the full term was up?”
Well, I hate to be the one to break this to you, but politicians don’t always stick to their agreements.
I will say one thing off the top: Horgan better hope that he either wins or loses the Oct. 24 election solidly. There is no way he is going to get the support of the Greens again to make him premier.
With the full list of candidates out now, I decided to do some of my usual looking at some of the numbers. There is one riding, Richmond South Centre, where the voters have a very simple choice, because there are only two people on the ballot.
The most candidates in a riding, and this surprised me a bit, is six, in three different ridings: Chilliwack, Kootenay West and Langley East. In all three cases, there is at least one Independent candidate on the ballot with two in Kootenay West.
Those are four of the 23 people running as Independents, and I was somewhat surprised to see how few Independents there were in the various Vancouver ridings. Usually there’s at least one of the Vancouver ridings which has about 10 candidates with half of them Independents.
Prince George-Mackenzie (5) and Prince George-Valemount (4) are right about average for the number of people on the ballot.
There are nine official parties with candidates in the election. The only two with candidates in every riding are the NDP and the Liberals (which apparently is another reason the Green Party is less than happy with the NDP calling a snap election).
Apart from the three parties already represented in the House, the other parties with candidates in at least one riding include B.C. Vision, Christian Heritage, Communist, Conservative, Libertarian and Wexit.
Some people have already voted, taking advantage of the mail-in system which apparently is going to see a lot of use by people who would prefer not to go to a public polling place on Election Day.
However you decide to vote and whoever you decide to vote for, the important thing is for your vote to be counted.
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