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So, Shakespeare was wrong, then. The Bard who wrote “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell just a sweet,” clearly couldn’t foresee 21st century political realities in British Columbia.
On Tuesday, the BC United tragedy continued in its latest act when the party requested permission from Elections BC to appear on the ballot as “BC United (formerly the BC Liberal Party).” The Swan of Avon can eat his heart out, apparently names do matter.
Thought it may not be their main problem, let’s try to give leader Kevin Falcon and BCU credit for their acknowledgement of how up the creek they are. Finally, they have admitted they have a problem, which, as we all know, is the first step to recovery. That recovery is impossible and that the problem is entirely of their own making should not stop us appreciating that even the most terribly lost can somehow be found.
The party formerly known as the BC Liberals made the call following an internal poll which revealed that 30 per cent of voters didn’t know BC United was the party’s new name. It was a sign ‘o the times that it’s no longer 1999 for Kevin Falcon and his team, back when they were on their way to taking down Glen Clark’s NDP. Today they have the wrong message to go with the wrong name. Falcon is no longer the prince he once was.
What Elections BC makes of the request remains to be seen, but the message is achingly clear: BC United knows it’s finished if these are the exploratory asks it is making.
Looking to the most recent polls won’t bring Falcon or his team any comfort. They confirm the misery and bludgeoning that await all members of the BCU team in October’s election. The BCNDP sit at 41 per cent, with the BC Conservatives hot on their heels at 38 per cent. Meanwhile, the Greens are polling at 10 per cent and BCU is down in single digits at nine per cent. The mind reels at BCU’s plunge from government in waiting to fringe band of irrelevants.
To make awful matters just that little bit worse, on Tuesday, another BCU MLA, Teresa Wat, defected to the Conservatives. This makes four BCU MLAs to decide there is no future staying with Falcon. Wat is a legislature veteran, first elected in 2013, who swore she was loyal to Falcon and the BCU until ditching them for John Rustad and the BC Conservatives. She will not be the last to decide that the game is up and it’s time to leave.
BC United has achieved the nearly impossible in the last six to twelve months. They managed to make zero inroads in the minds of BC voters, despite facing a lackluster NDP leadership whose flagship policies — such as hard drug decriminalization or building British Columbians enough housing — were either outright failures or damp squibs.
Falcon and BCU had a chance to call for a real departure from the activist NDP government disaster and instead decided to avoid controversy at all costs, leaving a massive vacuum in the centre-right of BC politics. Into this void surged John Rustad (expelled by Falcon from BCU) and the BC Conservatives. For, whether one agrees with everything John Rustad says or every Conservative policy, one thing is clear: they are different from the NDP. Can BCU say the same? Not convincingly, and more like barely at all.
That the party formerly known as the BC Liberals has been reduced to begging Elections BC to have two names on the ballot is just the latest act in a series of missteps, poor decisions and delusional moves made since Kevin Falcon took the helm. A party with neither message nor brand is not something that generally wins hearts and minds. It can be no surprise that voters have decided they just don’t wanna be Falcon’s lover. For BCU, it’s enough to make doves cry.
National Post
Adam Pankratz is a lecturer at the University of British Columbia’s Sauder School of Business.
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