Andrew Weaver announced his candidacy in Oak Bay-Gordon Head on Wednesday, saying: “I cannot stand by and watch what I perceive to be complete chaos in the province.”
Former B.C. Green Party leader Andrew Weaver is re-entering politics to run in Oak Bay-Gordon Head under the CentreBC banner.
The upstart party, which had ballooned to eight MLAs, collapsed to one incumbent, MLA Elenore Sturko, on Tuesday, when former B.C. Conservative MLAs returned to the fold after the departure of leader Kerry-Lynne Findlay and the provincial election call.
Weaver, who announced his candidacy at Windsor Park in Oak Bay on Wednesday, said running for politics was “the last thing in the world I wanted to do,” adding the decision “made no sense financially.”
“But I cannot stand by and watch what I perceive to be complete chaos in the province.”
Weaver, a climate scientist and UVic professor, represented Oak Bay-Gordon Head from 2013 to 2020, leading the B.C. Greens for the last five years of his term. In January 2020, he stepped down to sit as an independent and didn’t run again.
A federal Liberal who as B.C. Green leader propped up the NDP when Horgan was premier, Weaver also supported B.C. Conservative candidate Stephen Andrew in his riding in the 2024 provincial election.
The incumbent in Oak Bay-Gordon Head is NDP MLA Diana Gibson. The election is set for Oct. 24.
Undaunted by the overnight departure of CentreBC candidates, or the Herculean effort to build a new party, Weaver said he feels he has a duty to run even if his campaign is off to a challenging start.
“I have no financial agent. I have no campaign manager. I have no fundraising. I have nothing,” Weaver said Wednesday.
He is already campaign manager for his wife, Jordan Weaver, an independent candidate for Saanich council. Municipal elections in B.C. are set for Oct. 17.
“I literally spent the day putting up her signs [Tuesday], like I put up 50 signs today.”
But Weaver said he couldn’t stand by and watch the B.C. NDP inflate an already “outrageous” $13.8 billion deficit, calling Eby an “ideologue” without a plan.
More to come