{"id":919067,"date":"2026-10-03T12:50:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-03T12:50:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/919067\/"},"modified":"2026-10-03T12:50:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-03T12:50:09","slug":"b-c-candidates-and-voters-scramble-to-get-their-minds-around-two-elections-one-week-apart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/919067\/","title":{"rendered":"B.C. candidates and voters scramble to get their minds around two elections, one week apart"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Elections signs for the upcoming municipal and provincial election are seen in Surrey, B.C., Oct. 1.Jennifer Gauthier\/The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n

The mess of 14 large election signs featuring the faces of dozens of municipal and provincial politicians that sat along one of Surrey\u2019s major thoroughfares became a symbol this week of the confusion permeating many parts of B.C.<\/a> <\/p>\n

The tangle of typography at the intersection \u2013 with five massive signs inside the yard of the corner house towering over the others zap-strapped onto the family\u2019s fence \u2013 illustrated the difficult duty confronting British Columbians in the coming weeks. A handful of school trustee candidates\u2019 signs had been shunted to the edge of the property, laying in a tidy sidewalk pile. <\/p>\n

This month will see the first overlap of municipal and provincial elections since British Columbia\u2019s Election Act was passed in 1995.<\/p>\n

The homeowners didn\u2019t want to speak on the record Thursday, but told The Globe and Mail the signs would soon be gone after learning their house had gained infamy online.<\/p>\n

In Surrey alone, more than 380,000 eligible voters will be asked to cast a ballot for a mayor, eight councillors and six school trustees on Oct. 17 before returning the next weekend to select their preferred MLA. In total, voters in the Vancouver suburb and B.C.\u2019s second biggest city will have to sift through nearly 100 candidates for the municipal elections. On Oct. 24, there\u2019s expected to be a total of at least 20 candidates, likely more, running across Surrey\u2019s 10 provincial ridings. <\/p>\n

Opinion: Wingnuts could undo the BC Conservatives<\/a><\/p>\n

Many in B.C. say they are burdened by the mental math needed to identify and choose their preferred candidates in the concurrent contests. The splintering and subsequent partial reunification of the provincial Conservatives has created a more crowded political landscape, which now includes two upstart rightwing parties promising they will compete in the majority of the 93 ridings.<\/p>\n

Experts warn voter turnout could suffer, especially in municipal races planned years before Premier David Eby called a snap election on Sept. 22<\/a>.<\/p>\n

On Vancouver Island, Saanich resident Robert Randall, who himself ran unsuccessfully for Victoria council in 2008, said he finds the overlapping elections especially confusing because many of voters\u2019 biggest concerns \u2013 such as affordability, homelessness and housing development \u2013 are being discussed at both levels, with both sets of politicians giving many of the same answers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel annoyed because researching a new mayor and a full slate of council candidates is a hard enough job without having an unscheduled provincial election dropped in the middle of it,\u201d Mr. Randall said. <\/p>\n

\u201cI won\u2019t take it out on the party in charge as I\u2019m still a likely NDP voter, but I won\u2019t be going to the polling booth with a skip in my step.\u201d<\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

An Elections BC sign at a bus stop in Surrey, Oct. 1.Jennifer Gauthier\/The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n

Two weeks ago, at the weeklong Union of B.C. Municipalities convention in Vancouver, mayors and councillors from cities and towns across B.C. pleaded for things to be different. The group united to pass an emergency resolution urging Mr. Eby<\/a> to hold off on calling a provincial election until after municipal voting on Oct. 17, to avoid interfering with local campaigns.<\/p>\n

Cori Ramsay, an incumbent Prince George council candidate who just finished her term as UBCM president, said she is worried that too many of the temporary workers needed to pull off the local election in her northern city will chase the slightly-higher wages offered by the provincial election agency.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we don\u2019t get the required [staffing] turnout then it\u2019s going to be really long lines, it\u2019s going to run the risk of people not wanting to go line up for the provincial poll and then come over to the municipal polls \u2013 because we got the advanced poll day for the province the exact same day as the municipal election,\u201d she told The Globe.<\/p>\n

The twin elections have also created the unusual situation of candidates running in both contests. <\/p>\n

Kevin Acton has been the mayor of the Village of Lumby in the north Okanagan since 2009. He is simultaneously seeking re-election and running as the Conservative candidate in Vernon-Lumby. Should he win both races, B.C. law would automatically deem him to have resigned as mayor once the writ confirming his provincial election is returned, triggering a mayoral by-election.<\/p>\n

Opinion: Brave David Eby will challenge anyone (with a leg injury) to a wrestling match<\/a><\/p>\n

Mr. Acton said the early election call created \u201ca lot of confusion and angst\u201d among community members, including some concerned that he would abandon his mayoral bid and hand challenger Bradley Weston a \u201cfree seat.\u201d <\/p>\n

If, instead, he wins both elections, the resulting mayoral by-election \u2013 which he has pledged to pay for personally \u2013 could draw new candidates, including long-time councillor Randal Ostafichuk, who declared his interest on Tuesday. <\/p>\n

Keeping his two candidacies straight has required some careful choreography. Mr. Acton said his coffee-shop campaign stops in Lumby remain focused on village issues, provincial events are clearly identified, and he will wait until after the municipal election to expand his door-knocking beyond Lumby.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can tell you, for the first few days, my head was spinning,\u201d Mr. Acton said. <\/p>\n

Others \u2013 including Courtenay councillor Will Cole-Hamilton, Terrace councillor Sarah Zimmerman and Central Saanich Mayor Ryan Windsor \u2013 withdrew from their local contests before running provincially. <\/p>\n

Less than two weeks ago, Andrew Weaver, the climate scientist and former leader of the BC Green Party, was serving as campaign manager for his wife, Jordan Weaver, who is running for a seat on Saanich council. <\/p>\n

Mr. Weaver felt compelled to return to provincial politics when nearly all the group of Conservative defectors who had joined the upstart CentreBC party returned to their old party. That left behind new CentreBC leader Elenore Sturko, whom he felt needed his support.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have no financial agent. I haven\u2019t raised a penny. I have no rack cards. I have no signs,\u201d Mr. Weaver told The Globe on Sept. 23, his first day as a CentreBC candidate in his old riding of Oak Bay-Gordon Head.<\/p>\n

Stewart Prest, a political science lecturer at the University of B.C., said he expects the advantage incumbent candidates often enjoy in municipal elections to be heightened in this chaotic atmosphere because it will be harder for aspiring first-time politicians to \u201cbreak through\u201d and ingratiate themselves to enough voters.<\/p>\n

Darin Nesbitt, a political science instructor at Douglas College, said voters are being asked to navigate two sets of candidates, ballots, polling places and voting dates, potentially compounding existing uncertainty about which level of government does what. And, he said, with bigger budgets, higher profile leaders and more media coverage, provincial campaigns risk drowning out municipal issues such as housing approvals, transit and police.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen voting starts to feel like homework, some people simply opt out,\u201d Prof. Nesbitt said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Elections signs for the upcoming municipal and provincial election are seen in Surrey,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":919068,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194299],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,49,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,865,87674,61,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":["post-919067","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-surrey","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports-news","tag-surrey","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/919067","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=919067"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/919067\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/919068"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=919067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=919067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=919067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}