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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tB.C. Green Party Leader Emily Lowan, from left to right, B.C. NDP Leader David Eby and interim B.C. Conservative leader Lorne Doerkson stand together after the televised B.C. Leaders’ Debate ahead of the provincial election, in Vancouver, on Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2026. THE CANADIAN PRESS\/Darryl Dyck<\/p>\n
The NDP has meanwhile pivoted its messaging from focusing on U.S. President Donald Trump, to affordability, to the need for a stable majority.<\/p>\n
And campaigning has also been notably muted with relatively few large-scale rallies, although both major parties have events scheduled this week.<\/p>\n
Even the NDP campaign bus, which was adorned with Eby\u2019s smiling face in 2024, is an anonymous-looking coach, devoid of slogans.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Hamish Telford, an associate professor of political science at the University of the Fraser Valley, said he had noticed the \u201clack of preparation.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is especially surprising since the NDP called this election. You would think, if they were going to call a snap election, that they at least would be prepared, and that they would obviously catch the Conservatives off guard,\u201d said Telford.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis was an election of their making, and they are not entirely ready for it,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Telford said the NDP had initially been anticipating Eby running against Kerry-Lynne Findlay, a divisive and unpopular leader of the Conservatoves. But Findlay resigned and was replaced by Doerkson.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Eby called the snap election anyway.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Telford said he would have advised the NDP not to go through with it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThey should have called the election off, but evidently things were too late, or they had built up too much momentum and couldn\u2019t stop themselves.\u201d said Telford.<\/p>\n
Angelo Isidorou, who is chief strategist for the Conservatives, said snap elections can be messy compared with fixed-date polls.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIn this case, this is what makes this very unique \u2026 not only is it a snap election, but it was an election that took place at the same time as municipal elections, which never happens. So, it was all very chaotic,\u201d said Isidorou of the Oct. 17 municipal polls across B.C.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He said the \u201cbiggest difference\u201d between a snap election and a fixed-date election is the \u201cpredictability.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s difficult being in Opposition because you don\u2019t know when the election is going to come, and when an election is called, you only have maybe over a week to recruit candidates and get them on the ballot because there\u2019s a deadline. When there\u2019s a fixed election, you can predict all of this,\u201d said Isidorou.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn this case, it wasn\u2019t, and I think what surprised me the most is really how not prepared the NDP was,\u201d said Isidorou, adding that otherwise, the NDP would have fielded a full slate of 93 candidates in every riding.<\/p>\n
Elections BC said the NPD was one short of a full slate, after failing to nominate a representative in Peace River North.<\/p>\n
But vetting may have suffered in the rush to field candidates.\u00a0<\/p>\n
While the Conservatives managed to fill their 93-riding slate, two candidates have since been disavowed by the party.<\/p>\n
Jordan McIntosh, the 18-year-old former Conservative candidate for Vancouver-Strathcona, was dumped last Thursday over online posts that included saying Hitler killed \u201clots of Jews\u201d not because he \u201chated them specifically\u201d but because there were so many of them.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Another candidate, Joachim Agou, was ejected from the party earlier this month for online comments saying the driver of a car that rammed a pro-Palestinian protest group in Switzerland should have \u201creversed too.\u201d<\/p>\n
Political scientist Michael Prince said the election has \u201celements of some really unusual features.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said it was puzzling to see parties still fall into the trap of recruiting inappropriate candidates.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThey haven\u2019t really thoroughly vetted their history of social media posts,\u201d said Prince, the Lansdowne professor emeritus of social policy at the University of Victoria.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve seen, particularly on the Conservative side, candidates that have been removed by the leader or have stepped down very quickly,\u201d he said. \u201cSo, that\u2019s kind of the new unusual, but it\u2019s been something that\u2019s unfortunately pretty typical over the last several elections.\u201d<\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 22, 2026.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When a snap election is called, at least one side would normally be prepared. But that hasn\u2019t been…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":942010,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194296],"tags":[49,48,22073],"class_list":["post-942009","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-winnipeg","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-winnipeg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/942009","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=942009"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/942009\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/942010"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=942009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=942009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=942009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}