OneBC has outlined its goal of ensuring a “total victory” for common-sense conservative values in BC and revealed that the party won’t run candidates in several ridings where it believes the Conservative or independent alternatives are truly conservative.
According to a CTV report on Tuesday, the party’s leader, Dallas Brodie, identified eight BC Conservative candidates that she wouldn’t run against on Monday. Wyatt Claypool, the party's communications director, stated that One BC would field candidates in two of those eight ridings.
According to CTV, OneBC wouldn’t be running candidates against Heather Maahs in Chilliwack North, Kristina Loewen in Kelowna Centre, Anna Kindy in North Island, Sharon Hartwell in Bulkley Valley-Stikine, Macklin McCall in West Kelowna-Peachland, and Lawrence Mok in Maple Ridge East.
CTV also reported that OneBC pledged not to field candidates in Sheldon Clare in Prince George-North Cariboo and David Williams in Salmon Arm-Shuswap, but Claypool claimed that the party was in fact planning on running against the NDP and Conservatives in those ridings.
When asked to clarify which ridings OneBC was planning on leaving to the BC Conservatives, Masha Kleiner, a spokesperson for OneBC, told Juno News that it was “impossible to answer any questions definitively” as the answer could change “drastically” within the next 72 hours.
“Everything is still in flux from all four parties, and we are currently deploying all resources into vetting all of our applicants before the very short deadline,” Kleiner said.
She did, however, state that OneBC’s goal in the snap election was to “achieve a total victory for common sense and conservative values against the radicalism of the NDP and their cohort.”
“We truly believe that by pushing our values forward and actually making a clear case to them to the public, we can actually drive more people into the conservative movement,” Kleiner said. “Despite all the noise online, we believe great conservative principles work the same way as our 25% tax cuts; they work!”
She said if the party is successful, “not only will there be way more OneBC voters, but the Conservative parties, both federal and provincial, will have a great voter base to draw from.”
Claypool also said that OneBC would not run candidates against independent candidate Jordan Kealy in Peace River North.
