None of the former BC United candidates who ran as independent or unaffiliated in the B.C. election are projected to win their seats — including five incumbent MLAs.
The results are the final nail in the coffin for the onetime BC Liberals, who had been the official opposition before the election but threw their weight behind the BC Conservatives in August amid sagging poll numbers.
The losses include some big names who had been in office for years, including longtime Peace River South MLA Mike Bernier, Kootenay-Rockies incumbent Tom Shypitka and West Vancouver-Capilano’s Karin Kirkpatrick, the last of whom had nearly retired from politics before the BC United implosion spurred her to mount an independent run.
Peace River North incumbent Dan Davies and Prince George-North Cariboo incumbent Coralee Oakes were the other two former United MLAs who lost their races Saturday.
All five past MLAs lost to Conservative candidates, many of them by large margins.
The suspension of the BC United campaign saw the Conservatives bring several United candidates under their banner as the two parties worked together to put forward the best slate of candidates to defeat the incumbent BC NDP.
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But 18 United candidates chose to continue their campaigns but not as Conservatives, who have positioned themselves as more right-wing.
Conservatives were either elected or leading in all but six of those ridings, with the NDP elected or leading in the others.
The centre-right BC United was once known as the BC Liberals, who were in government for 16 years before the BC NDP took power in 2017. The party rebranded in 2023 after losing ground in the 2020 election and in an attempt to distance themselves from the federal Liberal Party.
There were a record 40 independent and unaffiliated candidates running this year — and even more unusual, six of them are incumbent MLAs.
Onetime NDP caucus member Adam Walker, who was ousted from the party over a human resources issue, lost re-election in his riding of Ladysmith-Oceanside as an independent to NDP candidate Stephanie Higginson.
In Prince George-Mackenzie, unaffiliated candidate Rachael Weber — who was ousted as the Conservative candidate by her United opponent Kiel Giddens after she was accused of spreading conspiracy theories about 5G technology — finished last in her race, with Giddens winning by more than 30 points over the NDP.
The independent candidates, even those with the power of incumbency, faced an uphill battle in the election.
British Columbians have proven reticent to elect candidates without parties in the past.
In fact, the province has elected just one since the mid-20th century: Delta MLA Vicki Huntington, a popular city councillor who served two terms before retiring in 2017.
—With files from Global’s Simon Little and Richard Zussman
© 2024 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
