Premier Christy Clark tried to use her first campaign stop Tuesday to boost the fortunes of local B.C. Liberal candidates, as a new poll showed her party slipping below the B.C. Greens in popularity on Vancouver Island.
Clark praised her “incredible team of candidates” as seven Island Liberals joined her for a rally at a Super 8 Motel in Victoria, just hours after the official campaign began.
“With these people beside us, we are ready to go room to room, house to house, cul-de-sac to cul-de-sac, community to community, to make our case about why this election matters so much,” said Clark, who characterized it as “the most important election in modern history.”
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She sought to portray the “stark choice” between “out of control spending” by the NDP and a Liberal party that is proposing to pay off B.C.’s debt in 15 years with revenue from possible future liquefied natural gas projects.
But voters on Vancouver Island don’t appear to be buying her arguments, according to an Angus Reid poll released Tuesday.
The Liberals have fallen to third place on the Island, with 19 per cent support, compared with 22 per cent for the B.C. Greens and 45 per cent for the NDP.
It’s the first time the governing party has dipped to third place, though polls have shown the NDP with a commanding lead on the Island for many months.
Despite the campaign beginning Tuesday, the Liberals have still not named a candidate for Nanaimo-North Cowichan.
Provincewide, the poll showed the race tightening with the NDP at 45 per cent support, the Liberals at 28 per cent, the Greens at 13 per cent and the Conservatives at 12 per cent. The figures are based on an online survey of 804 adults. It reported a margin of error of 3.5 per cent, 19 times out of 20.
Island Liberals put a brave face on the numbers. “What that poll today and other polls tell me is that we all have a lot of work to do,” said Ida Chong, a Clark cabinet minister in Oak Bay-Gordon Head. “It makes me work harder.”
The Green momentum in Saanich North and the Islands — perceived to be building after federal Green leader Elizabeth May won the federal Saanich-Gulf Islands riding in 2011 — is a bit overblown, said Stephen P. Roberts, the Saanich North Liberal candidate.
“People are looking at the Greens, but I think that’s not quite the wave the Greens would like us to believe it is,” he said.
“People are pretty pragmatic in this riding, and they want somebody who is going to represent them in government in Victoria.”
Meanwhile, Green candidate Adam Olsen is all but counting Roberts and the Liberals out. “What we’re seeing and hearing is we’re in a two-way race here,” he said of the NDP.
The latest poll reconfirms the Green momentum, Olsen said. “It sends a message to us, and a very positive one, that we’re playing a significant role.”
The Liberals have held Saanich North and the Islands for 22 years. It would be a mistake to count them out, NDP candidate Gary Holman said.
“I think we’re giving up a little too quickly on the Liberals,” said Holman, who lost by 245 votes in 2009 to Liberal Murray Coell.
“They’ve got a good candidate. They’re spending a lot of money. They have a long history in the constituency, [and] they are well organized.
“Of course, the election of Elizabeth May is a new factor, and this is a constituency that feels strongly about environmental issues. But I’m not convinced that the dynamic is that much different from 2009.”
NDP leader Adrian Dix is expected to visit the riding Thursday.
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