Vaughn Palmer: BC Liberals Could Fight One More Election Under The Name Some Of Them Hate

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VICTORIA — BC Liberals took another step this week to drop the name by which they ruled the province for 16 of the last 21 years.

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“After extensive consultation across the province with its members, the BC Liberal Party is pleased to announce that BC United has been selected as the name that will go to party members for a vote later in the year,” the party announced. party on Tuesday. .

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The Liberals chose BC United because many of the best suggestions, like the BC Party, were already registered and adopted by others.

They removed the word “fiesta” from the official name, perhaps because of the mischief that could have been made with the acronym BCUP.

Even so, the jokes did not wait for the echo to Manchester United and other teams in the English Premier League.

The Liberals score an own goal. BC United fined for relegation to the second division. Red cards of the President of the Legislature Opposition MLA. And so.

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The football references weren’t as bad as an earlier time the party discussed rebranding, when most of the jokes were about liberals seeking to put themselves in the political equivalent of “witness protection.”

The Liberals considered and rejected a name change under previous leaders Gordon Campbell and Christy Clark.

This time, the new leader, Kevin Falcon, pushed hard for change. He promised to vote for the new name BC United and hoped that party members would do the same.

Falcon argues that the BC United name should end “genuine” voter confusion over the two parties that use the Liberal name, one provincial and one federal.

Conservative-leaning members of the BC Liberals like Falcon—he endorsed Maxime Bernier for the leadership of the federal Conservatives in 2017—have been complaining for more than two decades about association with the Liberal Party of Canada.

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Every time the name change has come up in the past, the idea has been rejected by party leaders, members, or both. The difference last time seems to be a lack of value.

The Liberals won the most seats in five of the last seven provincial elections, the most votes in six of the seven.

But they were crushed in a snap election that Prime Minister John Horgan called two years ago this month.

The 2020 provincial elections were contested over one main issue: whether voters wanted to change governments amid COVID-19. BC Liberals made the decision easy for most voters by running an incompetent campaign under a weak leader.

Rather than treat the outcome as an outlier, like the NDP’s landslide defeat in 2001, the Liberals concluded that “the brand was broken” and launched a process to drop the party’s name.

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There is an irony in the conservative-leaning wing of the provincial party that wants to banish the Liberal name from the ballot in provincial elections.

Most of the BC places that elected Conservatives in last year’s federal election are already represented in the provincial legislature by BC Liberals.

While most of the seats the BC Liberals need to win back from the Horgan-led New Democrats (seats in Richmond, Surrey, Burnaby, North Vancouver and other Metro Vancouver suburbs) are represented by the Federal Liberals.

BC Liberals are unlikely to ever admit it: but a bit of brand confusion might not be such a bad thing for them in areas where the Liberal Party of Canada is a winner.

Despite Falcon’s enthusiasm for the name change, BC Liberals are covering for his plan. The membership has yet to approve the change. Also, the timing and rules for that vote have yet to be set.

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It is speculated that the change will need more than a simple majority (50 percent plus one) to pass.

When radio host Mike Smyth raised that possibility with the party’s vice president, Caroline Elliott, she backed down. Elliott says that if members approve of the name, party leaders would have to proceed with caution. Rebranding is a costly and time-consuming exercise. And the Liberals are far from having much cash, having never quite recovered from the end of big money giveaways in BC politics.

“We’re going to be smart about it,” Elliott told Postmedia News’ Katie DeRosa. “We do not control the timing of the elections. We know that the NDP has violated the fixed election date law before.

“And if they see an opportunity to further their political interests, let’s just say we were vulnerable in the way of a new name, I have no doubt they could call snap elections again.”

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David Eby, Horgan’s most likely successor, insists he is not planning a snap election.

But two years ago, Horgan pretended a snap election wasn’t being planned until the moment he called it.

So if Eby were to win the lead and call a snap election next year, BC United could be put on hold.

Instead, BC Liberals could fight one more election under the name some of them hate, regardless of their electoral success over the past two decades.

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