Some think BC and federal Liberals are one and the same; could that affect the election outcome?
Posted October 13, 2015 8:28 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – There’s Premier Christy Clark and the BC Liberals, and then there’s Justin Trudeau and the federal Liberals. the parties may share the same name but that’s where it ends.
Could the confusion affect the results of Monday’s federal election?
The short answer is “yes,” according to political scientist Hamish Telford with the University of the Fraser Valley.
Telford says if postings on Twitter and Facebook are any indication, there are people who are voting for someone other than the federal Liberals because they’re angry with Premier Clark.
“It is confusing for voters. On the one hand, the BC Liberals have absolutely no connection on an organizational basis to the federal Liberal Party. Christy Clark has, in the past, been affiliated personally with the federal Liberal Party — as have other Liberals — but most BC Liberals actually tend towards the Conservative side of things.
“But when we look at the Liberal premier of Ontario, we see her out there campaigning vigourously for Justin Trudeau and the federal Liberals. So it’s difficult for people to keep these things separate, for sure.”
“It’s very difficult to tell at the ballot box,” he tells us. “But given the confusion exists — we know this anecdotally — in close ridings, it could well be a factor. We know that there are a number of battleground ridings in and around Vancouver and this kind of confusion could make the difference. It’s hard to know exactly how it will play out.”
“There will certainly be some people who don’t like the BC Liberals [and will] avoid the federal Liberals. On the other hand, there will be voters upset, I think, with the federal Conservatives. But there’s no way they’re going to vote for the NDP because of their image of the NDP from provincial politics, so Justin Trudeau might be the default beneficiary as well. It’s very difficult to know how all of this will play out.”
Telford says the confusion is an age-old problem.
