B.C. election 2026: 1st full day of campaigning underway

It is the first full day of the provincial election campaign in B.C. and the parties are wasting no time in making announcements and presenting their platforms and promises.

BC NDP Leader David Eby will be in Surrey, near the U.S. border, to make an announcement about health care.

He will be joined by party candidates Jinny Sims, running for re-election in Surrey-Panorama; Jagrup Brar, running for re-election in Surrey-Fleetwood; Jessie Sunner, running for re-election in Surrey-Newton; Amna Shah, running for re-election in Surrey City Centre; and Garry Begg, running for re-election in Surrey-Guildford.

BC Green Party Leader Emily Lowan will be sharing the party’s election plans at an event in Victoria, along with party candidates Rob Botterell, running for re-election in Saanich North and the Islands, and Jeremy Valeriote, running for re-election in West Vancouver-Sea to Sky.

CentreBC Leader Elenore Sturko, a former BC Conservative running for re-election in Surrey-Cloverdale, is on Vancouver Island to make an announcement in the riding of Oak Bay-Gordon Head.

Andrew Weaver held the riding for seven years after becoming the first Green Party candidate ever elected to a provincial legislature in Canada.

Meanwhile, the BC Conservatives are putting up a united front behind interim leader Lorne Doerkson.

They came together at Vancouver’s Crab Park on Tuesday for their first press conference after the snap election was announced.

The party says it is united to take down the BC NDP with MLAs who had previously left during former leader Kerry-Lynne Findlay’s tenure.

“We are coming back together as part of a progressive ideas and conservative values party,” said Peter Milobar, BC Conservative candidate for Kamloops Centre.

“A party that believes you can grow the economy and protect the environment. A party that believes you could be compassionate and still demand results. A party that believes in safe streets and treatment that works and schools that teach students what they need to learn.

“We believe in a government that spends your money like it’s your money because it actually is your money.”